Mahmoud Kafrawi - Kuwait

With the participation of about 488 publishing houses from thirty Arab and foreign countries, the activities of the 44th session of the Kuwait International Book Fair, which lasts until the 30th of November, kicked off last Wednesday.

This year, the exhibition will witness the application of the guest of honor, as well as the Arab and international exhibitions. The UK was chosen as the first guest of honor to celebrate the 120th anniversary of relations between the two countries.

The exhibition includes more than five hundred thousand titles, including about 18 thousand new titles issued in 2019, and also participated for the first time 33 Arab and foreign publishing houses.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a cultural activity. The cultural café will host various events that discuss the latest developments in the Arab and international arenas in various fields. “Intellectual Property and its Impact on the Development of the Publishing Industry”.

The exhibition includes more than five hundred thousand titles, including about 18 thousand new titles issued during 2019 (Al Jazeera Net)

Children's Corner
The exhibition management dedicated a hall to display titles for children, with the participation of several specialized publishing houses, in addition to the existence of a children's culture pavilion belonging to the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters in Kuwait.The cultural program also included a seminar on children's literature with the participation of specialized writers from Tunisia, Morocco and Kuwait.

The professor at the Faculty of Language and Arts at Kuwait University, Zakaria Al-Kandari, described the attendance of the exhibition in its current session as very large, especially among the youth category, which is encouraging, but poses a great challenge regarding the choice of a good address that adds something to those who buy it.

Suleiman Al-Abduljader (one of the visitors to the exhibition) that the judgment on the current session is premature, expressing the hope that the current session will not see a repeat of some of the problems experienced in previous exhibitions.

The Kuwait International Book Fair is the second oldest Arab exhibition, with its first edition dating back to November 1, 1975.