Speaking at a press briefing on Thursday, Zimbabwe International Book Fair Association president, Musaemura Zimunya (pictured right) said this year’s event would focus on the impact of digitalisation on literature.
“We feel this is a theme that looks into the prevailing mood of digitalisation in educational, literary, publishing, bookselling and library, not to mention civic and public sectors of our societies,” said Zimunya.
“ZIBF is therefore thrilled to take this opportunity to consolidate its aims, objectives and values among them to encourage the development of the book industry.”
He said they had listed a number of objectives that they are aiming to achieve this year. The main activities for this year will include the ZIBF Indaba, Young Persons Indaba, Traders’ day, Children’s Reading Tent and the Writers’ Workshop.
Zimunya said the indaba would run along a list of suggested topics. “With regards to the indaba, we have been receiving abstracts and proposals for presentations from interested local and international scholars in the last two months and are already at an advanced stage of programming the event,” said Zimunya.
“We are sifting thro-ugh presentations along the subjects of Zimbabwean and African literature and the impact of globalisation on our cultures and languages, among many other issues.”
Zimunya expressed gratitude to the Norwegian embassy in partnership with Hivos and the Culture Fund in partnership with Sida and the British Council for their continued support.
