The city of Athens was entitled by UNESCO as the World Book Capital for 2018. This celebration of books, culture and creativity will begin on the 23rd of April 2018 and last for a whole year. Athens 2018 World Book Capital aims to offer to the citizens and visitors a unique cultural experience.

A selectively curated program dedicated to the world of books combined with arts, will celebrate evolution, forward thinking and creativity for a whole year. Over 250 events including inspirational hubs in the form of round tables, open discussions and creative dialogues and with the presence of distinguished writers throughout the year will be a major part of the program.

Under the motto “Athens 2018 – Books everywhere” a vivid patchwork of events, artworks, projections, walking trails, bottom-up initiatives and workshops, aspires to become the absolute literary ground of open dialogue – not only for the creators, stakeholders and intellectual elites but, most importantly, for all its citizens, as well as visitors.

Distinguished foreign writers, such as Ian McEwan, George Saunders, Claudio Magris or John Conolly will be present in the first months of this annual celebration – from April to July. Speech events will broaden public’s horizons, for example round tables between Greeks and different generations of Israeli writers, such as A.B. Yehoshua and Eshkol Nevo, or events with invited writers from Canada and Brazil. A mobile library is travelling through the neighborhoods of Athens. The city is rediscovered through literary walks. A city picnic ‘book edition’ is taking place at Kotzia square (5/5/2018). The little bookstores are celebrating all over Greece as part of the ‘Little Bookstores Day’ (28/4/2018).

Artistic events such as theatre, dancing, cinema, art or video art are inspired by the world of books and are spotted in different parts of the city.

The exhibition Alexis Akrithakis Tales is taking place from March to June 2018, while Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas’ Paintings for books are exhibited from April to July 2018. The newcoming Offside festival combining football, sports and books is taking place late June. The city’s most significant festivals, such as Jazz Festival, Athens Open air film Festival, Athens Science Festival, Refugee food festival will have a special twist of book during this year. The Athens Festival is participating with ‘Opening to the city’ events throughout June. The exhibition “Beyond Kavafis written words” is taking place in Gennadius Library from March to May 2018, while the “Islamic Calligraphy-the art of writing” runs from April to June at the Benaki Museum. Public readings in unexpected spots of daily life offer a pleasant creative break, while the city will be filled with creative and substantial programs that will make Athens an inspiring place to live, work and discover.

Find out more on the Athens 2018: World Book Capital official site

Source: visitgreece