66th Frankfurt Book Fair opens
October 8, 2014
Shortly after the doors of the Frankfurt Book Fair opened on Wednesday, the 13 winners of the 2014 European Union Prize for Literature were announced. It was the first time the award recognizing the best new and emerging authors in Europe was presented in Frankfurt.
European Commissioner for Culture Androulla Vassiliou said the award aimed to "encourage cross-border sales and promote the translation, publishing and reading of literature from other countries," and help authors to "attract readers beyond national and linguistic borders."
Since 2009, the EU has provided funds to translate the works by 56 of the total 59 winners into 20 European languages.
This year's winning authors, who each received 5,000 euros ($6,331), include: Ben Blushi (Albania), Milen Ruskov (Bulgaria), Jan Nemec (Czech Republic), Makis Tsitas (Greece), Oddny Eir (Iceland), Janis Jonevs (Latvia), Armin Öhri (Liechtenstein), Pierre J. Mejlak (Malta), Ognjen Spahic (Montenegro), Marente de Moor (The Netherlands), Ugljesa Sajtinac (Serbia), Birgul Oguz (Turkey) and Evie Wyld (United Kingdom).
The German Book Prize was awarded Monday night to Lutz Selier for his for his debut novel, "Kruso." The German Youth Literature Prize will be awarded later this week.
Best-selling authors make an appearance
More than 300,000 visitors are expected to attend the book fair, this year in its 66th edition, to peruse the literary offerings of more than 7,000 exhibitors from 100 countries.
On Wednesday, German President Joachim Gauck toured the show together with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto. Finland is the guest of honor at this year's event, which runs until Sunday.
Best-selling authors Paulo Coelho and Ken Follett were on Wednesday to present their much-anticipated novels "Adultery" and "Edge of Eternity," respectively. Later in the day former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl is expected to unveil a new edition of his memoirs.
Difficult times
It's not an easy time for the book industry, and publishers in Germany and around the world are undergoing a transition. Faced with declining revenues and rising competition from Ebooks, many in the sector are striving to reinvent their products.
In Germany, 7.3 percent fewer paperback books were sold in the first eight months of this year, compared to last year.
At an invitation-only ceremony for the book fair on Tuesday night, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called for copyright in the digital market to be redefined globally. "We need international laws for the network," he said, and warned against big data companies monopolizing products on the Internet.
nm/kms (dpa, epd)