15th international Vilnius Book Fair begins

On Feb. 20, the 15th international Vilnius Book Fair began in the Lithuanian Exhibition and Convention Center, LITEXPO. The theme of this year’s fair is: cult and classic books.

The Fair, which is taking place in Feb. 20-23, will celebrate the work of Kristijonas Donelaitis, and encourages all participants to meet with international and Lithuanian authors.

After a five-year break, representatives from the Frankfurt Book Fair will participate in the Vilnius Book Fair.

Events will include a discussion on staging classics today, the status of classical literature within the current education system, emigration and the unification of Europe, as well as a mass reading of Metai (Seasons), a book by Donelaitis, when 300 hundred people from pupils to foreigners, replacing each other, will read the book for five hours.

Over 30 guests (writers, poets, book illustrators) from Austria, Cyprus, the United States, Estonia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, France, Finland, Germany, Russia, Italy, Poland, Belarus and the Czech Republic will attend the Fair.

The first Baltic Book Fair in Vilnius was held in 1999, it was organized by Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian publishers. The success of the event inspired the organization of the first international Vilnius Book Fair the following year. During 14 years, the Fair has seen 3,500 participants, 780,000 visitors and 280 foreign authors.