The Göteborg Book Fair started out as a trade fair for librarians in 1985.
Nobel Laureate Isaac B Singer was the most prominent guest and the Fair attracted just over 5 000 visitors. Since then the Fair has developed into the most important cultural event in Scandinavia, a forum of current debate and the foremost venue for Nordic literature.
However, Nordic literature is not the sole focus. Every year, the Fair has a focal theme: this year, “Three countries, one language, Germany Austria Switzerland.”


The seminar programme
– where a thousand thoughts are born

Seminars – 438 of them this year – are the heart and soul of the Book Fair. Writers, philosophers, thinkers, politicians and artists from all over the world meet to talk about books, current events and issues and the big questions of life in front of an enthusiastic and knowledgeable audience.
Every year the seminar programme has its own unique focus. To a large extent, this year's programme will be characterized by literature from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The exhibition
– the happening party for a hundred thousand book lovers
Imagine four days of controlled chaos, continually punctuated by many different events, all happening at the same time. And books, books, books everywhere!
A children’s author talks about her latest book at one of the 900 exhibitors’ stands, a crime writer is cross-examined at one of the exhibition’s many stages, a literary society discusses a new and exciting aspect to one of the classics, a cartoonist signs albums …



Programme

Thursday september 22

10.00–10.45
Cristina Allemann-Ghionda
Can Intercultural Education
contribute to equal opportunities?

11.00–11.45
Felicitas Hoppe, Peter Stamm, Anna Mitgutsch,
Peter von Matt
Three countries, one language
– three countries, one literature?

13.00–13.45
Alan Posener, Ulla Gudmundson, Werner G Jeanrond,
Ulf Jonsson
The contrary Pope
The Vatican and its war against modern society

13.00–13.20
Andrej Chadanovitj, Ola Larsmo
PEN and Belarus

13.00–13.45
Terézia Mora, Andrzej Tichý
A troubling portrait of Europe

14.00–14.45
Jeff Duncan-Andrade
Hope required when growing
roses in concrete

14.00–14.45
Cornelia Funke
Focus on children

14.00–14.45 Code
Salim Bachi
Towards the inexorable

15.00–15.45
Anna Mitgutsch, Doron Rabinovici
Jewish identities

15.00–15.20 Code To1500.12
Parvin Ardalan, Ola Larsmo
Express yourself

16.00–16.45
Sigrid Combüchen, Ioana Pârvulescu
Two time-travellers

16.30–16.50
Doron Rabinovici, Ingrid Lomfors
Jewish powerlessness

17.00–17.45
Arne Bellstorf, Nora Gomringer, Daniel Boyacioglu
Music, image, performance
– when the boundaries of text expand

17.00–17.45
David Gillborn
Racism and education
The myth of white racial victimhood and the attack on
Multiculturalism

17.00–17.45
Andrej Chadanovitj, Barys Pjatrovitj, Artur Klinau, Svetlana
Aleksijevitj
Literature and freedom
of expression in Belarus



Friday september 23

10.00–10.45
Melinda Nadj Abonji, Dimitré Dinev, Terézia Mora
Writers without borders

10.00–10.20
Tariq Ali, Pierre Schori
Afghanistan, USA and Sweden

11.00–11.45
Sebastian Junger, Johanne Hildebrandt
What happens in war?

11.00–11.45
Heritage in bits and Sweden's
digital agenda

11.00–11.20
Artur Klinau, Dmitri Plax
Minsk, sunny city of my dreams

11.00–11.45
Do all kids like Pippi?
Current trends in Swedish and German literature for
children and youths

12.00–12.45
Emmanuel Carrère
Life after the disaster

12.00–12.45
Richard Obermayr, Dorothee Elmiger, Felicitas Hoppe
Concerning timelessness and
chronological
leaps

13.00–13.45
Francesco Forgione
Drugs – a global business
The Mafia as a multinational corporation

13.00–13.45
Karl Schlögel, Christer Mattsson
Terror and Dream
– Telling the story which cannot be told

14.00–14.45
Mario Vargas Llosa
The right face of colonialism
Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa and his novel
The Dream of the Celt

14.00–14.45
Silke Scheuermann, Angelika Reitzer, Peter Stamm
Cracks
Contemporary tales about society and relationships

15.00–15.45
Sören Sommelius, Tariq Ali
Yes we can?
Obama as president

16.00–16.45
Nadia Budde, Rachel van Kooij, Gabrielle Alioth,
Cay Corneliuson
Generation Internet
Spurring young people's interest in reading and
literature

16.00–16.45
Jonathan Franzen
As realistic as life

17.00–17.45
Werner Perger, Antje Strubel, Thomas Steinfeld
Sweden through German eyes
– a dream betrayed?

17.00–17.45
Nina Hagen's confessions



Saturday september 24

10.00–10.45
Clemens Meyer, Ferdinand von Schirach, Bettina Balàka
The face(s) of evil

10.30–10.50
Mart Laar, Hanif Bali
Can social networks overthrow a dictator?

11.00–11.45
Melinda Nadj Abonji, Peter Stamm, Ingmar Söhrman,
Elisabeth Olin
One country – four languages
About Swiss literature

11.00–11.45
Simon Sebag Montefiore, Cecilia Uddén Mannheimer
Jerusalem – melting pot and powder keg?

11.00–11.45
Maruja Torres, Ferran Torrent
Spain Noir

12.00–12.45
Ildefonso Falcones
The struggle for a life of dignity
Ildefonso Falcones on his latest book

13.00–13.45
Peter Temple
Searching for the truth

13.00–13.45
Ferdinand von Schirach
Crime and punishment

13.00–13.45
Karin Victorin, Fancy Chance, Carl-Michael Edenborg,
Robert Fux
And then some...
– burlesque rebels

13.00–13.45
Herta Müller, Péter Nádas, Aris Fioretos
Language as Heimat

14.00–14.45
Wolfgang Petritsch, Henrik Berggren
Two statesmen of their time
Bruno Kreisky and Olof Palme

14.00–14.45
Maria Wetterstrand, Brendan O’Neill
The future of Europe's Green parties

14.00–14.45
Mario Vargas Llosa
Is the cultural scene just a game?
Nobel Prize Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa about the role
of culture in contemporary society

14.00–14.20
Gyrðir Elíasson
Winner of the Nordic Council Literature
Prize 2011

15.00–15.45
Lionel Shriver
Dreams and reality

15.00–15.45
Miral al-Tahawi
From the Tent to Brooklyn Heights

15.00–15.45
Silke Scheuermann, Anne Swärd
Love in German, love in Swedish
– equally wonderful, equally miserable?

15.00–15.45
Benedict Wells, Dorothee Elmiger, Angelika Reitzer
Berlin calling!

16.00–16.45
Bettina Balàka, Uwe Timm
Paths to the past

16.00–16.45
Leif Pagrotsky, Frank Furedi, Wolfgang Petritsch
The end of Social Democracy as we know it?
What does Left and Right mean today?



Sunday september 25

11.00–11.45
Friedrich Buchmayr, Lena Einhorn
Two women by Strindberg's side
Siri von Essen and Frida Uhl

12.00–12.45
Herta Müller
Memory will stand by the truth

13.00–13.45
Svetlana Aleksijevitj
A choir of women's voices

14.00–14.20
Patrick K. Addai
Kofi the African Child
A picture book dedicated to Mr Kofi Annan

14.00–14.45
Nathan Larson, Andres Lokko
Between Harlem and Stockholm

15.00–15.45
Don Rosa – the revolutionary
of Duckburg!