15th Book Fair opens in Casablanca

From tomorrow (Feb 13),Casablanca will be hosting the 15th International Publication and Book Fair. It is expected that it will be attended by 500 exhibitors and 100-plus editors from 41 countries. The fair has, over the years, gained a worldwide renown and become a gathering where the literarti celebrates cultural diversity of the world heritage, and continues to attract more and more visitors and exhibitors from across the globe.

The fair, themed this year "In the Realm of the Book", will have Senegal as the guest of honour. The event features meetings with intellectuals and critics, as well as conferences and seminars.

The programme of the fair, which covers a wide range of subjects and genres, aims in particular at making the book accessible to the public and not limited to an elite, according to Moroccan culture minister, Touria Jabrane Kryatif (pictured left). The ministerf called upon public and private sectors to get involved in a national project aimed at promoting a culture of reading in the kingdom, to be finalized next month.

Noting that the situation of reading and book distribution gives grounds for worry, the minister insisted that there need to be appropriate solutions which involve all partners.

"We are required to responsibly rise to this challenge, by launching concrete actions," she said, adding that the “critical situation” calls for a large-scale and urgent mobilisation.

Illiteracy, the lack of an engrained culture of reading in the society and the exorbitant book price are all subjective and objective factors that contribute to this phenomenon, she deplored.


Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news