The 22nd Seoul International Book Fair (SIBF) opened on June 15 at the COEX exhibition center in southern Seoul, alongside the Digital Book Fair Korea 2016 exhibition.

This year, the fair opened under the slogan "Communicate with books and design the future," with 346 publishing houses from 20 different countries participating in the event. France, the guest of honor in 2010, was invited as the "Culture Focus" country this year, while Italy, the guest of honor in 2015, returned as the "Spotlight" country. Both countries will showcase a variety of published works in their sections.

Additionally, a number of French authors have been invited to the fair in celebration of the 130th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Seoul and Paris. Antoine Laurain, author of "The President's Hat," Sebastien Falletti, co-author of "A Thousand Miles to Freedom: My Escape From North Korea," as well as Antoine Schaefers, author of "The Great Ferrandi Cooking Class," will be at the event. Italy, on the other hand, will introduce "The Gold Rimmed Glasses" and other major works by the late Italian author Giorgio Bassani (1916-2000) and run a series of seminars.



"The Seoul International Book Fair is a festive occasion for all who love to read and write," said Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Kim Jongdeok during the opening ceremony. "It's our hope that readers will get to meet a wide variety of authors at the fair, while sharing information with other readers," he said.

Following the opening ceremony, Minister Kim visited the French, Italian and Turkish booths. He met with So Hwa-ja, an elderly woman from Chilgok-gun County in Gyeongsangbuk-do Province whose poem "What is a Poem?" became the title for a volume of poetry published by a community of recently literate women from the Chilgok countryside.



The Seoul International Book Fair runs until June 19. At the fair, readers will get a chance to meet writers Yi Mun-yol, Gu Hyoseo, Kim Kyung-uk and Myeong Ro-jin. The program also features a knitting demonstration by Swedish-Norwegian clothing and design company Arne & Carlos, and an art workshop with Italian illustrator Hanoch Piven. On the last day, Deborah Smith, co-winner of the Man Book International Prize for her translation of "The Vegetarian" by Han Kang, will speak at the "Globalization of Korean Literature and the Status Quo" seminar on June 19.

By Jeon Han, Lee Hana
Korea.net Staff Writers
Photos: Jeon Han
hanjeon@korea.kr