The Tirana Times publishing house and the Albanian Institute for International Studies (AIIS) are also participating in the book fair with a joint stand in the first floor of the exhibition area with 84 book titles.
TIRANA, Nov. 14 – Some 100 publishing houses from Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and the Diaspora are participating in the 16th edition of Tirana book fair, the largest book fair bringing together Albanian-speaking publishers. The focus in this year’s edition is on copyright and piracy which the Albanian Association of Publishers estimates at around 30 to 40 percent of the Albanian book market.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the book fair on Wednesday, Petrit Ymeri, the head of the Albanian Association of Publishers called for clear policies to support publishers and bookshops which are facing crisis as unveiled by lower sales and new book titles.
“We are facing the fact of many bookshops in Tirana, Fier and other cities closing down. The debt crisis is escalating. Book sales have dropped by a sharp 20 to 30 percent in the past couple of years while the number of new book titles dropped to 1,086 this year, down from 2,886 last year. If no support policies toward bookshops are taken, soon there will be only few of them and access to books will further drop,” said Ymeri.
Culture Minister Mirela Kumbaro, EU Ambassador to Albania Ettore Sequi, US Ambassador Alexander Arvizu and French Ambassador Christine Moro visited the fair in its opening ceremony on Nov. 13.
This year’s book fair is being held under the motto “Copyright and informality are killing Albanian books.” The book fair, scheduled to be held from November 13 to 17 at the Palace of Congresses, will focus on raising awareness on piracy and copyright protection in the Albanian reality.
In its 2013 progress report on Albania, the European Commission says Albania still has a law on copyright to be adopted.” Efforts are needed to effectively enforce intellectual and industrial property rights and to set up the Market Surveillance Inspectorate. Serious shortcomings in the payment of royalties to right holders need to be overcome. Albania has not yet met its commitments under the SAA. Overall, preparations are not very advanced,” says the Commission.
The book fair will also commemorate Albert Camus in a special event with the French embassy in Tirana with the participation of Professor Jean Yves Guerin.
Claudio Magris, a well-known Italian researcher and Italian TV host Brluno Vespa will be the special guests of this year’s edition.
Four prizes for the best author, best translators were awarded in last year’s 15th edition of the Tirana Book fair which brought together some 100 publishers from Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro. The biggest ‘Author of the Year’ Award went to Artan Fuga for his ‘Renia e Qytetit’ (The Collapse of the City) book, a publication mixing the eye of an observer living in an Albanian town with analysis of facts by a social philosopher like Fuga, at the same time introducing contemporary ideas about life in a city. The best translator prize was awarded to Rudi Erebara for bringing into Albanian poems by Archibald RandolphAmmons. Organizers said some 100,000 people visited the Tirana book last year and some 600,000 books were sold during the five-day event which offered discounts of 20 to 30 percent.
The Tirana Times publishing house and the Albanian Institute for International Studies (AIIS) are also participating in the book fair with a joint stand in the first floor of the exhibition area with 84 book titles featuring Albanian authors such as Sabri Godo, Prec Zogaj and winners of Nobel Prize for Literature such as Samuel Beckett and Herta Muller. Several publications by the AIIS Library of International Relations & History from Bernd Fischer, Francis Fukuyama, Dominique Moisi etc are featured in the stand.
