As announced by the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA), Italy will be the Guest of Honour at the 41st Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF), scheduled for November 2022.
At the 2022 edition of SIBF, a stellar gathering of Italian authors, artists, and publishers will promote the arts, literature, and culture of the Guest of Honour country. Additionally, the selection illustrates how deep and strong the bilateral relationships between Italy and UAE are across many spheres, including culture and heritage.
The decision was announced at a meeting attended by Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri, Chairman of SBA, and Nicola Lener, Ambassador of Italy to the UAE, to discuss the potential of strengthening mutual cultural relations and explore avenues of collaboration between Sharjah and Italian cities in hosting book fairs and cultural events.
Ahmed Al Ameri said: “We look forward to welcoming some of Italy’s greatest writers and artists at SIBF 2022. Through the selection of Italy as GoH, we seek to further the cross-cultural dialogue between the two countries, in line with the vision of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, to build bridges of cultural understanding between peoples across the world and promote common values through knowledge, art and literature”.
“We seek to enhance knowledge exchange and cooperation with Italy in various creative sectors and we are looking forward to introducing the audience to Italy’s cultural legacy including art, literature as well as the beauty of the Italian language,” he concluded.
Nicola Lener said: “Italy’s participation as the Guest of Honour at the 41st Sharjah International Book Fair next year, is a great opportunity to share our culture with the Arab world. SIBF has emerged as the world’s largest book fair this year after attracting the highest number of publishing professionals from around the world who used the SIBF platform to pursue a variety of business interests. We are keen to participate in SIBF every year and look forward to bringing Italian literature closer to the Arab audience and explore ways to enhance communication between the Italian bookmakers and publishers with their counterparts in the Arab world”.
