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Sharjah International Book Fair 2022: Italy announced as guest of honour

'The strong cultural relations between the UAE and Italy date back to the time when the Silk Road connected the East'

Italy will be the guest of honour during next year’s edition of the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF). The 41st edition of the fair will be held in November 2022.

The Sharjah Book Authority (SBA) said Italian authors, artists and publishers will promote the arts, literature and culture of their country. The selection also underlines the “deep-rooted bilateral ties between UAE and Italy in many spheres including culture and heritage”.

Ahmed Bin Rakkad Al Ameri, Chairman of SBA, said: “We look forward to welcoming some of Italy’s greatest writers and artists at SIBF 2022. Through the selection of Italy, we seek to further the cross-cultural dialogue between the two countries … to build bridges of cultural understanding between peoples across the world and promote common values through knowledge, art and literature.

“The strong cultural relations between the UAE and Italy date back to the time when the Silk Road connected the East with the West and played a key role in facilitating trade as well as intellectual and cultural exchange. At that time, the UAE was a thriving trade centre for Italian merchants.”

Nicola Lener, Ambassador of Italy to the UAE, said the title 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.”