Every year, UNESCO names one city as the ‘World Book Capital’ for that year, the chosen city picks up the torch on World Book and Copyright Day on 23rd April, and them commits to promote books and reading for the whole year. Last year it was announced that Conakry, Guinea would take the honour from the current city Wroclaw, and now Athens has been named as World Book Capital for 2018.
The capital was chosen based on the ‘Outstanding quality’ of its programme of activities for the book trade in Greece by an advisory committee made up of representatives of several literary organisations, and UNESCO. Athens ‘proven expertise in organising international events’ and it’s ‘cultural infrastructure’ also helped it secure this honoured position for 2018.
Through the year, Athens will organise meetings with authors, translators and illustrators, organise concerts, themed exhibitions, poetry readings, and workshops, aiming to make reading accessible to the whole population, including migrants and refugees.
If you love to travel, and you haven’t yet organised your 2018 holiday, Greece is certainly looking appealing now!
Athens is the 18th city to be named World Book Capital since the tenure began in 2001, previous cities are Madrid (2001), Alexandria (2002), New Delhi (2003), Antwerp (2004), Montreal (2005), Turin (2006), Bogota (2007), Amsterdam (2008), Beirut (2009), Ljubljana (2010), Buenos Aires (2011), Yerevan (2012), Bangkok (2013), Port Harcourt (2014), Incheon (2015), Wroclaw (2016), and Conakry (2017).
It’s a wonderful way to inspire literacy and celebrate reading, and we’re sure that Athens will rise to the challenge perfectly.
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