With over 800 stalls, the 39{+t}{+h}Edition of the annual Chennai Book Fair organised by the Booksellers and Publishers Association of South India (BAPASI) is scheduled to be conducted from June 1 to 13 at Island Grounds on Friday. The fair, which is usually held in January during Pongal, had to be postponed due to the floods which had crippled the city, the organisers said.
“The highlight this year will be the participation of the Tamil Writers Forum from Singapore which has been initiated by BAPASI with the support of the Singapore Government. We will be having a stall for them where the writers can interact with readers as well as other Tamil writers from India,” said K. S. Pugalendi, general secretary, BAPASI. Gandhi Kannadasan, president of the Association said that this was a movie initiated to bring Tamil language readers closer to the literature in the language written by the Tamil Diaspora from countries across the world. “Every year, we are going to nominate a ‘Country of Honour’ and the following year, we hope to have Tamil writers from Sri Lanka on board,” he said. Every day of the 13-day event will be celebrated as a specific day — which includes youth day, reader’s day and writer’s day.
“The nominal entry fee which we collect will be used to raise funds for 40 members of the association, who were severely affected during the floods,” Mr Gandhi said.
Entry fee collections will be given to 40 flood-affected members of the association
