Under the patronage of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the 29th edition of the Doha International Book Fair, organised by the Ministry of Culture and Sports, will be held from today at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre (DECC), next to the City Center Doha.
Some 30 countries are participating in the event.
Russia is the guest of honour at the book fair as part of the Qatar-Russia Year of Culture 2018.
Visitors can learn more about Russian literature through a presentation of the most prominent publishers of Russian book.
They will also be introduced to classical Russian literature, art and culture.
The Russian stall will also organise a number of lectures and workshops.
The book fair will be open from 9am to 9pm daily, except on Friday (from 4pm to 10pm) and Thursday (from 9am to 10pm).
Under the theme Doha, A City of Knowledge and Conscience, the 29th edition of the Doha International Book Fair opens today and concludes on December 8.
The book fair is held under the supervision of the Qatar Cultural and Heritage Events Centre of the Ministry of Culture and Sports.
The 29th edition of the book fair is characterised by the large number of Arab and foreign publishers taking part, with 427 official publishers, and the large exhibition area spanning over 29,000sq m.
The publishing houses include 287 Arabic book publishers, 68 children’s books publishers, and 17 educational publishers.
The number of booked stalls at the fair amounts to 791 stalls.
The fair also includes 101,992 titles in Arabic and 17,261 titles in other languages, bringing the total Arab and foreign languages titles to 119,253.
A number of ministries and government institutions, including the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics, Police College, Qatar University, Katara Prize for Arabic Novels, Qatar Museums, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, National Human Rights Committee of Qatar (NHRC), and Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies, are taking part in the fair.
In the framework of the exchange with the Gulf exhibitions, the GCC pavilions participating in the fair include the Kuwaiti National Council for Culture, Arts and Literature as well as participations from the Oman ministry of culture and the corresponding ministries of Morocco, Algeria, and Palestine.
The Turkish ministry of culture and tourism is also taking part in the book fair, as are a number of embassies accredited to the State of Qatar, including that of the United States, France, and Korea.
Spain will participate for the first time in the exhibition this year.
The Kyrgyz embassy is also participating for the first time in the fair.