TÜYAP İstanbul Book Fair marking 29th anniversary

The 29th edition of the annual TÜYAP İstanbul Book Fair, the Turkish publishing industry's largest gathering, opens its doors today in İstanbul's Beylikdüzü district.



With Spain as its guest of honor, this year's fair will continue until next Thursday. Spanish literature, as well as other elements of the country's culture, will be the focus of the fair, where Spanish authors, copyright agencies and literary translators will be in attendance along with their Turkish counterparts. The Spanish pavilion will be located in the fair's international hall. The fair is marking numerous firsts in its 29th year as this is the first time a country is being featured as the fair's guest of honor. Another novelty in this year's fair is the bibliopoles pavilion, where 14 bibliopoles from İstanbul will showcase rare and out-of-print books. Manuscripts in Ottoman Turkish and various foreign languages, first edition and autographed books, old newspapers, periodicals and comic books, and ephemera will also be on view at the bibliopoles section, located in the 4th Hall of the Beylikdüzü TÜYAP Fair and Congress Center. The fair's overall theme this year is "İstanbul'u Yazmak" (Writing İstanbul), a theme highlighting İstanbul's reflection in literature in an allusion to the city's tenure in 2010 as a European Capital of Culture. Held annually in cooperation with the Turkish Publishers Association, the İstanbul Book Fair usually brings together around 500 publishers and nongovernmental organizations from Turkey and abroad to present their publications.