On the World Stage: Frankfurt Book Fair 2024 highlights and the road to 2025 as Guest of Honour

After congratulating the Italian delegation on successfully showcasing their country’s literature and history at the FBM, she shares how receiving the Guest of Honour scroll is more than symbolic. “It represents our stories transcending borders through the universal language of literature. Frankfurt, as a global literary stage, offers the Philippines an opportunity to bring forth our own narrative of creativity, of resilience, and collective hope,” she continues. The speech was also read by Amb Natividad during the ceremony on her behalf.

It was followed by cultural performances from the Philippine Madrigal Singers and Waway Saway, which showcased Filipinos’ rich and diverse musical heritage. Author-illustrator Isabel Roxas joined Alessandro Sanna from the Italian delegation to talk about their work in the hopes of inspiring more illustrators.

Writers and publishers celebrated their love for comics and graphic novels at the Comics Business Centre during the ‘happy hour’ held by the Philippine delegation. With wines, tapas, and tastings of Destileria Barako’s acclaimed ube cream liqueur, the attendees jovially capped the first public day of this year’s FBM. The event reintroduced the dynamic culture of comics and graphic novel literature in the Philippines as distinguished publishing houses were present: Komiket, Anino Comics, Istorya Studios, Avenida Books, and Wangis Laro at Kwento Corp.

The Philippines’ press conference for the Guest of Honour 2025 programme at Agora, the central venue for the fair’s important gatherings, was a momentous occasion for the Philippine delegation. Filled with members of the international and Philippine press, delegations from the FBM team, and more, the Agora witnessed the unveiling of the campaign video for the theme “The imagination peoples the air.” Transwoman poet Jaya Jacobo gave a reading of one of her works, and Trese author Budjette Tan shared Filipinos’ penchant for the mystical, giving the attendees a taste of contemporary Philippine literature. Gracing the press conference were then-NBDB chair Dante Francis Ang II, NCCA executive director Eric Zerrudo, and head of literary programme and curator for books Karina Africa-Bolasco. The curator for the cultural programme, Dr Patrick Flores, explained the theme further.

A reception at the Philippine national stand welcomed guests from other countries, some Filipinos based in Germany, the diplomatic corps, and publishers and authors. Amb Natividad, alongside then-NBDB chair Ang, delivered the welcome remarks. It was an opportune time for publishers and literary agents from different countries to mingle with Filipino authors and publishers and discuss Philippine literature’s diverse titles—NBDB reported more than 700 titles were brought to this year’s FBM.

The Philippine delegation mounted interesting panel discussions on the International, New Adult, and Art+ stages.

Roxas, together with fellow visual artist-illustrator Fran Alvarez, shared how they are crafting children’s books that open young audiences’ minds to topics like diversity and representation. They also discussed the issues confronting their work and its implications for their local markets (the US and the Philippines, respectively) and those serving a global audience.

Esteemed historian Ambeth Ocampo and acclaimed writer Jose “Butch” Dalisay, Jr shared with Sarge Lacuesta their thoughts on why Rizal, the country’s national hero, should be known as a traveller immersed in cultures and primarily as a novelist and poet, rather than as a tourist. His impact on the shaping of the Filipino consciousness is clear.

Read more: Ambeth Ocampo on making Truth triumph in an age of disinformation

On the International stage, Patricia Evangelista, author of the acclaimed and bestselling non-fiction memoir Some People Need Killing, shared the story behind her book—what propelled her to write it and her experiences in touring it worldwide. Later on the Art+ stage, she shared, together with Italian novelist and screenwriter Francesca Melandri, the crosslines between fact and fiction, journalism and literature, the parameters of storytelling amidst war and violence, and many more. Karina Africa-Bolasco moderated the talk on the International stage, while renowned poet and creative writing professor Dinah Roma moderated the Art+ stage panel.

Tan shared how exploring the realm of aswangs [creatures of Philippine lower mythology] of the Metro Manila underground through the eyes of Alexandra Trese began and the gruelling journey it took for the Trese graphic novels to become one of Netflix’s beloved animated series. He also opened a line for a book signing of guests who brought their own copies to Frankfurt and those who bought the German translation made possible by Paolo Herras of Komiket and Dantes Verlag.

