The Philippine Madrigal Singers at Frankfurter Buchmesse’s guest of honor handover ceremony on October 20. Image: FBM, Marc Jacquemin
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
See also:
Frankfurt’s Italian Guest of Honor Pavilion: The Official Opening
Frankfurt’s 2025 Guest of Honor: The ‘Landscape’ of the Philippines’ Literature
‘Strengthening the International Reach of Our Authors’
As our international readership knows, the final day of each edition of Frankfurter Buchmesse‘s five-day run includes a ceremony in which the current year’s guest of honor market hands over to the next year’s, incoming country.
And on Sunday afternoon (October 20), Frankfurt’s ceremonial “Guest Scroll” was presented by the outgoing Guest of Honor Italy leadership to the incoming delegation from the 2025 Guest of Honor Philippines program.
On the Italian side, Mauro Mazza, Rome’s appointed “extraordinary commissioner” for the guest of honor program, was on-hand, as were the Philippine ambassador Irene Susan B. Natividad and Frankfurt president and CEO Juergen Boos.
The program Sunday included a talk with the Italian and Philippine illustrators Alessandro Sanna and Isabel Roxas, as well as music from singer Datu Waway Saway and the Philippine Madrigal Singers.
This being Italy’s second time as Frankfurt’s guest of honor, the Italian program organizers have spoken of their pride not only in the gains Italy’s publishing industry have made since 1988 but also in the strength of its guest of honor appearance 36 years later, with more than 90 Italian authors in the cultural program and a steady round of targeted B2B programming on the program’s huge collective stand in Hall 5.0.
As part of the guest of honor program, some 220 new publications from and about Italy have appeared on the German-language market since autumn 2023, published by roughly 100 publishers.
Mauro Mazza, Rome’s extraordinary commissioner to the program, spoke in Sunday’s ceremony, saying, “We’re positive that this second time for Italy as guest of honor will make history just like it did in 1988. During these five days and the long months leading up to this 76th edition of the book fair, we’ve offered a non-stereotypical image of our literature and our culture, strengthening the international reach of our authors and their works.
“We’re confident that what we have sown in Frankfurt will bear fruit for the Italian publishing world.”
In terms of the Guest Scroll, Mazza said, ‘”Twelve months ago we received the Guest Scroll from our neighbor country Slovenia, and now we’ll be leaving it in the hands of a land that’s more than 10,000 kilometers away. This is the beauty of Frankfurter Buchmesse, it’s capable of shortening distances.”
Manila’s Slogan: ‘The Imagination Peoples the Air’
Mauro Mazza, Rome’s appointed ‘extraordinary commissioner’ for the guest of honor program, was on-hand, as was the Philippines’ ambassador Irene Susan B. Natividad at the October 20, 2024, guest of honor handover ceremony at Frankfurter Buchmesse. Image: FBM, Marc Jacquemin
With its “Imagination Peoples the Air” slogan—drawn from the seminal book Noli Me Tangere by Jose Rizal—the Philippines program brought a message from Senator Loren Legarda, as delivered by the ambassador, at the ceremony. (You can read our interview with Senator Legarda here.)
“The Philippines is a nation of storytellers,” Natividad said on Legarda’s behalf, “where the oral traditions of our ancestors seamlessly blend with the written works of our contemporary authors.
“Our writers, artists, and publishers have long carried the torch of creativity, and at Frankfurter Buchmesse 2025, we’ll shine the light on our diverse literary heritage. This includes our Indigenous peoples’ voices, as well as the stories of our 7,641 islands and our international diaspora.
“Let us all continue to be advocates, supporters, and enthusiastic participants in the vibrant world of literature and its capacity to build bridges across cultures.”
The coming Guest of Honor Philippines presentation at Frankfurter Buchmesse 2025 is a joint project of the Philippine National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the National Book Development Board, the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines and the Office of Senator Loren Legarda.
The handover ceremony on October 20 was held in the piazza-inspired Guest of Honor Italy pavilion, as that European market handed off to next year’s Guest of Honor Philippines. Image: FBM, Marc Jacquemin
Our 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair Magazine includes a special section of coverage on Guest of Honor Italy as well as information about the Philippines market, ahead of its 2025 turn as Frankfurt’s guest of honor market. The magazine now is available for download, free of charge, here.
Download your copy here.
You’ll also read our focused coverage of issues and events in the Guest of Honor Italy program; book market trends in Brazil, France, the Philippines, the Czech Republic, and Poland; perspectives on the international rights trade from Matthes & Seitz Berlin’s Meran Mentzel; commentary from independent publishers from Greece, Colombia, and Kenya.
PEN International president emerita Jennifer Clement speaks to Publishing Perspectives on censorship ahead of the IPA’s International Publishers Congress (December 3-5); there’s an exit interview with the outgoing IPA president Karine Pansa of Brazil; a wide-ranging interview with Scholastic chief Peter Warwick; perspectives on audio in Italy from Mondadori’s Miriam Spinnato; and more.
More on Frankfurter Buchmesse is here, more on Guest of Honor Italy 2024 is here, and more on Guest of Honor Philippines is here.
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