These past months – years, actually – I have been sharing my wife Neni’s plans and frustrations in preparation for the Philippines to be the Guest of Honor in the Frankfurt Book Fair, the largest in the world, with a proud history and tradition that began in 1949. Although this grand initiative has taken her away from home, as a lover and collector of Philippine books, I thoroughly support this endeavor which I know is a once-in-a-lifetime break for the Philippine publishing industry. On the eve of her departure, Neni writes:
‘This is my nth trip to Frankfurt, Germany for the Frankfurter Buchmesse. It began during my term as chair of the National Book Development Board (NBDB) when Sen. Loren Legarda was approached by then NBDB governor and publishing icon Karina Bolasco, to help the publishing industry the way she helped Philippine art and architecture return to the Venice Biennale after a 50-year absence. And what tremendous help she has been extending – with the kind of all-out assistance the industry had never before received from anyone in government – so that what we all thought was another wild dream of hers will be a reality in a few days, on Oct. 14 – for the Philippines to be Guest of Honor (GoH), only the second Southeast Asian country to be so privileged, after Indonesia in 2015.
‘Yes, the work to bid, to prepare and to vie to be GoH needed many years of preparation. The country’s visibility at the Buchmesse was an important requirement as manifestation of our genuine interest. Karina Bolasco prepared the excellent Bid Book for the Philippines. The pandemic happened and we thought that was the writing on the wall. But post-pandemic, at the Philippine Book Festival in Davao in 2023, Juergen Boos, Buchmesse CEO, announced that the country had been approved as GoH for 2025. While we were elated by the news, we also knew that we did not have the advantage of the usual five-year advance planning afforded other countries. But buckle down to work, we did.
‘The initial necessary step as we learned from Indonesia and the Buchmesse officials was that first and foremost, a Core Team needed to be organized. Since Karina Bolasco, Ani Almario and I were on the board when the idea was first born and pursued, we became part of the Core Team and the subsequent working committees. Sen. Loren was the project visionary, while National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA)’s tried and tested administrator Riya Lopez (also of the Venice Biennale successful exhibitions) and NBDB executive director Charisse Aquino Tugade were the project co-directors. Other members were writer and publisher Kristian Sendon Cordero, publisher Nida Ramirez and NBDB reliables, Maria Christina Pangan-Cagalingan and Charmaine Capuchino. Providing valuable support was the office of Sen. Legarda and other government agencies, the NCCA, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the NBDB. Philippine Ambassador to Germany Irene Susan Natividad and Frankfurt’s Philippine Consul General Ivy Banzon Abalos have been such supporters. It certainly takes more than a village to mount a GoH.
‘This trip to the Buchmesse is different from all previous trips. While we used to have a national stand to display our latest titles in various genres, this time we will have the usual stand – larger than usual – and a Pavilion of 2,000 square meters as GoH with us as central focus. It will exhibit the important books that tell the story of Philippine publishing and will also display a yearly tradition of books that the Buchmesse collects from publishers all over the world – books published in the last five years on the Philippines.
‘The Pavilion, conceptualized and designed by Stanley Ruiz and Patrick Flores, is promising as it attempts to capture the color, vibrance and diversity of the Filipino way of life.
‘It will be the venue for the hundred-plus sessions envisioned by Karina Bolasco for the international audience to discover the diversity and richness of Philippine art and culture, hardly known beyond its shores.
‘It is absolutely exciting that as GoH, a large 500+ strong delegation of Filipino creatives, publishers and supporters (and Pinoy style, family and friends) will be in attendance. Over a hundred creatives and publishers are travel grantees who applied when NBDB made the call.
‘While the Buchmesse officially ends on Sunday, Oct. 19, with the Philippines turning over the GoH distinction to Prague, the connections will certainly continue and be nurtured. It is a fortunate coincidence that Prague succeeds the Philippines as GoH, because the two countries have had a close link long before the shared GoH honor. The Philippine-Prague connection first began and was enriched during the tenure of Ambassador Jaroslav Olsa Jr. in partnership with Savage Mind’s Kristian Cordero, formerly Ateneo de Naga University Press director.
‘On the collaboration between these two countries, Cordero and I are proceeding to Prague to launch our titles which have been translated into Czech language. The launch is in partnership with the Philippine embassy in Prague headed by Amb. Eduardo Martin R. Meñez and Martin Vopenka, publisher of Prah and president of the Czech Publishers Association.
‘As co-chairs of the Translation Subsidy Program for GoH, Cordero and I are excited about the display the Philippine stand will proudly display – of the 28 (and counting) German editions and the countless others in over 30 different languages.
‘May GoH open doors for our writers and publishers.’