This year, Latvia will be represented by the “Latvian Literature” platform and “Jelgava typography”, while the authors Jānis Joņevs, Semjons Haņins, and Signe Viška will participate in the events program. At the Latvian stand, visitors to the book fair will have the opportunity to get to know Latvian authors' translations of prose, poetry, and children's literature into English, French, Spanish, and German languages.
The special event of the book market is the nomination of Zigmunds Skujiņš novel Gulta ar zelta kāju (The Bed with the Golden Leg) for the Leipzig Book Fair Literary Award in the “Translation” category. The novel, translated by Nicole Nau, was published by the German publishing company “mareverlag”.
"This is the first time in the history of Latvia's participation that one of our literature translations has been nominated for this prize. We are very pleased not only that the German readership is interested in our literature classic author Zigmunds Skujiņš, but also that we have such a great translator as Nicole Nau," said Rita Dementjeva, spokeswoman for the platform “Latvian Literature”.
Around 2,500 authors are participating in Leipzig's book market this year and more than 2,400 events are taking place, including five events with participants from Latvia.