UNESCO World Book & Copyright Day

ONCE AGAIN IN 2016

LET'S PUT THE R A R E IN THE UNESCO WORLD BOOK AND COPYRIGHT DAY

"Our goal is clear – to encourage authors and artists and to ensure that more women and men benefit from literacy and accessible formats, because books are our most powerful forces of poverty eradication and peace building."

Irina Bokova (UNESCO)

23 April is a symbolic date for world literature. On this day in 1616 Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, William Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega died. Centuries later this day marked the date of birth or death of prominent authors like Vladimir Nabokov, Haldor Laxness, Maurice Druon and Manuel Mejía Vallejo.

Each year on this day UNESCO pays a world-wide tribute to books and authors, encouraging everyone to discover the pleasure of reading and gain a renewed respect for the irreplaceable contributions of authors, publishers, booksellers, illustrators, designers, book binders, in short: of all who further the social and cultural progress of humanity. In this regard, UNESCO celebrates the World Book and Copyright Day year by year on 23 April with a series of events in over 100 countries, organized by hundreds of organizations, public bodies, professional groups and private businesses.

The UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day was founded in 1995. Since then, it has won over a considerable number of people from every continent and all cultural backgrounds to the cause of books and copyright. It has enabled them to discover, make the most of and explore in greater depth a multitude of aspects of the book world: books as vectors of values and knowledge, books as depositories of the intangible heritage; books as windows onto the diversity of cultures and as tools for dialogue.

GET INSPIRED:

JOIN US ON 23 APRIL 2016!

>> Have a look at this video.

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THE INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE OF ANTIQUARIAN BOOKSELLERS (ILAB) is the umbrella organization of the professional rare book trade uniting 22 national associations and around 2000 rare book dealers in 34 countries worldwide.

FOR MORE INFORMATION visit ilabpopupbookfairs.blogspot.de and www.unesco.org/new/en/wbcd.

CONTACTS: Sally Burdon - Sally@AsiaBookroom.com | Barbara van Benthem - editor@ilab.org

February 2016 – For immediate release. Pictures: ILAB, UNESCO, the Organizers, Wikipedia