When the 35th Abu Dhabi International Book Fair opens on Sunday, visitors entering Adnec Centre will walk past more than 1,500 publisher stands and shelves carrying books in more than a dozen languages. Across the venue, discussions and performances will take place on six stages.
The fair is running until Friday, but turn the page back a little further and its history stretches 45 years, to a far more modest beginning at the Cultural Foundation in Abu Dhabi.
The event traces its roots to 1981, when the Islamic Book Fair was launched as part of the vision of UAE Founding Father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, to develop the country’s cultural life.
Saeed Al Tunaiji, executive director of the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre, part of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi and the organisation behind the fair, remembers visiting that first year as a school student.
“When we look today at the fair in 1981, it was basically a tent at the Cultural Foundation,” he tells The National. “But that tent, at that moment and at that historical stage, was something enormous for us.
“This Cultural Foundation, this historic landmark and this tent containing all these books and all this diversity, for us it was an entirely different world, a very big world.”
He returned to the fair throughout school and university, and later with his own children. The same sense of discovery, Al Tunaiji notes, has carried across generations.
“I remember very clearly acquiring books during the first fair and those that followed, and how much passion we had, how much enthusiasm, how much interest,” he says.
“This passion and interest and amazement with books and their making continued over the years. And, really, this is what I think differentiates book fairs from literary festivals, because fairs are about celebrating the love of the book and everything that comes with it, from the authors to the publishers, translators and booksellers. You learn the whole ecosystem and how it is a team effort. We try to celebrate these efforts.”
One of the challenges facing the inaugural Islamic Book Fair was convincing established Arab publishing houses to make the journey to Abu Dhabi.
Egypt, Lebanon and Iraq were among the main centres of Arab publishing, and attracting their publishers to come to the UAE with their wares required persuasion.
“To see these long-established publishing houses present in the UAE, participating and presenting books, for us that was a very major achievement,” says Al Tunaiji.
Once those publishers became regular delegates, more attention went towards building the presence and capacity of Emirati publishers by connecting them – through the fair – with the international book trade.
A 2006 agreement with Frankfurt Book Fair, the roots of which stretch back to the 15th century, led to the two organisations jointly running the Abu Dhabi event from 2007 to 2013.
The partnership expanded rights trading and professional meetings while bringing Arab publishers into closer contact with an international network of publishers, agents and rights professionals.
This year, among the 95 countries taking part, a number of Latin American publishers are making their first appearance, from Colombia, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela and Cuba.
The fair has also become a meeting place for literary prizes from across the Arab world and beyond, with about 20 local, Arab and international awards taking part. Among them is the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, which is marking its 20th ceremony this year.
“There are awards specialising in publishing, creativity and other areas. We have been keen for them to hold their events here in Abu Dhabi or to participate and introduce the Abu Dhabi Book Fair audience to these awards.”
This year's event will also recognise leading Emirati literary and cultural figures through Emirati Pioneers, a new annual initiative devoted to major cultural and intellectual figures. Writer Mohammed Al Murr, chairman of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Library Foundation, is the first person to be honoured.
“What is missing, really, and I am speaking at the level of cultural institutions, is that today we celebrate, honour and recognise others from all cultures and elsewhere, but we do not recognise Emirati creative figures and their impact both at home and abroad,” Al Tunaiji says.
For visitors and families making their first trip to the fair, Al Tunaiji recommends giving it more than a single day.
“There is a day for buying, but also attend the cultural programme and come and see the different experiences as well.”
He is particularly keen for families to bring children.
“There are programmes for children and young people, as well as the experience of being surrounded by books, publishers, languages, cultures and ideas. It gives them a different relationship with books and with the fair itself,” he says.
“It opens their minds to just how many stories and possibilities are out there. You can’t really measure the impact of that.”
Abu Dhabi International Book Fair runs from Sunday to Friday at Adnec Centre. Entry to the public programme is free with online registration
