Tbilisi Virtual Book Festival
On May 30-31, Tbilisi Virtual Book Festival will be held for the first time, organized by the Georgian Book Publishers and Distributors Association.
The pandemic spread all over the world, including in Georgia, caused the postponement of the Tbilisi International Book Festival in the autumn.
However, Georgian and foreign writers, publishers and readers will gather in the online space on the traditional dates of the festival.
The Virtual Book Festival of Tbilisi will officially open on May 30, at 11:00 and all the events planned within the program will be broadcasted live on May 30 and 31 from 11 am to 8 pm on the Facebook page of the Tbilisi International Book Festival (Tbilisi International Book Fair / თბილისის წიგნის საერთაშორისო ფესტივალი - https://cutt.ly/yynpPSx).
The virtual festival maintains the content of the traditional festival and consists of two main parts: a literary-publishing program and an online exhibition-sale of books.
The traditional concept of the literary-publishing program will be preserved at the Virtual Book Festival, which combines several directions: presentations of new books and meetings with Georgian writers; Kids’ program; Program with the involvement of the festival's focus country and other foreign writers; Publishing-professional program and project "Actors for Literature".
TBC is a supporter of the Virtual Book Festival, for which one of the main priorities is to promote initiatives and projects related to education and literature. Turkey is the focus country of the 2020 Tbilisi International Book Festival, so Turkey will also benefit from this status at the Virtual Book Festival and will present a program within several events with the participation of Turkish publishers or writers to Georgian readers. They plan to implement it on a large scale in Tbilisi in the fall.
On May 31, in cooperation with the British Council, within the framework of the publishing program of the Tbilisi Virtual Book Festival, an online session of the International Publishing Fellowship with the participation of British, Georgian, Turkish and Ukrainian publishers will be held.
The aim of this project is to connect professional publishers from the United Kingdom and the growing publishing sector. Within the framework of the already traditional project of the festival - "Actors for Literature", cinema and stage actors will present books to book lovers online.
About 30 publishing houses will take part in the Tbilisi Virtual Book Festival. Each participant will offer a special festival discount to readers.
The online exhibition-sale of books will be available on the website of the Association, in the online space specially created for the market - http://www.gpba.ge/ge/new/150/
The Tbilisi XXII International Book Festival will be held on September 24-27, 2020.