Participation in the Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2024 in a Nutshell

Dear friends and colleagues,

We are happy to have shared the Bulgarian presentation at the International Children’s Book Fair in Bologna with you this year!

A total of 3 events and over 100 meetings were organized in the pavilion, where over 120 titles were presented. For the first time, an exhibition was organized – Joy, Sadness and Hope: 25 Bulgarian Illustrators of Children’s Books.

We thank everyone who participated, cooperated, and helped make this project a reality – all the publishers and authors for trusting us and sending materials and books for the stand and exhibition in Bologna, and all the artists, for the illustrations provided, for the conversations, and for the shared experience.

We thank the institutions that financially supported the initiative – the Ministry of Culture, the National Culture Fund, and the Capital Culture Program.

We are grateful to our colleagues at Fontfabric for the fonts Mont and Audela, with which all the visual materials for the project were created, and to our partners from the Detski knigi Foundation for their support.

Special thanks to Veselin Mechkuev, Stefan Gadzhovski, Emil Markov, Kiril Zlatkov, Silva Hacheryan, Ivana Paseva, Maya Bobeva-Atanasova, Rumen Chaushev, Antoaneta Miteva, and Traci Speed.

Here are some reviews we’d like to share with you:

I really like to see something that’s connected with Bulgaria and that makes me feel good – I almost feel proud (which doesn’t happen very often). A wonderful booth representing our country at the most important children’s book fair in Europe, if not the world. It’s a joy to see a decent, modern, and contemporary realization of the task, without kitsch and fakeness. I hope that Bulgarian children’s writers, illustrators, and publishers attract the attention of the world and that Bulgaria’s participation in Bologna will be useful and productive for most of them! Well done!

Alexander “Sancho” Marinov, translator

We would like to officially congratulate you on the delightful modern look of the Bulgarian stand that you created for this year’s Bologna Children’s Literature Fair – we’re grateful that with this design, you brought us a sense of aesthetic delight, pride, and satisfaction that our children’s authors are represented as they deserve to be! Be persistent and determined, inspired and confident that the guild needs your example, because it is high time for us to have satisfactory pavilions at all the exhibitions in the world, and you are a model!

With wishes for inspiration, confidence, and further presentations on such a high level, salutations from the ShkafA interior studio team!

Simona Mineva, media information and advertising expert

An exceptional presentation by the Bulgarian booth at this world event. Children’s books are the first step that leads to children growing up with a book in hand, not just a tablet and the internet. With such events there is a chance for us to live in a better world “tomorrow.”

Bulgarian Cultural Institute in Rome

Finally, a Bulgarian stand that we can be proud of! Congratulations!

Pirina Vodenicharova, creator of the largest Facebook community for children’s books, “Not a Single Day Without Books”

I think we can safely say that for the first time in years, the Bulgarian booth looks really, really good. I mean, out of all the book fairs we’ve participated in around the world.

Hopefully it won’t be the last.

Boryana Zafirova, artist

A super booth at the Bologna Fair! Kudos to Svoboda Tzekova and Anton Staykov for the concept and design – I really don’t remember ever having a stand like this at an international fair. And bravo to the entire team – the selectors, curators, publishers, and artists who worked on the project and its realization.

Nadezhda Radulova, writer and translator

The Bulgarian stands at all kinds of exhibitions, insofar as they exist at all and are not tragically outdated, in my experience have always been objects for the accumulation of a meager number of stall/warehouse type items with an unclear principle of selection. But this year, the Bulgarian stand in Bologna is a fairy tale, a story, an invitation, an exhibition, and an adventure all in one. It stands purposefully, thoughtfully, deliberately. It is beautiful. And spacious. Sticking oneself in the corner is not a good life strategy, but if you’re going to come out of the corner, you need to have an adequate idea to stand out. This is precisely the idea of ​​the whole exercise – that the tiny representation of this barely surviving culture of ours be a good topic and a good medium for communication and show its style and range. It succeeded! Well done.

With gratitude and joy,

Neva Micheva, translator and journalist