Africa in focus at Göteborg Book Fair

Göteborg Book Fair is delighted to present its broadest theme ever: Africa and African literature! Over 70 guests from 25 of the continent’s countries are included in the African theme. In total this year’s seminar programme includes 446 seminars, with 800 participants from 36 different countries.

A continent in focus

– There is great interest in Africa just now, not least thanks to the Football World Cup in South Africa in June. The 2010 Book Fair’s focus on Africa highlights the literary and creative Africa, with many new writers and cultural workers contributing to tell us more about this exciting continent, says Carin Norberg, Director of the Nordic Africa Institute, who has already noticed the effect of the Book Fair’s theme.

– Many Swedish publishers are releasing newly translated works, many of which will be launched for the first time at Göteborg Book Fair.

– I think that the breadth of the theme is impressive. Covering an entire continent is difficult, but I am convinced that the contribution of so many authors from so many different countries will offer an excellent overview of contemporary African literature, says Gunilla Sandin, Head of program at Göteborg Book Fair.

There are currently over 70 guests included in the African theme , amongst whom are the South African Nobel Prize laureate Nadine Gordimer; the world citizen and feminist Nuruddin Farah from Somalia; the author and former politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali – also from Somalia; the author, doctor and the leading women’s rights campaigner from the Arab world, Nawal El Saadawi from Egypt; Tahar Ben Jelloun, the Goncourt Prize winner from Morocco; Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Nobel Prize tipped writer from Kenya who now writes in the Gikuyu language; Mozambican Mia Coutu, considered to be the continent’s leading writer in the Portuguese language; Petina Gappah, who, in her debut book An Elegy for Easterly focuses on the political absurdities in Zimbabwe; Lesego Rampolokeng, poet, musician, playwright and spoken-word poet from South Africa; Chris Abani, acclaimed author, stand-up comedian and saxophonist from Nigeria; Unity Dow, author and Botswana’s first female High Court judge; Mpho Tutu, priest from South Africa who wrote Made for Goodness together with her father Desmond Tutu; Ingrid Le Roux, Desmond Tutu’s personal physician and founder of health clinics in the shanty towns of Cape Town, and the Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege, awarded the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights and the Olof Palme Prize.

African children’s book authors

Several seminars are devoted especially to African children’s and young adult literature. Some of the continent’s leading children’s authors, illustrators and comic creators will participate, including: Lesley Beake, South Africa; Ousmane Diarra, Mali; Fatou Keïta, Côte d’Ivoire; Christian Epanya, Cameroon; Piet Grobler, South Africa; John Kilaka, Tanzania; and Véronique Tadjo, Côte d’Ivoire.
The Africa theme is made possible thanks to the cooperative efforts of Göteborg Book Fair and the Nordic Africa Institute, SIDA, the Swedish Arts Council, the Swedish Academy, the Helge Ax:son Johnsons Foundation, the Swedish Writers’ Union, the International Library, African embassies in Stockholm and many other organizations and publishers.

Voices from the rest of the world

Many of the Book Fair’s other overseas guests also have distinct African connections, not least Scottish Alexander McCall Smith, the extraordinarily productive creator of the No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, and Richard Dowden, director of the Royal African Society in London, and author of Africa: Altered States,Ordinary Miracles, a history of contemporary Africa. Other guests include the American writer Erica Jong, who wrote the feminist bible Fear of Flying in 1973 and publishes her memoirs this year; Andrew Taylor, the bestselling English author of psychologically complex crime novels; Ian Buruma, Dutch-British writer and one of the most respected journalists working today; Kitty Crowther, the Belgian winner of this year’s ALMA Prize; the French sisters Laurence Lefèvre and Liliane Korb who write detective novels set in 1890s Paris under the pseudonym Claude Isner, as well as Kenan Malik, British author and debator who has long campaigned against racism and oppression, and for freedom of expression.

Voices from Sweden and Scandinavia

As always, the Book Fair welcomes hundreds of Swedish authors, and the list of 2010’s guests includes Henning Mankell, Håkan Nesser, Ulf Stark, Maria Sveland, Per Wästberg, John Ajvide Lindqvist, Karin Alvtegen, Åke Edwardson, Sara Kadefors and Johan Theorin. Among the many other authors from Scandinavia, we welcome Jo Nesbø, Erlend Loe, Stig Sæterbakken, Karl Ove Knausgård and Gunnhild Øyehaug from Norway, Sofi Oksanen, Miika Nousiainen and Märta Tikkanen from Finland, Lene Kaaberbøl from Denmark and Andri Snær Magnason and Steinar Bragi from Iceland.

German language focus in 2011

We are pleased to confirm that in 2011 the Book Fair will focus on German language literature. A seminar with three leading authors from the German language world - Patrick Findeis from Germany, Reinhard Kaiser-Mühlecker from Austria and Lukas Bärfuss from Switzerland – offers a foretaste of next year’s theme.

Google and the future – on Wednesday

The Book Fair is expanding! This year we kick off a day earlier, on Wednesday 22nd September, with a half day conference on Google and the Future. Santiago de la Mora, Head of Google Books Europe, shares his and the company’s view on the public sector and copyright, and answers questions from an expert panel. On the same day, the Swedish booksellers’ journal, Svensk Bokhandel, is hosting a full day conference on ‘Tomorrow’s Bookseller’ featuring Michael Tucker, chair of the American Booksellers Association, among others.

The complete seminar programme is available online at www.goteborg-bookfair.com. In addition to the seminar programme, over 2000 more Book Fair events will be confirmed in July and August. The 26th Book Fair takes place from the 23rd-26th September at the Swedish Exhibition Center in Göteborg. Approximately 100,000 visitors attend the Fair every year.

For more information please contact:
Birgitta Jacobsson Ekblom, Public Relations Manager, Göteborg Book Fair,
bje@goteborg-bookfair.com, tel +46 31 708 84 05, +46 701 61 65 09