International Book Fair to start next week in Yemen

Sanaa International Book Fair Sanaa – Ali Rabea The 28th Sanaa International Book Fair will start next Tuesday and will last for 11 days. Two hundred publishing houses - local, national and international will take part in the book fair, with more than 220,000 books exposed.
Turkey is the guest of honour this year. The book fair will be held in a club belonging to the Yemeni army in Sanaa, despite that their is no car park for visitors.
The organiser of the fair Abdedbari Taher said to Arabstoday that the fair was ready to be launched.
Abdedbari Taher, a Yemeni writer and former head of the journalists, added: “Egypt is the first  participating country with 75 publishing houses, followed by Saudi Arabia with 20 publishing houses.” He added that the fair will benefit from a good number of foreign participants this year, including Turkey, India and the USA.
Taher expects to see a good turnout, as Yemeni authors will take part in cultural and literary lectures and events. Book signing sessions will also be organised.
Sanaa International Book Fair is one of the most important fairs in the Arab World which crowds of keen readers. Arab publishing houses are increasingly keen to participate in it since its launch in 1979.  The fair usually hosts Arab and international cultural figures who take part in a varied range of events.
The book fair once received a million visitors. The sales vary from year to year, but the biggest figure reached $5 million (1 billion Riyals) in 2008.
The fair was cancelled last year because of the political situation in Yemen and the popular protests against the former Yemeni president.