Though still not as significant as fairs in Frankfurt, London or Bologna, the Moscow event is steadily gaining momentum and has transformed from a meeting of local publishers and distributors into an international affair with a rich cultural program. This year, the fair will be coupled with a festival called Chitai-Gorod, roughly translated as Reading City, and various presentations, recitals and performances will take place all over Moscow.
The club B2 will host the presentation of a new edition of "Back in the U.S.S.R.," a book by prominent music critic Artemy Troitsky. Ulitsa O.G.I., a haunt of young intellectuals, will be the venue for artist Leonid Tishkov's master class titled, "How to Become an Artistic Genius Without Any Talent Whatsoever." The ArteFAQ club, co-owned by Alexander Gavrilov, the chief editor of Knizhnoye Obozreniye (Book Review) newspaper and a well-known figure on the Russian book scene, will open its doors for a series of book-related events, from a master class on success with television presenter Svetlana Konegen to a cooking show with chef Ilya Lazerson.
There will also be a news conference with Polish author Janusz Leon Wisniewski, whose novel "Loneliness on the Net" was extremely popular with Internet users in Russia.
Since this year was declared the year of the Russian language, the fair will include a special program devoted to speaking and writing good Russian. The program includes numerous events for children, displays of textbooks and shows hosted by television and radio presenters.
One of the curious effects of this surge in linguistic patriotism is a government-sponsored campaign to protect one of the letters of the Russian alphabet. The letter "--," or yo, is often replaced by the regular "e" and generally neglected, to the point that it's hard to say whether the Russian alphabet has 32 letters or 33.
The rather ridiculous campaign is aimed at rescuing "--" from oblivion and reinstating it as a fully functional letter. Viktor Chumakov, a member of the committee organizing the year of the Russian language and an editor of an educational magazine, went as far as proclaiming the "--" movement "an issue of human rights."
Human rights or not, the fair is sure to be a packed, lively event where readers, writers, publishers and booksellers will have many chances to talk about books. It only remains to hope that the pavilions have better air-conditioning and catering facilities than last year.
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