100 thousand visitors through the Book Fair

On Wednesday the 9th Book Fair “Tirana 2006” closed which was opene for one week in Tirana at the Arbnori Inetrnational Centre of Culture. During its seven days, this Fair was visited by 100 thousand people, including readers, writers, personalities of culture and politics.
123 Publishing Houses participated; 100 from Albania and the rest from Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Greece and Italy. The most well known authors of Albania such as Ismail Kadare, Dritero Agolli, Ali Podrimja, Fatos Kongoli etc, were present at the Fair. Also present was the welknown Norwegian author Hanne Orstavik and the Dutch writer Magrit Moor. Different books were promoted and round tables organised to debate the publications of the day. According to Fatmir Toci, one of the most well known publishers in Albania and the organizer of this event, the public was greatly attracted to the fair by the 20-30 per cent price reduction on the books. At the end of the fair, several prices were awarded, such as “Writer of the Year,” “Translator of the Year,” while a jury of children announced the UNICEF- AMC award for the best child’s book. The “Odhise Grillo prize” was also awarded for the first time this year, an outstanding writer of children’s books.