Read more: ‘Why did they have to die?’: Inside Patricia Evangelista’s ‘Some People Need Killing’

Poet and academician Jacobo told her inspiring ‘trans’ story—crossing the borders of location and language and breaking the glass ceiling of the hetero-normative economy. Here, she discussed with her publisher Kristian Sendon Cordero of Savage Mind the challenges and struggles of gender politics and optics in international publishing, the queer and trans artists and creatives that inspire her most, and what else (or more) we should be trying to give a voice to.

Popular short novel author Mina Esguerra tackled the emerging landscape of New Adult, the changes in the storytelling formula for the contemporary generation reading romance novels, what her #RomanceClass community aims to achieve, and how aspiring writers can diversify this genre further.

Read more: Kamarin Art Gallery, Naga City’s newest art and culture haven

Daunting task that it may seem, Africa-Bolasco—a stalwart of the Philippine publishing industry and governor of the NBDB from 2011 to 2019—shares with Tatler how the Philippines receiving the role of Guest of Honour is a full-circle moment for her as she looks back on how she and her industry colleagues, then middle-level book trade professionals, attended a week-long workshop as part of the FBM’s outreach programme. The Philippine Board on Books for Young People (PBBY) also conducted an illustrators workshop by Reinhard Michl sponsored by the Goethe Haus Manila in 1991, which led to the creation of Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan (Ang INK), the group of the famous children’s books illustrators responsible for almost all the beautiful children’s books today.

Her involvement in Philippine participation at the FBM began with being a fellow of its invitational programme in the 1990s. In this initiative, FBM provides the invited country airfare and accommodation and a small stand to display their titles. Africa-Bolasco recalls that then, we had few impressive titles with global resonance then.

“Ramon Sunico [internationally published poet and Cacho Publishing House director], one of the pioneers of Filipino children’s books, and Marjorie Evasco [poet and translator], then De La Salle University Press director, also went to this programme,” Africa-Bolasco recalls.

While no rights were sold, there was networking among the fellows, and there were books which could be adapted for Philippine schools. The next 25 years, the publication of books by Filipinos for Filipinos, flourished under Anvil Publishing. Local publishing paralleled the genres of imported titles and these were more visibly placed in bookstores. “We [Anvil] started doing books that had more personal relevance to its readership because Filipinos wrote them. 

“We even experimented with our own romance line called Rosas. But our Palanca-winning writers like Joi Barrios and Roland Tolentino did not follow the formula. Instead, they used more sophisticated devices like flashbacks and flash-forwards, or choose-your-own ending, which then were no-no’s in romance writing.”

Africa-Bolasco pointed out the further development of Philippine mainstream publishing with the onset of companies who dared to venture into untapped genres and forms. With Visprint at the time and now Avenida Books, Nida Ramirez introduced young audiences from various walks of life to Bob Ong’s non-fiction, to the contemporary folklore of Trese comics, and the works of cartoonist Manix Abrera, to name a few.

The NBDB officially participated in the FBM in 1998 with 302 book titles from different publishers. Under the helm of the first NBDB chair Atty Dominador Buhain, the Philippines paid for an 8sqm-size booth, the cost of electricity for the stand, and the shipment of books. The FBM participation continued until 2000, the last being in cooperation with the Book Exporters Association of the Philippines (BEAP).

After a long absence, it was only in 2015 that the NBDB again participated in cooperation with the Book Development Association of the Philippines. NBDB paid the partial rental of the 60sqm Philippine stand and relied on their resourcefulness and cleverness to at least decorate it with buntings. However, Jun Matias, one of the attending publishers, quipped, “O bakit wala tayong ilaw? Bakit tayo mukhang brown-out compared sa Singapore? [Oh, why is our stand not lit? Why do we look like we are having a power outage compared to Singapore’s booth?]” Africa-Bolasco recalls.

Africa-Bolasco, aware of Senator Legarda’s support for the Biennale, reached out to her to fund a decent participation at the FBF. “It was during this time that the idea of becoming Guest of Honour was discussed,” recalls Legarda in a separate interview with Tatler.

