Every year hundreds of thousands of literature lovers, authors and publishers make their way to the modern city of Frankfurt on the river Main for one of the biggest events on the German literary scene. This year too, the Frankfurt Book Fair drew visitors with its varied and international programme. In addition to high-calibre award ceremonies such as that for the Deutscher Buchpreis (German Book Prize) and the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis (German Prize for Youth Literature), book-signing and other events, this year for the first time the BOOKFEST, a flanking programme, was initiated outside the trade-fair grounds.
We were extremely fortunate to be able to open the BOOKFEST with our reading at the 25hours Hotel – The Trip. On the evening of 9 October, a large audience came to hear poems by our authors Amira Gudegast, Mahdi Hashemi, Rojin Namer, Samiullah Rasouli and Yasser Niksada. Our translator Aarash D. Spanta also spontaneously took part and moderated the event. The German versions of the poems were read by the author and poet Yevgeniy Breyger, whose work as an organiser and provider ensured that we felt extremely welcome.
