2023-10-18 12:36:08
150 Austrian publishers followed the call of the Frankfurt Book Fair and represented their authors, writers and poets at their own stands or at the Austrian joint stand. Theresia Niedermüller, head of the art and culture section in the Ministry of Culture, opened the joint stand on Wednesday. The German Book Prize for Tonio Schachinger was “a great start for Austrian literature at the book fair,” said Niedermüller.
Niedermüller congratulated the award winner, who was not present, and at the same time emphasized that five other Austrians – Clemens J. Setz, Raphaela Edelbauer, Thomas Oláh, Teresa Präauer, Kathrin Röggla – had made it onto the longlist. Overall, this is “a strong signal from the Austrian literary scene,” as the section head said. The fair is a perfect opportunity to “carry books from Austria out into the world,” said Niedermüller.
The large exhibition hall in which the Austrian joint stand is located was well attended on Wednesday; there was a lot of movement in the aisles, although there was rarely crowding. People read, gossiped, discussed and negotiated in front of well-stocked shelves.
A total of 175 local exhibitors will be present at the international industry meeting until October 22nd and are setting a strong national accent. The publishing industry is represented by 150 houses, 26 of which are exhibiting together at the Austrian stand, which is run by the Main Association of the Austrian Book Trade (HBV) with Austria’s foreign trade. Benedikt Föger, President of the HBV, recalled the close cooperation between Austrian publishers and Slovenian authors.
Red reading lamps, white bookshelves and red benches characterize the first impression of the approximately 150 square meter shared stand. Hundreds of new releases are presented on the shelves, and there was a lot of interest in the booths at the tables and in front of the shelves. This year’s list of exhibitors at the stand ranges from Braumüller and Carl Ueberreuter to the Styria publishing group and the Ärzte publishing house.
Participation in the trade fair in the Main metropolis is a fixed point for many local publishers, as was emphasized to the APA during a tour of the trade fair. Larger publishers such as Czernin Verlag, Zsolnay, Innsbruck Haymon Verlag, Residenz or Graz Droschl Verlag present their authors at their own stands. For all those who can hardly afford their own trade fair stand, the Austrian joint stand offers presentation options: from a one meter long book shelf to a bookshelf for four meters of books to a book wall.
At the IG Authors’ joint stand (also in the main hall) there was a program with authors every half hour on Wednesday in the “literadio” trade fair studio: IG managing director Gerhard Ruiss started things off by talking about Austrian cultural policy and how to deal with it with AI systems in literary creation and more “that is otherwise not quite possible”.
At the IG stand itself – which this year has the motto “Literary Expeditions Longing Journeys” – around 600 titles from 100 Austrian publishers will be presented, as Ruiss explained to the APA. The “New Releases Catalog of Austrian Art, Culture and Author Publishers for 2023/24” is also available. It offers an overview of all 1,572 new literary publications from 160 Austrian publishers and also a summary of the new publications (558) by Austrian authors in 198 German and Swiss publishers, as well as the respective backlist titles.
On the “Literadio” radio stage every day from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. over the next few days, Liz Hirn, among others, will present her new book “The Overrated Man” (Zsolnay) and Marlen Pelny will present her novel “Why We Are Here” (Haymon). Shedding light on the history of a femicide from the perspective of the survivors. The graduation takes place on October 21st. Yasmine M’Barek with her book “Protest – On the Effectiveness and Risks of Civil Disobedience”, published by Leykam Publishing. The presentations will be at also made available as a podcast.
The two Klagenfurt publishing houses Wieser and Drava maintain close relationships with the guest of honor Slovenia. Both have been doing pioneering work in publishing books in Slovenian and German for decades and are traditionally represented with their own stand in Frankfurt. Hermagoras Verlag from Carinthia, founded in 1851, presents its books at the joint stand.
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