She learnt of its importance from Africa-Bolasco upon visiting the FBM in 2016. After knowing that Indonesia was the Guest of Honour in the year prior, Legarda was determined that the Philippines would be next.

Eventually, the senator hosted in Manila in 2017 a gathering of FBM officials led by Jürgen Boos, president and CEO. Since then, the Philippines has regularly participated in the FBM, with its eyes now set on being the Guest of Honour.  The annual designing of the National Stand continues as the NBDB puts it up for bidding. For the 2024 edition of FBM, Stanley Ruiz designed the area with the bookshelves and the kiosk having saranggola [kite] roofings to suggest that the Philippine publishing industry is ready to take flight.

To say that Legarda worked tirelessly to push for the Philippines to become a Guest of Honour is an understatement. She met Boos and expressed her support for the project in 2018, proposing that it must happen in 2024, even though that’s already two years late from the country’s Quincentenary. In 2019, Legarda lobbied again, accompanied by then-Philippine ambassador to Germany Theresa de Vega, deputy consul general Emil Fernandez, then-NBDB chair Neni Sta Romana-Cruz, and AfricaBolasco. They met with Boos and FBM Vice President Claudia Kaiser to inquire about the requirements needed to become Guest of Honour.

The bid document drafted by Africa-Bolasco, later packaged into what was called a “Bid Book,” highlights the diverse stories and young voices that come from the country’s unique geographical circumstance. As a post-colonial nation, to become a Guest of Honour is a political act. It intends to reclaim its own narratives amid various oral traditions, with roots in the novel that ignited a revolution. The NBDB submitted the Bid Book to the FBM in 2022, with Aquino-Tugade delivering a pitch on why the many stories of the Philippines deserved the coveted spotlight at the world’s largest stage for books.

Finally, in June last year, Legarda met the FBM officials virtually. They approved the bid proposal. Spearheaded by Aquino-Tugade, the Philippine delegation led by then-NBDB chair Ang and FBM officials led by Boos signed the official contract in August at the Davao Philippine Book Festival. This was followed by an interagency meeting at the National Museum of Anthropology— NBDB, FBM, Departments of Education Trade and Industry, the NCCA, and the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP).

“The books we read shape our thinking, forge our beliefs and teach us to imagine beyond our lifetime, and sometimes for generations,” Legarda says. “For our children and students, find the books worth reading, those that stretch imaginations, that help make sense of their own lives, those that encourage them to reach out toward people whose lives are very different from theirs.”

As curator for books for the 2025 Philippine participation at the FBM, Africa-Bolasco finds optimism among her colleagues, like Herras of Komiket, among others, and co-curator Dr Patrick Flores, who will be heading the exhibition for the Philippine Pavillion at the Forum and the rest of the cultural programme, about meeting the objective of having 500 titles to offer next year.

“We’re choosing the best books that will represent our culture at different times in history,” says Africa-Bolasco.

Aside from gathering as many publishers and titles as possible to showcase, Rex Education, in cooperation with the FBM, sponsored the Asia Stage—a platform for a series of talks featuring publishers and authors from the continent. Its main objective is “to promote and showcase the ingenuity of the Filipinos and our capability in nurturing the literary industry,” Atty Buhain shares.

The lineup of panel discussions, which Africa-Bolasco curated for 2024, was mainly composed of Filipino representatives. Africa-Bolasco hopes that more Asian countries will participate next year. With a high attendance rate despite its round-the-clock schedule, Atty Buhain finds the Asia Stage well-received and well-curated.

NBDB executive director Aquino-Tugade discusses the agency’s efforts to improve the visibility of Filipino books and ensure that they reach today’s generation of readers.

Operating under the Department of Education (DepEd), NBDB aims to foster the progressive growth and viability of the country’s book industry. However, when she assumed her role in 2021, Aquino-Tugade discovered that though the agency is responsible for managing the trade books and textbooks sector, the industry was not in a good place after the pandemic.

“A lot of stores shut down, and those that did not hardly carried Filipino titles. So we had to employ design thinking and try to close the gap,” Aquino-Tugade says. “We started looking at this policy called DepEd Order 035, series of 2019, which essentially means the DepEd has to buy trade books for school libraries. For the past two decades, DepEd hasn’t bought. And I saw the list of 3,500 titles they are mandated to buy—80 per cent were foreign,” she continues.

