June 1-5, Biggest Int’l Book Fair to be held in COEX after Pandemic

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Minister PARK Bo Gyoon, MCST) and the Korean Publishers Association (President YOON Cheol-Ho, KPA) will host the 28^th Seoul International Book Fair (SIBF) at COEX (Seoul) from June 1 (Wed) to 5 (Sun). This year’s SIBF is the first grand offline event after pandemic. SIBF has been serving as a communication platform among publishers, writers, and readers at home and abroad. This year’s theme is “One Small Step”, meaning that one small step is the courageous act that overcame the prejudice and took a step forward in marking the start of the big change in the world. This year SIBF is the first time to be organized as offline event since the outbreak of the pandemic.  

This year in total 195 publishers (177 Korean publishers, and 18 overseas publishers from 14 different countries), 214 writers and lecturers from in and out of Korea  will take part and deliver 306 detailed programs. This year the Guest of Honor is Colombia, a country marking the six decades of friendship and diplomatic relationship with Korea. As the two countries decided to take part as the Guest of Honor in each other’s international  Book Fair, Korea took part in 2022 Bogota International Book Fair in April. KIM Young Ha, EUN Hee Kyung, and Colson Whitehead are the ambassadors for the 2022 SIBF.

On June 1, after the Opening Ceremony, Best Book Design from Republic of Korea will be held at the Special Exhibition 1. KIM Young ha will be delivering a theme lecture under the title of “Books as Architecture”, where he will be talking about how paper books as architecture have unlimited potential. As for the Global Issue conference, Brittany Dennison (co-director of publishing at New Directions Publishing), Tracy Hurren (managing editor of Drawn & Quarterly), and Kristen Vida Alfaro (publishing director of Tilted Axis Press) will be discussing on Korean writers and literatures capturing the world under the conference title of “Korean Literature under the International Spotlight”. In addition, LEE Suzy (picture Book author) will be giving lecture under the title of “One Small Step Toward You in Pictures” on June 2, and HAN Kang (the winner of the UK’s International Booker Prize) will be giving live theme lecture on June 4 with the title of “To Meet but Never Part”.  In particular, overseas writers will be also taking part in  the 2022 SIBF. Mary Norris, a copy editor and writer at The New Yorker for 25 years, will be sharing thoughts on the job of fine-tuning writing. Herve Le Tellier (novelist and author of The Anomaly) will be discussing on the topic of “To read and Write Novel in the Era of OTT”.  

This year’s Guest of Honor, Colombia, prepared diverse programs with the theme of “Colombia: Creative, diverse and Fraternal”. There are Book Talks, Seminars, and Film screenings to share Colombia’s past and present of the literature and the cooperative relationship between the two countries. On June 3, Colombia Vice Culture minister, Adriana Padilla, will be a speaker to deliver on the reality and perspectives of the book world in Colombia. On June 5, Angelica Mayolo, Colombia Culture minister, will speak under the title of “A Different Approach: Women in Publishing”. For more information on the 2022 SIBF, please visit the official website ( https://sibf.or.kr)