A guest post by Cathie Crooks
30 years ago, a publisher I worked with hoped to send me to the Frankfurt Book Fair (Frankfurter Buchmesse/FBM). While it didn’t happen then, I’ve had my eye on the fair ever since! I was delighted to be able to attend the 76th edition of this book and publishing extravaganza in October 2024.
The creativity that goes into many of the booths is staggering and being surrounded by so many books and their publishers was inspiring. Still, the best moments were those when I saw colleagues from around the world with whom I have worked for many years, meeting them in person for the first time.
The organizers have put together a recap video that gives a great overview of the fair. FBM also has a media library of events that is well worth looking at, including these discussions:
—Black Feminism in Non-Fiction and Fiction
—Occupied, destroyed, embattled, in turmoil: Quo vadis Palestine?
—Storytelling is a Human Right
—Democracy Depends on Reading
And here is just a tiny selection of the booths, mainly unpopulated as I stole into the fairgrounds early each morning to take in another Hall full of wonder.
