BOOK FAIR. A three-day London Book Fair opens at Olympia Exhibition Centre in the United Kingdom on March 12, 2024. The Philippines’ National Book Development Board is participating. (NBDB photo)
MANILA – The National Book Development Board (NBDB) aims to strengthen the country's industry development efforts during the London Book Fair (LBF) at the Olympia Exhibition Centre in the United Kingdom on March 12 to 14.
In a statement on Tuesday, NBDB board chair Dante Francis Ang II cited the importance in participating in the event as it is one of the major trade events in publishing worldwide.
The NBDB will streamline the Philippines’ trade development plan in English speaking and diasporic territories, as well as its access to digital and physical retail spaces, Ang said.
“Our participation at the LBF this year is also especially crucial, given that it coincides with our preparations for our incoming turn as the Guest of Honour at the 2025 Frankfurter Buchmesse, where we will establish our country as a major content capital in Southeast Asia,” Ang said.
Among the Philippines’ special curation for the LBF this year are National Artist Ricky Lee’s For B (Or How Love Devastates Four out of Every Five of Us) (The Writers Studio), children’s book Masjids in the Philippines (Adarna House), and the 41st National Book Award finalist for Best Anthology in Filipino, Rurok: A Comics & Art Anthology (Komiket Inc.).
The curation also features a crop of recently published contemporary fiction from the regions, queer coming-of-age novels, and fresh takes on folklore and mythology, which the country hopes to introduce to more publishers and readers in the English-speaking market and diasporic populations. (PNA)
