Events at Erbil book fair mark World Book and Copyright Day

ERBIL — Tuesday marks World Book and Copyright Day, coinciding with the seventh day of the 16th Erbil International Book Fair, running through April 27.

World Book and Copyright Day is an annual event first organized by UNESCO in 1995 to honor authors around the world. The date, April 23, coincides with the anniversary of the death of notable writers like William Shakespeare, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, and Miguel de Cervantes.

The Erbil fair, organized by Al-Mada Publishing House, in partnership with 964media, showcases over 1.5 million titles in Kurdish, Arabic, English, Persian, Turkish, and more, with 300 local and foreign publishers.

The fair’s schedule on Tuesday includes seminars on gender and social culture, reading in Kurdish society, food security in the Kurdistan Region, poetry, cultural festivals, and the impact of books on Iraqi society.

The fair’s 2024 theme, “Your Intelligence is Not Artificial,” looks to highlight the importance of human intelligence in literature alongside advancements in artificial intelligence.