This year, over thirty Slovenian publishing houses, which are all listed among the co-presenters in the official fair catalogue, received an invitation to present their programmes in the national booth. The Slovenian booth, Hall 5.0., C116, will hold the newest programme of publications (from the years of 2015 and 2016) selected by the publishers and foreign language translations of Slovenian books. All featured publishers have donated catalogues in various languages and other multilingual promotional materials. For the seventh year running, the Slovenian national booth will host the Traduki network, which will present the newest repository of books, published with the network's expert and financial aid. The organizing committe also collaborates with the Slovenian Tourist Board (STO), which will provide a liaison for informational purposes and multilingual promotional materials advertising the tourist destination of Slovenia.

On Wednesday, 19 October at 3:00 PM (15:00), the Slovenian national booth will host an official reception for foreign and domestic partners from book-related areas. The invitation is available at www.jakrs.si. We would like to take the opportunity to invite the public to peruse through the newest catalogue of Slovenian literature. Visitors of the Slovenian national booth will receive a complimentary issue of Sinfo magazine, published in English by the Government Communication Office of the Republic of Slovenia. The most recent issue, the complimentary gift, is dedicated to Slovenian literature and was composed in collaboration with the Slovenian Book Agency (JAK) (for more information access: http://www.ukom.gov.si/en/).

As reported before, Slovenia submitted its bid as a candidate for the title of "Guest of Honour" at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The government of the Republic of Slovenia has summoned the Slovenian Book Agency (JAK) to undertake all candidacy-related project activities. The agency launched various preparatory activities (organizing study visits, hosting translation seminars, lobbying for and hosting cultural and literary events abroad, adopting and implementing additional measures for financing programmes and projects related to translating Slovenian literature into foreign languages, promoting Slovenian literature abroad). We plan to significantly increase the size of the Frankfurt-bound Slovenian national booth and perform a monumental image change in 2017.

Preparatory activities conducted by the Slovenian Book Agency (JAK) as part of the campaign will also feature content-enriched presentations at the Leipzig Book Fair. The Leipzig Book Fair is an annual international event that takes place every March. A joint presentation with Germany, Austria and Switzerland as International Literatures in Focus and a networking programme for authors and publishers are also scheduled for the 2017 Slovenian Book Fair.

During last year's fair, a Slovenian Book Agency delegation officially submitted a candidature file on behalf of Slovenia for the title of Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair to its Director, Mr Jürgen Boos. The bid was met with appreciation by the Frankfurt fair's governing body, which is scheduled visit Slovenia in early 2017.

Mrs Damjana Pečnik, State Secretary of the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, is also scheduled to attend the opening day of the Frankfurt Book Festival on Wednesday, 19 October 2016. Mrs Pečnik will be accompanied by the Slovenian Ambassador to Germany, Mrs Marta Kos Marko and the director of the Slovenian Book Agency (JAK), Mr Aleš Novak. The official programme for her visit foresees a guided tour of the Frankfurt Book Fair conducted by the fair's Vice-President, Mr Tobias Voss, attendance at the official reception at the Slovenian national booth, a guided tour of the Dutch-Flemish pavilion, and an official meeting with the programme director of this year's Guests of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair – Netherlands & The Region of Flanders. At 4:30 PM (16:30), Mrs Pečnik is scheduled to attend the official opening of the "Weltempfang" (World Reception) programme where she will meet with the Director of the Frankfurt Book Fair, Mr Jürgen Boos to discuss the mutual expectations related to Slovenia's potential role as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Last week, the fair announced the official signing of an agreement with Canada to act as Guest of Honour in 2020. The previously announced future Guests of Honour are France (2017), Georgia (2018) and Norway (2019).

Activities of individual Slovenian publishing houses at the Frankfurt Book Fair:

The Mladinska knjiga publishing house has invited Milan Dekleva and Jasmin B. Frelih - recipient of this year's European Union Prize as its representatives in Frankfurt. A reception and session with the authors are scheduled to take place at the booth of the Mladinska knjiga publishing house on Thursday, 20 October 2016, between 4:00 PM (16:00) and 6:00 PM (18:00) in Hall 6.1., D36.

The Beletrina publishing house will choose Frankfurt to unveil the project Versopolis (a European platform uniting poetry festivals from 12 countries) at an international poetry reading on Thursday, 20 October 2016, at 8:00 PM (20:00) in the Römer City Hall (Römerberg 27), which will host the Open Books literature festival during the fair. Založba Beletrina v Frankfurtu predstavlja projekt evropske platforme Versopolis, ki združuje pesniške festivale iz 12 držav, z mednarodnim pesniškim branjem, v četrtek, 20. oktobra, ob 20.00 uri v frankfurtski mestni hiši Römer (Römerberg 27), kjer sicer v času sejma poteka tudi literarni festival Open Books.