Göteborg Book Fair 2020: digital Bildung Hub and Literary Festival

The Göteborg Book Fair is a wonderful market place where authors and readers can meet. It is also a forum for conversations and dialogue, with a focus on literature and authors. The seminar program is a mixture where prose and poetry mix with political values and societal debate. For the first time the Göteborg Book Fair cannot be arranged in a physical form.

Instead of cancelling the Göteborg Book Fair it is being adapted into a digital hub 24–25 September and a digital literature festival 26–27 September in collaboration with publishers and industry participants.

On 24–27 September we will arrange high profile and thorough seminars and talks on literature and reading in bit unusual way. You will be able to sit at home on the sofa and via Bokmässan Play enjoy over 100 well-produced seminars that are recorded and broadcast live from studios built in different places.

The 2020 Book Fair has two orientations: the Göteborg Book Fair Bildung Hub 24–25 September that raises current issues about the worlds of schools and libraries as well as the Göteborg Book Fair Literature Festival 26–27 September presenting a strong program based on this year’s published works. This year’s Book Fair also encompasses stage programs from ABF, BonnierHoops, the Global Square, Behold Man, Stage for Popular Science, Room for Poetry, Room for Translation, Teachers’ Stage and Göteborgs Litteraturhus. Digital Culture and Reading promotion are still the main focal themes of the 2020 Göteborg Book Fair.

The Book Fair’s website has been expanded with Bokmässan Play, a webpage completely dedicated to streamed content. All broadcasts will be found on the Play channel and be available for free to viewers. Broadcasting will take place in cooperation with Swedish dailies Aftonbladet, Expressen, Göteborgs-Posten, Svenska Dagbladet and make it possible for the Book Fair to reach a wide audience.

The program is currently being completed and will be presented on 25 August. It will be recorded and sent from various locations: Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö, Cape Town and Johannesburg. Additional recording locations may be announced. This is being carried out in collaboration with Atlas, B Wahlströms, Bokfabriken, Bonnierförlagen, Bookmark, Daidalos, Dreamhack, Ersatz, Förlaget, Göteborg & Co, Jonsereds Herrgård – Göteborgs universitet, HarperCollins, Historiska media, Katalys, Kaunitz-Olsson, Kungliga biblioteket, Leopard, Liber, Lin Education, Lärarnas Riksförbund, Läsfrämjarinstitutet, Läsrörelsen, Majblomman, Max Ström, Mondial, National Library of South Africa/DAC, Natur & Kultur, Nona, Norstedts, Ordfront, Piratförlaget, Playcentric Studios, Polaris, Rámus, Raoul Wallenberg Academy, Rainy Lab, Schildts & Söderströms, Spotify, Strawberry, Studentlitteratur, Svensk Biblioteksförening, Svenska Kyrkan, Svenska PEN, Teg Publishing, The Book Affair, Timbro, Tukan, UR, Weyler och Volante. In addition, discussions are ongoing with other publishers and organisations.

Important for both authors, publishers and visitors is the opportunity to sell and buy books during the Book Fair. In order to create good and simple conditions for sales, even when the program takes place digitally, the Book Fair will collaborate with Akademibokhandeln and Bokus as exclusive sales partners.

Due to the current situation, Göteborg Book Fair will be delighted to welcome the 2020 Guest of Honour South Africa back to the Book Fair in 2022. However, South Africa is also participating in this year’s program in the digital format, and also plans for participation at the Book Fair in 2021.

The Göteborg Book Fair’s Bildung Hub encompasses some 50 program items primarily aimed at an industry target group in schools and libraries. At the same time, this hub is also interesting and relevant for general audiences interested in societal issues. This year’s theme Reading Promotion and Digital Culture pop up in different ways within the Bildung Hub in the form of seminars and other activities. The Bildung Hub also includes a program from the Teachers’ Stage in collaboration with the National Union of Teachers in Sweden.

The Göteborg Book Fair’s Literature Festival encompasses some 75 program items divided into six themes that will be streamed in parallel: Crimetime, Brain, Contemporary, Ideas, Life and Literary Salon. The program is structured around the seminars which the Book Fair’s programming group set up during work earlier this spring.

Tickets

For visitors who have bought visitor vouchers seminar cards for the 2020 Book Fair, your purchase will be valid for the 2021 Book Fair. As an alternative, you may choose to receive your money back. You will be contacted by e-mail in week 23 with more information.
For further questions or if you have not received the information by the end of week 23, please contact Meetx, bokmassan@meetx.se

Exhibitors of the 2020 Book Fair will be able to choose between cancelling their participation and getting their money back, or rebooking their stand for 2021.