Algeria Book Fair to open with the most Egyptian participation ever

About 108 Egyptian publishing houses will participate in the Algerian International Book Fair that will open on Wednesday, 19 September. Egypt makes up a good bulk of the fair, considering there are 600 other publishers from 40 different countries. The head of the book fair's organising committee, Hameedo Masoudi, also noted that the Egyptian participation this year is the biggest since the fair was launched 17 years ago. Both state publishing houses, such as the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and the General Egyptian Book Organisation, as well as private publishing houses, such as Shorouk and Madbouli, will participate. Also, Egyptian poets, writers and intellectuals will be present as part of the cultural programme. Poet Bekheet Bayoumi, actor Youssef Shaaban and writer Khaled Azab are among the invitees. "This year's fair coincides with Algeria's 50-year anniversary of independence from French colonisation, so we invited many foreign literary and intellectual figures, such as Silvy Tino, Jimm Hause, Ugine Aboudy, Claude Juan and others to participate in the fair," Massoudi announced. "We were keen to invite the countires that helped Alegria to revolt against the French colonisation, like China and Russia, to participate in the fair," Massoudi added. Notably, about 40 publishing houses from Syria will participate, despite the extended uprising against the Assad regime that began 18 months ago. The head of the Egyptian Publishers Association, Assem Shalaby, and the head of the Arab Publishers union, Mohammed Abdel-Latif, will attend the fair's inauguration. From / Ahram Online