Bangladesh themed country in 45th Int’l Kolkata Book Fair beginning on Feb 28

Bangladesh will be the focus country of the 45th International Kolkata Book Fair to be from February 28 to March 13 at Central Park Mela Ground in Salt Lake near Kolkata.

As part of it, Bangladesh Divas will be celebrated on March 3 and 4 at the event's venue, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

The fortnight-long fair this year will celebrate the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the 50 years of Bangladesh's independence and the neighbouring country will have the biggest presence with the neighbouring country having a sprawling pavilion where many publishers and writers from across the border are expected to be present, said Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury, chief coordinator of national implementation committee of Mujib Borsho.

Underlining once again the strong cross-border cultural and linguistic links, it will be the third time Bangladesh will be the theme country of the Kolkata International Book Fair.

The book fair, to be opened by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, was earlier scheduled to be held from January 31 to February 13 after a hiatus of two years but was postponed by a month due to a spike in Covid-19 cases during the third wave of the pandemic last month.

Apart from Bangladesh, publishers from Britain, USA, Russia, Italy, Japan, Iran, Spain, Argentina, Mexico and several Latin American countries will find place in the book fair, organisers of the fair said.

This year, the book fair will have more open space due to Covid compared to pre-Covid years and this will result in shrinking of spaces for stalls, Publishers and Booksellers Guild Secretary Tridib Chatterjee said.

Despite that, there will be nearly six hundred stalls at the book fair as several new publishers have applied for space at the event, he added.

The revised schedule of the book fair has received recognition from International Publishers Association in Geneva.