The German embassy in Qatar and Goethe-Institut Gulf Region are co-operating with the Ministry of Culture and Sports to inform people about the German book market and present selected books in German, English and Arabic at the Qatar Germany 2017 Pavilion at the 28th Doha International Book Fair.
Various talks and presentations will also take place as part of a varied programme offered by German institutions.
Together with its partners Hamad Bin Khalifa University Press and the Qatar National Library, the Goethe-Institut has previously organised two workshops for aspiring authors and illustrators of children’s books from Qatar.
As part of the German participation, one of the books of renowned children’s author and illustrator Ute Krause will be read in Arabic to school classes everyday at 9am on weekdays during the book fair. Then, Qatari storyteller Ebrahim al-Bishri will offer a storytelling session for families who visit the book fair with their kids on Saturday (December 2) at 9am. All storytelling sessions take place at the Qatar Germany 2017 Pavilion.
German writer, translator from Arabic to German and literary critic Stefan Weidner will present his latest publication, Anti-Pegida, which is available in Arabic through the Fair Foundation in Katara at the Cultural Activity Pavilion, at 8pm today. In conversation with TV presenter Crystal Tannoury, he will talk about his work as an author and translator for Arabic authors into German. He will also give a lecture at the same location on December 2 at 8pm on the “Cultural Impact of Arab Authors in Germany”.
German manga artist Inga Steinmetz will talk at the Cultural Activity Pavilion on December 2 at 7pm about recent trends in the German manga and comic scene and explain how she started her career as manga artist. Further, she will conduct workshops for school classes today and on December 3  at 11am and a workshop for teenagers on December 2 at 4pm. All workshops will take place at the Qatar Germany 2017 Pavilion.
Steinmetz will also draw visitors to the book fair as manga characters tomorrow at 4.30pm and on December 2 at 3pm. These manga portrait sessions also take place at the Qatar Germany 2017 Pavilion.
Palestinian-Syrian publisher Samar Haddad (Atlas Publishing) will visit the Doha International Book Fair to talk about publishing German books in Arabic on December 3 at 7pm and read on December 4 at 7pm from two German books that have been recently translated and published – Qatna and Hoppe. Both events take place at the Cultural Activity Pavilion and will be in Arabic. The book reading will be in Arabic and German.
The Doha International Book Fair takes place at the Doha Exhibition & Convention Centre until December 5. All events organised by the German embassy and Goethe-Institut are free of charge and open to the public.