From 31 August to 6 September, fans of the written word will have the opportunity to buy the latest editions at the 26th International Book Fair in Banja Luka, as well as to choose books from world classics or works by the most famous Serbian writers of the 20th century of timeless value.

The festival of the written word, organized by Glas Srpske, will be held this year to the joy of all book lovers, which is a big step after the interruption caused by the coronavirus. This year, the most beautiful pages of domestic and world literature will be exhibited at numerous stands in the Borik hall in Banja Luka.

The organizer of the fair is Glas Srpske, and manager of this event, Petra Ivić, pointed out that this event was included in the Calendar of Cultural Events of the City of Banja Luka this year, and that the date of holding of the Banja Luka fair had been changed due to the postponement of the Belgrade Book Fair.

– We originally planned to hold the event from 14 to 20 September. However, the Belgrade Book Fair, which was announced for the second half of October, will be held from 11 to 19 September. Thus, we cannot hold the fair in Banja Luka in the planned term, because the arrival of publishers from Serbia has been called into question – Ivić explained.

She added that publishers from BiH and the vicinity had known for decades that after the September book fair in Banja Luka, the one in Belgrade followed.

– However, we received an explanation from the Belgrade Fair that the change of term was forced by the decision of the City of Belgrade on the current and potential unforeseen and unpredictable courses of the coronavirus epidemic, and that the new September term of holding of the Belgrade Book Fair was set only for 2021 – said Ivić.

She explained that a forced change of term posed risk to good organization for the organizer, but that they hoped the publishers would keep in mind that they were forced to change the planned term.

She concluded that preparations for the fair were continuing, hoping that after the interruption due to the epidemic, we would once again socialize in person with publishers, authors and readers in the Borik hall.

Online

Last year, the Book Fair could not be held in its traditional form due to the epidemiological situation, but the organizers decided not to neglect book lovers, so they prepared a reduced online version. Editions and links to publishers’ pages were presented on the website of the fair.

Source and photo: Glas Srpske