After researching the issue, NBDB collaborated with DepEd to rework the policy and focus instead on Filipino titles and other locally published books, especially in different languages nationwide.

“That’s what we need because our children need to be empowered... [and] see themselves,” she continues. Eventually, they decentralised the list, allowing people from regional areas to purchase their own locally published books.

“So, in tandem, we set up the Book Institute of the Philippines to set up training courses for writing, copy editing, and marketing. We do that and provide incentives for the manuscripts—from their beginning stages to publishing and translation,” Aquino-Tugade says.

In addition to DepEd buying these books, NBDB set up a marketplace to promote these titles further and attract school administrators, teachers, and readers of all ages. Thus, the Philippine Book Festival was born.

“Earlier this year, DepEd downloaded their largest budget for trade books, PhP1.2 billion. And then we tried to look for more avenues to make these books reach the market, so we set up a programme called the Book Nook—reading centres in Indigenous areas,” Aquino-Tugade says.

Unlike libraries and museums, which require silence and a dress code from visitors, Book Nooks are reading centres situated in frequented places like markets, heritage houses, and more. As Aquino-Tugade explained, they are devoid of barriers to entry.

“We set up 113 in the last two years, with the local community being trained to manage them. There, we showcase books we bought from our independent authors and publishers,” she says.

NBDB has been present for 26 years. Participating in the FBM matters as it opens doors for Filipino literary works on the world stage.

According to Africa-Bolasco, being the Guest of Honour for 2025 gives the Philippines a start in calling attention to our books so that the local publishing industry can sustain them. For Aquino-Tugade, it empowers writers to share their stories with the world and see the industry as viable.

Emphasising the immense potential of the Philippine book market in platforms such as the FBM, Aquino-Tugade noted how the award-winning graphic novel Alandal has already been translated into six languages. “That shows us how impactful our Filipino books are to the international market. Not just hard literature but romance and other genres,” she says.

Beyond being a cultural event, the FBM is primarily a B2B event where literary agents and publishers present their interest in translating books for their respective territories. It is a fertile ground for limitless possibilities for Philippine literary works. As Aquino-Tugade says: “At the FBM, one of the things we are pushing for is increased opportunities for our creative economy, which is the unrealised backbone of the Philippines—so we are working towards increased translations, cross-media adaptations, cross-cultural collaborations, and increased distribution channels.” 

For the Philippines’ participation at the FBM this year alone, with Tugade prioritising the expansion of the NBDB’s translation programme, the Philippine book agency was able to release 66 translation subsidy grants to Philippine titles translated into various foreign languages. Meanwhile, the number of Philippine rights sold at the FBM has also consistently increased since 2021.

For the Philippines’ participation at the FBM this year alone, with Aquino-Tugade prioritising the expansion of the NBDB’s translation programme, the Philippine book agency was able to grant 66 translation subsidy grants to have Philippine titles translated into various foreign languages; meanwhile, the number of Philippine rights sold at the FBM has also consistently increased since 2021, when, under Aquino-Tugade’s leadership, efforts to bring a wide and robust selection of Philippine titles to Frankfurt were further amplified.

The NBDB aims to bring 100 creatives, publishers, and authors next year and set up a year-long programme to build up the hype for the next edition.

Although all hands are on deck for the Guest of Honour’s participation in 2025, Africa-Bolasco forecasts an increase in the volume of Filipino books being translated after that. Thus, continuous support is needed to sustain the momentum. Another important factor is that most of our titles are already in English, which entices many publishers from different countries as they are easier to translate,” Aquino-Tugade says.

Throughout FBM 2024, Messe Frankfurt was flocked by people from different parts of the world—a clear sign that people read and that the stature of the books has not waned. 

“Reading is important because it expands your mind and empowers you to think for yourself and pave your own path. It encourages you to know more, be inspired about the world, and become critical thinkers,” Aquino-Tugade says.

The World Bank classified 90 percent of Filipino children aged 10 as learning poor in 2022. On the contrary, the efforts of the people involved in the Philippine participation as Guest of Honour are a testament to our deep desire to change that narrative.

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