Sharjah named World Book Capital for 2019

Monday, 3 July 2017 Books+Publishing

UNESCO has named Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates as the World Book Capital for 2019.

Sharjah was selected for its ‘very innovative, comprehensive and inclusive nature’ of its application, which included a community-focussed activity program to engage the city’s large migrant population.

With the slogan ‘Read—you are in Sharjah’, the program will focus on six themes: inclusivity, reading, heritage, outreach, publishing and children. The activity program will include a conference on freedom of speech, a contest for young poets and workshops for creating Braille and tactile books.

The city will also launch Sharjah Publishing City, a zone dedicated to publishing and printing. Designed to meet the needs of different publishing companies and institutions, it will aim to ‘reinforce the book industry by encouraging the widespread production and dissemination of publications in the Arab world’.

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Category: International news