Doha International Book Fair - 2018

The 29th edition of the Doha International Book Fair, organized by the Ministry of Culture and Sports, will be held from November 29 to December 8, 2018.

The Fair will be held under the supervision of the Qatar Cultural and Heritage Events Centre of the Ministry, which seeks to develop the organizational tools of the exhibition. It also provides all possibilities for the exhibition to attract participants including publishers, authors and readers.

The Book Fair will have hundreds of publishers, writers and dozens of sideline conferences, workshops and cultural activities.

There will be 427 official publishers, 287 of whom are publishers of Arabic books, 17 of whom are educational publishers, and 25 of whom are publishing houses for foreign books will be participating from about 30 countries. There will be 791 book stalls and this year, the Embassy of the Kyrgyz Republic will be joining the Fair for the first time. Also, Spain will participate for the first time in the exhibition this year, by a publishing house specializing in children's books. The number of publishers in this year’s Fair from Lebanon, Jordan and Morocco has increased. 

Russia will be the Guest of Honour at the Doha International Book Fair in the framework of the Qatar-Russia Year of Culture 2018. Visitors will know more about Russian literature through a presentation of the most prominent publishers of Russian book. They will also be introduced to classical Russian literature, art and culture. The Russian stall will also organize a number of lectures and workshops.

A number of ministries and government institutions including the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs; the Ministry of Education and Higher Education; the Ministry of Commerce and Industry; Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics; Police College; Qatar University; Katara Prize for Arabic Novels; Qatar Museums; Hamad Bin Khalifa University; National Human Rights Committee of Qatar (NHRC); and Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies will have participation in the Fair.

In the framework of the exchange with the Gulf exhibitions, the GCC pavilions are participating in the Fair including the Kuwaiti National Council for Culture, Arts and Literature; and participations from the Ministry of Culture of Oman and the Ministries of Morocco, Algeria and Palestine.

Also, there will be an excellent participation from Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, which will participate in a distinguished pavilion, in addition to other distinguished contributions from a number of embassies accredited to the State of Qatar, including the embassies of the United States of America and the Republic of France, Korea and Palestine.

The Ministry of Culture and Sports’ pavillion

The Ministry of Culture and Sports has set up a unique pavilion in the exhibition to display its various publications to introduce these issues to the visitors of the pavilion, which is based on the ministry's vision.

Also, there is a participation from several centers of the Ministry, among its Diwan Al Arab and the forum of Qatari authors, which aims to highlight the role of the forum in supporting publishing houses in the country, and to introduce visitors to the new publishing houses and highlight their achievements.

Cultural Events

On the sidelines of the Fair, there will be many cultural events, which will range from cultural cafes (a forum for writers and authors), exhibitions of fine arts, with the participation of 16 fine artists, as well as children's theater shows and various workshops to be held within the same cultural events.

Cultural events will also be held for Arab publishers, which will discuss the future of international exhibitions.

Among the issues of the cultural events which will be discussed are ‘Cultural renewal questions’, ‘Islamic studies in Russia’, ‘Human dignity and coexistence’, among others.

Poetry nights (Fassih and Nabati) will be hold by Poets from Qatar, Gulf and  other Arab countries in cooperation with Diwan Al Arab (Qatar Poetry Center).

The exhibition will bring together the memory of the great late artist Abdulaziz Nasser, as part of the artistic activity accompanying the cultural events, on the occasion of the publication of the book ‘Abdulaziz Nasser: Journey of Love and Loyalty’ authored by Dr. Ahmed Abdul Malik, in addition to the discussion by the writer Muhammad Ali Abdullah on his first novel ‘Faraj story of love and slavery’.

Among other topics to be presented in cultural events include, ‘Patterns of personalities, the foundations of the formation of social relationship, engagement period … why?.

Issues will also be raised on ‘Motivation and trust between spouses, communication between spouses, management of marital differences’.

Also, there will be a session about the siege titled ‘Qatar’s determination ... harvest and fruits’. Dr. Abdullah Al Khater, Dr. Ilham Badr, Dr. Mohammed Al Marri, Editor-in-Chief of Al Watan newspaper; Dr. Abdul Hamid Al Ansari will participate in this session.

Workshops

A number of workshops will be organized on the sidelines of the Fair which include ‘Reading … life style’, in collaboration with the Qatar Voluntary Center, as well as other workshops titled ‘Using technology to support Arabic learning’. Many other workshops will be held among them ‘How to make a good presentation’ in collaboration with Qatar Foundation.

Also, a workshops on ‘Copyright and related rights’, and two workshops titled ‘Turkish literature in the Arab world, and the role of translation in this regard” will be held in cooperation with the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, in addition to a workshop entitled "Qatari construction and Qatari life" in collaboration with the London University College.

The workshops will also include ‘Our children and books, how to read stories for our children, search for sources in the library, and 30 books in 30 minutes’ in collaboration Qatar National Library.

Doha, A city of Knowledge and Consciousness Competition

A competition for photography has been launched under the Ministry of Culture and Sports supervision in collaboration with Youth Center for Hobbies.

 The competition is scheduled to be November 25 last date for participation, while the results will be announced at the Doha International Book Fair. In addition to that there will be a pavilion to display all the pictures participating in the competition during the duration of the exhibition.

The exhibition services

The Fair management is keen to provide all facilities and services for the exhibition's visitors. Services to be presented at the exhibition include metal book carts, porters, restaurants and cafés, ATMs and other services.

A number of inquiry points will be provided outside and inside the exhibition, in addition to the presence of volunteers at the exhibition venue under the name ‘Ask Me’ to answer any query.

The Fair is not just a market for the book's trade, but a space for the exchange of cultures and knowledge.

It is also decided to name the main exhibition gates with the names of Qatari and international personalities, in order to remember the visitors of the role played by those famous personalities.

The cultural cafes, which are specially designed to combine love of reading will be provided. Also, a media center will be available at the Fair to provide all the information services to reporters.

The participants' pavilions have been distributed in a way that serves the exhibition's visitors for easy access to the books they are looking for through distributions of children's bookshelves and foreign book pavilions then distribution by participating countries.

To get more information on where and when, please click here.

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