Fujairah Children’s Book Fair Draws to Close with Total of 10,000 Visitors

The event welcomed 40 publishers from the UAE and abroad. WAM
The event welcomed 40 publishers from the UAE and abroad. WAM
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Fujairah Children’s Book Fair Draws to Close with Total of 10,000 Visitors

The event welcomed 40 publishers from the UAE and abroad. WAM
The event welcomed 40 publishers from the UAE and abroad. WAM

The inaugural edition of the Fujairah Children's Book Fair concluded on Saturday after offering a packed cultural agenda featuring more than 87 different activities, Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported. These included ten panel discussions, 43 literary events, and 34 workshops hosted on the main stage and at the booths of participating publishing houses.

The event welcomed 40 publishers from the UAE and abroad, showcasing an extensive selection of educational, cultural, and artistic books, WAM said.

The first edition of the Fujairah Children's Book Fair was held under the theme 'Create the Future with Imagination' and featured four zones: Imagination, Adventure, Creativity and Future. These zones embodied the fair's slogan by promoting creative thinking, scientific imagination, and learning and exploration skills among children, the news agency added.

Over the seven days, the fair welcomed 10,000 visitors, including school students, children, families, and literature and culture enthusiasts who attended activities daily to engage with the rich and diverse cultural program. The event particularly attracted younger audiences, showing a strong demand for books in young adult and children's literature genres.

The fair featured a group of prominent authors and influential figures who contributed to the exhibition's extensive cultural and educational programs. The agenda included interactive workshops in Arabic and English and a series of panel discussions for children on topics such as art, philosophy, story creation, drawing, and book readings in Arabic and English.

Additional sessions included creating books using origami, which engaged visitors, especially children. The young participants shared their ideas, enriched the discussions, and participated in hands-on workshops.



South Korea’s Han Sells One Million Books after Nobel Win

 A visitor takes a commemorative photo after buying books by South Korean poet and novelist Han Kang near a special section for her at a bookstore in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. The letters read "Congratulations on Han Kang's the Nobel Prize award." and "Awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in literature." (AP)
A visitor takes a commemorative photo after buying books by South Korean poet and novelist Han Kang near a special section for her at a bookstore in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. The letters read "Congratulations on Han Kang's the Nobel Prize award." and "Awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in literature." (AP)
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South Korea’s Han Sells One Million Books after Nobel Win

 A visitor takes a commemorative photo after buying books by South Korean poet and novelist Han Kang near a special section for her at a bookstore in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. The letters read "Congratulations on Han Kang's the Nobel Prize award." and "Awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in literature." (AP)
A visitor takes a commemorative photo after buying books by South Korean poet and novelist Han Kang near a special section for her at a bookstore in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. The letters read "Congratulations on Han Kang's the Nobel Prize award." and "Awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in literature." (AP)

More than a million copies of books by Han Kang, the first South Korean to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, have sold locally since the honor was announced, bookstores said Wednesday.

The short story writer and novelist is best known overseas for her Man Booker Prize-winning "The Vegetarian", her first novel translated into English.

The 53-year-old, who also became the first Asian woman author to win the Nobel, was chosen "for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life", the Swedish Academy said last week.

Han's win has created a sensation in South Korea, with the websites of major bookstores and publishing houses crashing after it was announced, as tens of thousands rushed to order her books.

As of Wednesday morning, at least 1.06 million copies, including e-books, had been sold since last Thursday's Nobel announcement, three major bookstores and online retailers -- Kyobo, Aladin and YES24 -- told AFP.

"Han Kang's books are experiencing unprecedented sales. This is a situation we have never seen before," Kyobo spokesperson Kim Hyun-jung told AFP.

Online bookstore Aladin said Han's victory had not only led to a staggering 1,200-fold increase in the sales of her books compared with the same period last year, but dramatically boosted the sales of South Korean literature as a whole.

Since her win, "the overall sales of Korean literature increased by more than 12 times compared to the previous year", it said in a statement.

Sales of two books Han recently mentioned she was reading -- "Inventory of Losses" by Judith Schalansky and "Atlas de botanique élémentaire" by Jean-Jacques Rousseau -- had also surged, Aladin said.

Kyobo Book Center said while it does not have exact figures, Han's books had seen dramatically higher sales compared with other Nobel prize winners.

"We have been in the publishing industry for a while, but this whole situation feels very surreal even to some of us," a Kyobo employee told AFP.

South Koreans have been overjoyed by the news, with Han's alma mater, Seoul's Yonsei University, displaying banners that read: "Congratulations to the proud Yonsei alumnus, Han Kang, on winning the Nobel Prize in Literature."

In her hometown of Gwangju -- where a massacre occurred in 1980 that later inspired Han's acclaimed novel "Human Acts" -- a congratulatory banner was hung on a building fired on by a military helicopter at the time.

Local reports said some printing houses had been operating at full capacity on the weekend to meet the demand for Han's books.

"I've never been this busy since I joined the company in 2006," an Aladin employee told AFP.

"But it's all been very happy."