Dar Al Kutub at the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi will travel to Frankfurt, Germany to showcase Abu Dhabi’s dynamic and diverse publishing industry at the world’s largest publishing trade fair. Celebrating 10 years of the Kalima Project, Dar Al Kutub’s (The National Library) presence at the fair will highlight a selection of more than 100 titles that have been translated from German to Arabic since the project began.

It highlights the translation of works by renowned German writers and literary scholars, including Herta Muller, Michael Marr, Peter Stamm, Ralph Rotman, Daniela Dantes, Daniel Kehlmann, Christa Wolf and Otfried Preussler.

The seminar will be presented by the German Writer and Journalist Stephan Feidner, and will feature Saeed Hamdan, director of Program Management at the National Library Department, Klaus Reichert, president of the German Academy of Language and Literature, and Jordanian poet and interpreter, Mustafa Al-Slaiman. The fair will be held between October 11 and 15.

Kalima is also organizing a session to highlight the problem of book piracy and intellectual property rights. It will discuss measures to protect authors’ rights, raise awareness on intellectual property protection and promote relevant laws and regulations in response to the global developments in this field.

Aiming to motivate and support creativity in several fields, the symposium will be run by the German Critic Hans Obrist, and will feature Petra Hard from the SuperCamp Publishing house, and Dr. Mathiew Eliot, publishing rights’ official at Kalima.

As part of the discussions focusing on the development of the publishing industry, the library management in Dar Al Kutub will organize a dialogue session on the reality and future of the publishing industry in the Arab world. It will highlight state efforts to promote and empower the industry through the application of international standards and qualifications.

The session will host speakers Abdullah Majid Al Ali, executive director of the Acting Library Sector, and Sheikha Al-Muhairi, acting director of Libraries Department.