Packer, Guarnaccia and the Folio Society to headline BolognaBookPlus illustration programme

Neil Packer, Steven Guarnaccia and the Folio Society will headline this year’s BolognaBookPlus illustration programme, the organisers have announced.

BolognaBookPlus takes place alongside the fair from 6th-9th March. As part of the newly unveiled illustration programme, the Folio Society will be partnering with the Illustrator’s Café to announce the Folio Book Illustration Award 2023 on 6th March at 1.30p.m.

Folio Society publishing director Tom Walker will be joined on stage by the award-winning Folio art directors Sheri Gee and Raquel Leis Allion to unveil details of the competition.

Working with the illustration experts, Mimaster Illustrazione, Gee and Leis Allion will be conducting portfolio reviews during the fair, as well as hosting two other seminars, “Illustrating a Folio Edition”, moderated by Steven Guarnaccia, during which the opportunities and challenges of illustrating fiction for Folio will be debated (7th March 10.30a.m.), and a keynote session with award-winning illustrator Neil Packer at the BolognaBookPlus theatre (7th March, 1p.m.).

Walker said: “The Folio Society has always valued the great line-up of illustrators to be found at Bologna. As our 75th anniversary year draws to a close I can think of no better way of celebrating Bologna and the importance of illustration than partnering with the iconic Illustrators Café and taking to the stage with the masterly Neil Packer.”

The Jackets Off! programme, which last year featured Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (Vintage), will also return, this year presenting George Orwell’s 1984 (Penguin) with adaptations from Canada, UK, Italy, Greece, China and Ukraine. This year’s entries include two graphic novel adaptations of the novel.

Jacks Thomas, guest director of BolognaBookPlus, said: “With Bologna’s unrivalled track record in illustration and all things design, in this anniversary year it is a pleasure to bring six decades of expertise and knowledge to the general publishing arena. Illustration paradoxically crosses borders seamlessly as needed while also showcasing individual, national style and insight. We certainly devour books with our eyes both in bookshops and online. Thank goodness for such an endlessly impressive supply of illustration talent that the book industry can draw upon at Bologna 2023.”