Frankfurt Book Fair 2021: Canada as Guest of Honour

On this page

• Canada in the spotlight at Frankfurt
• Livres Canada Books – Canada booth
• Canada FBM2020
• Canada Council for the Arts – incentive program for purchasing translation rights and publishing
• Canada’s Visual Identity

Canada in the spotlight at Frankfurt

Canada as Guest of Honour (GoH) at the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany is considered a high profile, global initiative. Canadian Heritage is the overall lead for the Government of Canada (GoC) and is responsible for coordinating and delivering the project along with a number of federal, provincial, territorial and private sector partners.

The guiding principles of the project are innovation in creative industries, promotion of women and youth, and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.

The GoC’s investment in this initiative is expected to increased published works rights sales and enhance the discoverability of Canadian creative works in the European market and internationally.

In light of the COVID-19 global pandemic, Canada’s GoH presence originally planned for 2020 is extended to 2021. This extension will provide an opportunity to showcase Canada’s publishing industry and promote the sale of Canadian titles at the Frankfurt Book Fair in its full capacity. It will also allow for further Canadian cultural events to take place on the international scene through to the end of 2021.

Livres Canada Books – Canada booth

In preparation for Canada’s participation as Guest of Honour in 2021, Livres Canada Books presented a Canada booth at the 2018 and 2019 Frankfurt Book Fairs. This was an opportunity for our publishers to start building business ties with the German publishing community and to raise the German public’s awareness of our authors and their works.

Canada FBM2020

Canada FBM2020, an organization created specifically to prepare for Canada’s GoH year, brings together the country’s key publishers. In cooperation with Canadian Heritage, the organization will be responsible for planning, organizing, coordinating and promoting all activities relating to Canada’s participation as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Canada Council for the Arts – incentive program for purchasing translation rights and publishing

As part of the Frankfurt Initiative, the Council for the Arts, in cooperation with Canadian Heritage, created an incentive program for purchasing translation rights and for publishing in German. This program provides German publishers seeking to purchase the rights to Canadian literary works with financial support for their translation and covers a portion of the associated promotional costs.

Canada’s Visual Identity

“The slogan Singular Plurality captures Canada’s culture of diversity, where each of us is unique but connected as a whole both by our differences and by our shared values.

The logo represents spotlights and open books, and plays on the three A’s in Canada. It symbolizes the importance given to the different points of view and stories from all of Canada’s provinces and territory”