Korea to join UAE’s Sharjah Int’l Book Fair as guest of honor

[Courtesy of Korean Publishers Association]

Korea will attend the United Arab Emirates’ Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF), the biggest book fair in the Middle East, as the guest of honor.

The book fair will be held at the Sharjah Expo Center in the UAE from November 1 to 12.

The 42nd annual edition of the book fair that was first held in 1982 will invite about 2,000 publishers and authors from 108 countries.

The SIBF announced Korea as the guest of honor for this year, marking the first of its kind for Korea in any book fairs in the Middle East.

Korea will showcase a variety of programs under the theme “Unlimited Imagination.”

As part of the programs, six Korean authors – Kim Seung-hee, Jeong Ho-seung, Kim Ae-ran, Kim Un-su, Bae Myung-hoon, and Hwang Sun-mi –will meet readers from the Middle East to share Korean literature with the world.

Authors in web novels, as well as in liberal arts and science, will also introduce diverse aspects of Korean culture to Middle Eastern readers.

Picture book authors, including Kyung Hye-won, will meet and talk with local audiences about their books.

At the SIBF, the venue for the guest of honor spans 189 square meters, where book exhibitions and author talks will take place.

The main exhibition, Unlimited Imagination, has four sub-themes, “The Event Horizon,” “Palace of Memory,” “Expanding the Senses,” and “Emerging Futures,” showcasing a total of 80 local books.

Korea will also invite visitors to cultural programs in which they can appreciate Korean traditional culture.

The Korean Cultural Center in the UAE will hold workshops on traditional Korean fan coloring and crafting mother-of-pearl items, in addition to offering visitors at the venue the opportunity to experience wearing hanbok, Korea’s traditional attire.

The venue will also host performances of fusion traditional music and demonstrations of Korean cooking to allow visitors to experience Korean culture.

Sharjah is one of the seven emirates that make up the UAE, with a reputation as a cultural hub in the Middle East. The region was named the Cultural Capital of the Arab World by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2014 and elected the UNESCO World Book Capital for 2019.