Ukraine president Zelensky to address Frankfurt Book Fair

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is to appear at Frankfurt Book Fair this year, speaking to delegates via videolink.

He will be streamed to audiences on 20th October at 12:30pm and he will be followed with a speech by European Commissioner for culture Mariya Gabriel.

The event is being jointly hosted by the Federation of European Publishers and Frankfurt Book fair and will take place in Room Harmonie in the Congress Centre. 

Ukraine will have a collective stand at Frankfurt in Hall 4.0 B 114, delivering presentations under the motto “Perseverance in Persistence”. Organisers estimate more than 100 Ukrainian publishing professionals and authors will be in attendance.

Peter Kraus vom Cleff, president of the Federation of European Publishers and m.d. of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, said “Ever since the start of the invasion, FEP together with Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, have reached out to our Ukrainian counterparts and offered support. What Ukraine is doing now, is standing up for our rights and our values. The whole book community must continue its engagement so that publishing in Ukraine can remain vibrant. I thank President Zelenskyy for having chosen Frankfurt for his intervention and invite all colleagues to join us to listen to him and the Commissioner for Culture”.

Juergen Boos, president and c.e.o. of Frankfurter Buchmesse, said “The Frankfurt Book Fair has maintained close relations with publishers, authors and industry-related institutions in Ukraine for many years and has carried out numerous trade fair participations, publishers’ training courses and specialist programmes in recent years. This year, it is very important to us to enable and support the networking of Ukrainian colleagues with their partners worldwide, and to let many Ukrainian intellectuals, publishers, authors and cultural workers have their say at the Frankfurt Book Fair to report on the current situation. We want to create publicity and raise awareness of what is at stake.”

The global publishing community has shown solidarity with Ukraine, following Russia’s invasion in March. Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster and Gardners all pulled back from trading with the Russia in the spring, and the country was banned from London Book Fair, Bologna Children’s Book Fair, and excluded from the forthcoming Frankfurt Book Fair. 

Frankfurt organisers are expecting around 4,000 exhibitors from 85 countries, excluding China due to travel restrictions. American publishers are expected to return to Frankfurt Book Fair en masse this year and most of the big publishing companies from the UK have booked the same space they did in 2019.