Javna Agencija za Knjigo RS

This year's Frankfurt Book Fair, the largest book fair in the world, will take place from 7 to 11 October. The Slovenian national stand, presented by the Slovenian Book Agency (JAK), will be at a new location in Hall 3.1, Stand C35. Showcased at the stand will be the latest releases by Slovenian publishers, as well as recent translations of Slovenian authors. Representatives of the publishing houses Goga, Malinc, Miš, Pivec and Sodobnost will be present at workstations on the national stand, while Mladinska knjiga will take part in the fair with its own stand nearby.

During the fair, JAK will co-organise three events, two at the fairgrounds and one in the city, covering a diverse range of topics in the fields of literature and publishing.

On Thursday, 8 October, at 5.00 pm, Aleš Šteger, one of the most widely translated contemporary Slovenian poets and writers, will appear at the Open Books Festival, a literary festival that runs alongside the book fair with events across the city. In conversation with the German editor and publisher Thorsten Ahrend, he will talk about his latest novel, Ogenj (Fire/Feuer), which was published in German translation by Matthias Göritz, co-funded by JAK, by Wallstein Verlag in August. The event will take place in the main hall of the Evangelische Akademie in Frankfurt (Römerberg 9).

On Friday, 9 October, at 4.00 pm, the multi-award-winning Slovenian illustrator Marta Bartolj will take part in a talk titled Silent Books – Loud Stories. The discussion with her and Czech musician and author of silent books Martina Trchová will be moderated by the Czech illustrator and writer Renáta Fučíková. 
Storytelling by means of pictures only is as old as humanity itself. Stories were told in sequences of drawings on the walls of prehistoric caves. In recent years, we have been rediscovering the power of the purely visual message. Is this due to our accelerated times and information overload? Or to globalization and the migration crisis? For whom are books without letters and numbers intended? Three central European artists will talk about their own experiences of the silent book and present silent books by students in recent receipt of international praise.
This event, which will take place at the national stand of this year's Guest of Honour Czechia (Hall 3.1, Stand C65), as well as the next one form part of the official programme of Czechia - Guest of Honour 2026.

On Saturday, 10 October, at 10.15, also at the Czechia national stand, there will be a panel titled Reading as a national discipline: how to promote reading, and why we need to read in depth today.
Czechia and Slovenia are countries with a vibrant reading culture. Even so, reading faces new challenges in both: the distracting influence of digital technologies, a decline in reading with regularity, a lessening ability to concentrate on long, complex reading matter. How can we promote reading, and how can we show children and adults that reading is not a chore but a natural, meaningful part of life? Martin Vopěnka will present the Czech nationwide campaign Čti za nároďák! [Read for the National Team], which aims to return reading to everyday life and encourage both children and adults to read. Miha Kovač will present a Slovenian perspective inspired by the Ljubljana Manifesto, which emphasizes the importance of deep reading, i.e. an ability to concentrate on, understand and think critically about more demanding texts that enables us to better navigate the complex world around us. What do the Czech and Slovenian experiences have in common? What can they learn from each other?
The panellists will be Dr Miha Kovač of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ljubljana and Czech writer Martin Vopěnka. The discussion will be moderated by Guillaume Basset.