The upcoming 48th International Kolkata Book Fair will commence from 28 January and will continue till the 9 February 2025. Like previous years, the fair will be inaugurated by the Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee. Eminent poets, authors and other scholars will be present as guests of honour at the inauguration. The Book fair will be held at Karunamoyee, Saltlake.
Currently the International Kolkata Book Fair is the world’s largest attended non-trade book festival. Twenty-seven lakh book lovers visited the last book fair in 2024 and the book sales amounted to Rs 23 crores.
For the first time in the history of the International Kolkata Book Fair, Germany, a country with rich cultural heritage and literary legacy will be the Focal Theme Country in the International Kolkata Book Fair 2025.
The idea of organising the Kolkata Book Fair for the first time in 1976 came from Germany’s iconic Frankfurt Book Fair. The founder-members of Publishers & Booksellers Guild were regular visitors of the Frankfurt Book Fair. At a later stage, representatives from Frankfurt Book Fair also visited the International Kolkata Book Fair. Also, in 1984 and in 2006, when India was the Theme Country of the FBF, Guild participated there as the representative organisation of publishers and authors of Eastern India.
Mr Simon Kleinpass, Vice Consul of Germany in Kolkata was present.
Like every year, Great Britain, USA, France, Italy, Spain, Peru, Argentina, Colombia and other Latin American Countries are participating in the upcoming book fair. Besides, there are publications of other states of India, such as Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bihar, Assam, Jharkhand, Telangana, Kerala, Odisha, etc. As always, there will be the Little Magazine Pavilion, the Children’s Pavilion and other such attractions.
One of the highlights of the International Kolkata Book Fair, the Kolkata Literature Festival, KLF, will be held in February 2025.
(Edited by Pratyusha Mukherjee)
