Three decades of Frankfurt after Frankfurt celebrated at Konzorcij
Iva Premrl of Konzorcij owner, publisher Mladinska knjige, said things had changed a lot since the 1980s when this annual book fair was launched.
Konzorcij already had a small department with foreign books in the 1980s, but most had to be ordered upon the wish of customers, who then sometimes had to wait up to six months for the book to arrive.
Along with an end of foreign currency shortages that prevented imports, the delays were the reason why the shop's team at the time decided to bring a selection of foreign books to Slovenia.
While purchases of foreign books have gone down since, Frankfurt after Frankfurt has been preserved as a reference point for new books that are the pinnacle of publishing in individual fields.
The city of Ljubljana as the partner in this year's edition will be celebrated through books as the European Green Capital. What is more, Ljubljana became in December last year the 16th UNESCO City of Literature.
The central part of the exhibition will be hosted by the Konzorcij book shop in Ljubljana as has become tradition after the fair was organised at the Cankarjev dom centre until 2009.
Another segment will meanwhile be organised at the Green Capital information point in front of the Town Hall, where environmental books will dominate.
The titles at Frankfurt after Frankfurt meanwhile cover a wide spectrum and also feature Slovenian authors published abroad, among them philosopher Slavoj Žižek.
The fiction segment will include the winners and finalists of the most important literary awards and other celebrated recent titles in English, French, Italian, Spanish, German and Russian.
A novelty this year will be an exhibition of children's and youth literature and events for the youngest. Around 500 foreign books will be presented, among them 16 rewarded or singled out at this year's Bologna fair.