Frankfurt Bookfair 2024

The book fair will open on 15 October 2024 under the motto “FBM24 is Read!ng – Read. Reflect. Relate.” Representing the German government, Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth will give the opening speech. The Hessian Chief Minister Boris Rhein has also confirmed his participation. Other speakers at the opening ceremony include Frankfurt’s Lord Mayor Mike Josef and Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, President of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association. The committee of this year’s Guest of Honour Italy has selected the physicist and author Carlo Rovelli, the writer Susanna Tamaro and the philosopher Stefano Zecchi as literary speakers. Italian Minister of Culture Alessandro Giuli has announced his participation as a representative of the Italian government. The opening ceremony will be accompanied by music from Frankfurt-based musicians Veronika Paleeva (violin), Tim Roth (double bass) and Tomek Witiak (guitar). As part of the international opening press conference on the morning of 15 October, the writer Elif Shafak will speak about the role of literature in today’s world.

With the New Adult Area in Hall 1.2, FBM24 has designed a new area to meet the growing interest of young readers, in particular in personal encounters with its stars. On 8,000 square metres, the successful New Adult genre with its varieties such as romance and dark college — including many queer publishers — will find an additional home there. The numerous fans of these literary worlds will meet authors such as Jane S. Wonda.

As an international platform for the pressing socio-political debates of our time, the Frankfurt Book Fair 2024 is curating an extensive programme with international names from academia, culture, and politics. For the first time, the events are being brought together under a specially created umbrella brand: “Frankfurt Calling — Perspectives on Culture and Politics”. Here, global perspectives on major topics such as democracy, human rights, artificial intelligence, climate change and education will be opened up. Other topics of the panels, readings, and performances include Russia’s war against Ukraine, the Middle East conflict and its reception, black feminism and the global rise of populism. The main stage for the events is the iconic Frankfurt Pavilion on the agora of the exhibition centre. The programme is put together by the Frankfurt Book Fair together with its partners, such as the United Nations, Amnesty International, Memorial, PEN Berlin, Correctiv, the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the Anne Frank Educational Centre. Opinionated authors such as Roberto Saviano, Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim, Eva Menasse and Omri Boehm will discuss topics that shape public discourse.

An audience highlight of the “Frankfurt Calling” series will be the encounter between the Israeli historian and bestselling author Yuval Noah Harari and the Japanese philosopher and critic of capitalism Kohei Saito. On Wednesday (16 October at 7.30 p.m. in the Harmonie Hall), they will discuss the question ‘Is the only way to a future worth living through the collapse of the system?’ Harari became world-famous with his book “A Brief History of Humanity”. In his new work “Nexus”, he addresses the danger that the information networks of the present could destroy the future of humanity. In his bestseller “Capital in the Anthropocene”, Kohei Saito formulates a radical critique of growth and argues for a democratic reform of labour and production from a Marxist perspective.

With its 76th edition, the Frankfurt Book Fair is once again creating media neighbourhoods in its specialist programme, which are of great importance for the economic growth of the book industry. In cooperation with the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the Games Business Centre will be presented in Frankfurt for the first time. It is aimed at all games publishers, developers, and suppliers from the games industry. Here they can network with publishers, film producers and trade visitors at the largest international book fair.

Once again, the strategically important topic of book and film will receive a great deal of attention. The aim here is to promote the mediation of book material for film productions and to organise meetings between publishing house representatives and film producers. At the traditional Book-to-Screen Day (18 October), a Book-to-Screen Talk will take place in the Frankfurt Pavilion at 2.00 pm: Writer Fatma Aydemir will talk to Aslı Özarslan about her literary adaptation of Aydemir’s “Elbow” and how good stories find their way from books to the big screen.

Once again this year, Frankfurter Book Fair proves its indispensability for professional exchange and the business of the global book industry: With a fully booked Literary Agents & Scouts Centre (LitAg), the world’s largest rights centre for literary agents and scouts, an expanding audio area and an increase in international stages and specialist events, including high-ranking CEO talks.

With more than 90 authors, Italy, this year’s Guest of Honour at Frankfurter Book Fair, presents the full diversity of contemporary Italian publishing production. The writers who will be shaping the Guest of Honour programme with talks and readings include well-known names such as Alessandro Baricco, Annalena Benini, Paolo Cognetti, Claudia Durastanti, Antonio Franchini, Nicola Lagioia, Claudio Magris, Francesca Melandri and Igiaba Scego. The events will take place in the Arena and the Caffè Letterario, both of which are located in the Guest of Honour Pavilion designed as a piazza by architect Stefano Boeri. The appearance of the Italian guests of honour will also include a specialist programme, which will take place at the joint Italian stand in Hall 5.0. This is where the fourth-largest European book market in terms of turnover will be presenting itself to the international publishing industry.

In addition to the Guest of Honour Committee’s programme in the Guest of Honour Pavilion, there will be complementary events initiated by Italian authors and their German-language publishers. The discussion between Roberto Saviano and the co-chair of PEN Berlin, Deniz Yücel, on ‘Literature & Politics. Writing in illiberal times’ (Saturday, 19 October, at 2 p.m. in the Frankfurt Pavilion). There will also be a moderated reading by Antonio Scurati on his new Mussolini novel M. Das Buch des Krieges, which will be published in German during the week of the fair (Wednesday, 16 October at 8 p.m. as part of the city’s Open Books series at the Evangelische Akademie). The newly conceived “Zentrum Wort” in Hall 4.1 is the central meeting point for the topic of “Literature and Translation”. Jointly organised by the Association of Literary Translators (VdÜ), the German Literature Fund and the Kunststiftung NRW in cooperation with Frankfurter Book Fair, it offers a stage and a networking area for authors and literary translators to exchange ideas with publishers, critics and agents. A broad stage programme with German-speaking and international guests awaits trade visitors and the public.

One of the new features in the international exhibitor area is the Asia Stage in Hall 5.1. Readings and events on literary and cultural-political topics by authors from various Asian countries and regions will be organised there on all five days of the fair. Information events on trends and developments in the Asian book market are aimed at trade visitors. Numerous networking opportunities enable targeted networking within the Asian publishing community.

As in the anniversary year 2023, the 76th Frankfurter Book Fair will also be highly visible in the urban environment. Bus stickers, ground posters at the main railway station and mega lights at the airport contribute to this. A spectacular campaign can be experienced from 14-20 October on Paulsplatz in the immediate vicinity of Frankfurt’s Paulskirche: In a co-operation between Frankfurter Book Fair, City Marketing Frankfurt and Goethe-Haus, a “Great Escape Room” will be created there. In keeping with Italy as Guest of Honour and Frankfurt as Goethe’s city, 238 years after Goethe’s trip to Italy, this room offers visitors the chance to set off south once again with the privy councillor.