The London Book Fair
The Armenian Communities Department is happy to share its London Book Fair story with you. The Fair, which took place from 5 to 7 April 2022 at London Olympia, was a bustling scene of hundreds of stands where active negotiations were taking place, where different publishers and countries were displaying their literary treasures and accomplishments to the world, and where an impressive amount of small and big publishers, agents, industry professionals, as well as the general public, were finally gathered under one roof. Armenians were also part of this scene, with the Armenian Pavilion being a lively stand with various publications on display from Armenia and the Diaspora, ranging from Armenian language books to foreign language publications, from children’s literature to philosophical translations, from new literature to historical works, and much more.
Representatives from different industry professionals and relevant entities were present, including:
The Foundation’s participation was not one of publishers and literary agents, but rather as the principal sponsor of the Armenian Pavilion, as well as the sponsor of hundreds of publications, in Armenian, English, French, Arabic, Portuguese, Czech, Turkish, and Russian. We are happy to have witnessed the workings of the publishing world and hope to bring some of these important practices into the Armenian publishing world through our partners in the field.
Three authors were present at the pavilion: Rouben Galichian, Liana Hayrapetyan, and Prof. Varduhi Davtyan. Moreover, within the framework of the London Book Fair, two events took place: a presentation by Vicken Cheterian on his book Open Wounds at the Armenian Pavilion, which was followed by an interesting Q&A, and a panel discussion at the Armenian Institute, where the state of Armenian publishing was discussed, along with other related topics such as what constitutes Armenian Literature, what the interests and reading patterns are of the Armenian public, what the latest Armenian literary trends are, as well as digital publishing and digitization.