This year, from 13 to 16 June, the organizers of the 95th Book Week will welcome the public with 170 exhibitors, 150 stands, over a thousand book signings, as well as panel discussions, book launches, and concerts at Vörösmarty Square, Vigadó Square, and the Danube Promenade in Budapest.
The event will be officially opened on 13 June at Vörösmarty Square by linguist, poet, and translator Ádám Nádasdy following the parade of the Fire Brigade Band. After the opening speeches, the awards ceremony for the Beautiful Hungarian Book 2023 competition will take place, announced Katalin Gál, President of the Association of Hungarian Publishers and Booksellers (MKKE), at the event’s press conference in Budapest on Wednesday.
The president highlighted that the four-day book celebration will feature at least 100 stage programmes, including concerts, panel discussions, and performances. Several hundred new titles will be released for Book Week, including around ninety poetry collections, as well as an increasing number of literary works and children’s and young adult books each year.
‘The claim that people, especially the youth, do not read is untrue,’ she stressed.
She recalled that the MKKE’s task is to reinforce the view that ‘reading is not a privilege for the chosen few,’ but is accessible to everyone.
Emese Révész, chair of the Beautiful Hungarian Book 2023 jury, noted that in the more than seventy years since the award’s inception, the status of books, the situation of publishers, and the needs of readers have changed significantly. However, it is reassuring that in today’s digital age, not only do books continue to thrive, but their aesthetic quality is increasingly important. She recalled that the jury had to consider many aspects this year as well, ‘since a high-quality book is a collective creation,’ involving the work of the designer, graphic artist, typographer, illustrator, printer, and publisher.
The winners of the competition for the most beautifully crafted Hungarian books were decided by a five-member professional jury appointed by the MKKE board. In addition to Emese Révész, the jury included Éva Babucs, president of Geopen Publishing, painter Zsófi Barabás, typographer-art historian Márton Orosz, and design theorist Péter Wunderlich. This year, 63 publishers and cultural institutions entered 105 books in eight categories.
In Szeged, nineteen locations, with approximately one hundred events, book launches, author-reader meetings, exhibitions, and programmes by publishers and magazines, the 95th Book Week and the 23rd Children’s Book Days in Szeged will welcome visitors, as reported by the Somogyi Library, which has organized the series of events for over fifteen years.
Although the official opening of the second-largest Book Week programme series in the country will only be held on 13 June, the events will start a week earlier and run until 21 June. In Szeged, the traditional central venue for Book Week is Dugonics Square, where the publishers’ tents will be located, and where the stage for discussions, theatrical, and musical performances will also be set up.
This year’s Book Week will be opened on the afternoon of 13 June by Kata Tisza, an author and intercultural psychology expert, who, after a long hiatus, published her psychoproze works under the title Akik nem sírnak rendesen in 2017 and has since regularly published writings that combine therapy and literature. Following the opening, the local government’s book publishing grants and the Book of the Year awards will be presented.
It is a tradition for the Somogyi Library to organize programmes during Book Week to present the culture and traditions of the ethnic communities living in Szeged.
This year, the Serbian, Greek, Polish, and German communities will introduce themselves with musical and dance programmes,
book launches, or at one of the guest tents in Dugonics Square.
Concerts will also be part of the stage programmes, with performances by KidsAlone, Deák Big Band, Molnár Dixieland Band, and Fricsay Wind Orchestra, among others.
The anthology Szegedi horizont 2024 offers a cross-section of contemporary literature in Szeged, showcasing works published last year by writers and poets connected to the city. The volume will be presented to the public in the ceremonial hall of the Town Hall on 14 June. On the same day, the results of Book King, a reading promotion game organized by the library for children, will be announced.
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