14th edition of Tirana Book fair kicks off

TIRANA, Nov. 3- With book sales overshadowed by the internet era, the Tirana book fair will be a good opportunity to promote reading by putting on display publications by all Albanian publishers in the region.
More than eighty publishers from Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia have confirmed their participation in the 14th edition of the Tirana book fair, the biggest annual book even bring together Albanian publishing houses. The book fair is scheduled for November 9 to 13 at the Palace of Congresses in Tirana, the perennial venue. Petrit Ymeri, the head of the Albanian Publishers Association, says this year’s new book titles have dropped to 965 compared to 2,962 new titles in January-October 2010. Organizers say literary meeting with participating writers will also be held in the fair along with art performances. Sebastiano Grasso, an Italian poet and journalist will be a special guest in the book fair promoting his first book in Albanian. Organizers hope this year’s edition will be a success and pledge books at discount. Prizes, including best author, best translator and best children’s book, are expected to be awarded in this edition. Last year’s Tirana book fair event, attracted a record 60,000 visitors with an estimated 200,000 books reported to have been sold. Earlier this year, Albanian book fairs were also held in Montengro’s Ulcinj, Kosovo’s Prizren and Skopje, Macedonia.