The Sharjah Book Authority (SBA) has announced Italy as the Guest of Honour of the 41st edition of the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF), slated for November 2022.

A stellar gathering of Italian authors, artists and publishers will promote the arts, literature and culture of the Guest of Honour country at the 2022 edition of SIBF. The selection also underlines the deep-rooted bilateral ties between UAE and Italy in many spheres including culture and heritage.

The decision was announced at a meeting attended by HE Ahmed Bin Rakkad Al Ameri, Chairman of SBA, and HE Nicola Lener, Ambassador of Italy to the UAE, to discuss the potential of strengthening mutual cultural relations and explore avenues of collaboration between Sharjah and Italian cities in hosting book fairs and cultural events.

HE Ahmed Al Ameri said: “We look forward to welcoming some of Italy’s greatest writers and artists at SIBF 2022. Through the selection of Italy as GoH, we seek to further the cross-cultural dialogue between the two countries, in line with the vision of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, to build bridges of cultural understanding between peoples across the world and promote common values through knowledge, art and literature.”

“The strong cultural relations between the UAE and Italy date back to the time when the Silk Road connected the East with the West and played a key role in facilitating trade as well as intellectual and cultural exchange. At that time, the UAE was a thriving trade centre for Italian merchants. The selection of Italy as the Guest of Honour at SIBF 2022 reflects these deep-rooted bilateral ties and aims to honour Italy’s contributions to the promotion of knowledge and art,” added the SBA Chairman.

“We seek to enhance knowledge exchange and cooperation with Italy in various creative sectors and we are looking forward to introducing the audience to Italy’s cultural legacy including art, literature as well as the beauty of the Italian language,” he concluded.

HE Nicola Lener, Ambassador of Italy to the UAE, said: “Italy’s participation as the Guest of Honour at the 41st Sharjah International Book Fair next year, is a great opportunity to share our culture with the Arab world. SIBF has emerged as the world’s largest book fair this year after attracting the highest number of publishing professionals from around the world who used the SIBF platform to pursue a variety of business interests. We are keen to participate in SIBF every year and look forward to bringing Italian literature closer to the Arab audience and explore ways to enhance communication between the Italian bookmakers and publishers with their counterparts in the Arab world.”