32nd Tehran International Book Fair

The 32nd Tehran International Book Fair has kicked off. The theme of this year's fair is "Reading Means Ability" and it will go on at Imam Khomeini Grand Musalla from April 24 to May 4.

Tehran's International Book Fair is an exhibition that is held every year in late April. The fair is one of the largest cultural events in Iran and was held in 1987 for the first time. It has attracted millions of enthusiasts every year.

Tehran International Book Fair both creates a place for people to buy books and provides academic resources for libraries. In addition, various programs are provided in collaboration with government and non-government organizations to venerate book during the exhibition. This year, about 2,400 publishers with 300,000 titles and 800 foreign publishers with about 137,000 book titles have attended the book fair. 150 public, 355 child and teenager, 300 university and 100 digital publishers are present at the 32nd Tehran International Book Fair.

Tehran International Book Fair continues to be held in spite of harsh sanctions and presence of many countries at Tehran International Book Fair is a testimony to this. There are 800 publishers in the international section, with 150 Arab publishers and 650 publishers in other languages. 30 countries are guests of Iran with China as the special guest of this round.

In 2017, the Islamic Republic of Iran was present as a guest of Beijing International Book Fair, and according to a protocol signed between the two countries, in 2019, China is the special guest at Tehran International Book Fair. Iran's participation at the Beijing International Fair was one of the strongest of the kind in global events. Iran's theme at the Beijing exhibition was "The Silk Road Colorful Dream".

Chinese delegation attends Tehran International Book Fair with 200 people and 94 publishers. 35 programs have been coordinated to be held for the Chinese guests inside the fair while 15 others will be held outside it. Lin Lee Ying, as the organizer of the programs, says that their theme is to introduce China and make the two Iranian and Chinese nations more familiar with one another's culture.

600 square meters are allocated for publishers and 100 square meters for illustrators, which will display dozens of works from 50 artists at the fair. 15,000 books are presented and the translation of Iranian classical literature has been provided with collaboration of an Iranian publisher with the aim of familiarity of Chinese readers with Iran.

600 joint session Chinese story, commemorating the period of Chinese stories, 4 sessions between Iranian and Chinese writers and researchers, the ceremony of Chinese selected book, the ceremony of joint signing of the Farsi version of Chinese Story Book, the ceremony of opening the Chinese Books Center, and the week of direct sale of Chinese Books are among the activities that have been planned for the special guest.  

In line with the goals set at the Tehran International Book Fair, the "World Book Market" is a section that tries to promote and expand cooperation among various cultural institutions, publishers, literary agencies, and independent domestic and foreign institutions, writers, translators, illustrators, and publishing specialists.

Some of the activities of the international section of Tehran Book Fair include: Recognition and invitation of active domestic and foreign literary agencies, recognition and invitation of foreign delegates publishers and authors for the introduction and publication of works that are capable of universalization. In addition, allocation of negotiating tables in the global market and right center for publishers and copyright sale, allocation of a space for publishers and writers to communicate with domestic and foreign literary organs, introducing Farsi literature and persuasion of foreign publishers to invest in this segment are some of the other major activities of Tehran International Book Fair. 

The scientific and cultural director of Tehran Book Fair's Educational section announced that more than 60 programs and sessions are scheduled for the 32nd Tehran International Book Fair. The subjects of these sessions are different, and 20% include book signature and unveiling ceremonies. Workshops and cultural startup phenomena have also been planned.

April 26 is named as the day of resistance on which the poster of the Palestine World Prize will be unveiled. Mohsen Javadi, Head of the 32nd Tehran Book Fair, representatives from various Palestinian movements and domestic and foreign publishers active in the field of resistance will take part in the event. Revering and paying respect to the families of 5 martyrs, who were martyred in defence of the holy shrine of Lady Zainab in Syria against the American and Saudi-generated terrorists, is another part of the program. There is also a session on "The Role of Literature in the Development of Islamic Resistance Culture". The congress of martyrs of resistance and unveiling of the works related to the martyrs of the holy shrine are other parts of April 26 event.

Now, we will have a brief overview of the statistics released by Iran Book House on the occasion of 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution victory. By the end of 1396 Iranian year, more than 1 million and 230 thousand book titles (including print and reprint) were published in Iran. The number of book titles has always been on the rise annually in the course of these four decades, except the year 1391, namely the final year of the eleventh administration. In that year, the illegal western sanctions caused a sudden rise in the price of paper; hence a serious plummeting of book publishing. Due to the restoration of cruel sanctions by the US regime, once again we are already facing a sharp rise in the price of paper.  

The total number of titles of printed and reprinted books published within the forty years of the Islamic Revolution, which was registered in the Book House database, reached 1,231,510 by the end of 1396. The largest number of titles in one year, belongs to 1396 with 99,114 titles.

The figures reveal that the number of book titles have increased in general in the years after the Islamic Revolution.

As for the number of titles and content, the increase is not at all comparable to the era before the revolution. The growth in the number of books can be considered as one of the most successful manifestations of cultural activities after the Islamic Revolution.

The book titles in the second decade after the Islamic Revolution reached 272% compared to the first decade and increased by 394% in the third decade compared to the second decade. Furthermore, just in the six years of the fourth decade, it has been almost equal to the total number of the third decade. The number of book titles is as follows:

35,025 titles for the first decade, 95,364 titles for the second decade, 375,261 titles for the third decade and 726,860 titles for the fourth decade.

Books are categorized in 12 main topics as follows: Philosophy and Psychology, Religion, Social Sciences, Language, Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Practical Sciences, Art, Literature, History, Geography and Related Sciences, Children and adolescents and Educational books.

The activities on books comprise correction, research, compilation, editing, translation, and writing, composing and so on. 78% of the books have been authored while 22% are translations.

Out of the total of 1,232,510 book titles recorded in Iran Book House for the 40 years after the Islamic Revolution, 77% have been published in Tehran, while 16% were published in Qom, Khorasan Razavi and Isfahan provinces, and 7% in other provinces.