Poland’s Wroclaw city will be the World Book Capital (WBC) for 2016 in recognition of its promoting the publishing and bookselling industries, Unesco said Thursday.
“Civic leaders in Wroclaw have developed an excellent programme that will promote reading among the wider public all through the year,” Unesco director general Irina Bokova said in a statement.
Wroclaw — the largest city in western Poland — was selected “in light of the strong assets of its programme in terms of quality and variety” and in particular, “for its special focus on grass-root community involvement, as well as promotion of publishing, bookselling industries and libraries at regional and international levels”.
Since 2001, Unesco has been naming a city as the “World Book Capital” for its quality of programmes to promote book and reading.
Indian capital Delhi got the honour in 2003. Wroclaw became the 16th city to be designated as the WBC.
Nigeria’s Port Harcourt is the WBC for 2014 while South Korea’s Incheon city named for 2015.
Each year, the global organisations that represent the three major sectors of the book industry — International Publishers Association, International Booksellers Federation and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions — select the World Book Capital for a one-year period.
The year starts on April 23 — World Book and Copyright Day — and brings together the city’s publishers, writers and literacy industry to promote and celebrate books and reading over the period next 12—month.
