‘Shared Horizons’ of Greece and Italy, Guest of Honour at the Thessaloniki Book Fair (TBF)

7 April 2025
With more than 50 speakers, 16 publishers, three exhibitions and a rich cultural programme, Italy will be the Guest of Honour country at the 21st Thessaloniki International Book Fair, which will be held at the TIF-Helexpo Exhibition Centre from 8 to 11 May. Its presentation will focus on the rediscovery of its proximity to Greece, developing the chosen theme: Shared Horizons, the horizons that the two countries have always shared, exploring them through dialogue, reflection, mutual understanding and the constant stimulation of ideas contained in the world of books. 

The presence of Italy at the Thessaloniki Book Fair –the most important in Greece– was made possible thanks to the support of several Italian institutions: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation with the Embassy of Italy in Athens and the Italian Cultural Institute of Athens, the Italian Ministry of Culture with the Book and Reading Centre, the ITA (the Italian Trade Agency for the promotion abroad and the internationalisation of Italian companies) – and the cooperation of AIE (Italian Publishers Association), supported by Ex Libris organization. The Thessaloniki Book Fair will be an opportunity for Italian publishing to be known and promoted, and a new stage in the developing course that Italy has been on for many years as the guest of honour at the world’s most important publishing fairs. 

Deputy Minister of Culture Iason Fotilas stated: 

‘The participation of Italy as the Guest of Honour country at the Thessaloniki International Book Fair will be a bridge and an opportunity. An opportunity to get to know each other better. To spread works, ideas and words. To strengthen the links between us. Italian authors and publishers will have the opportunity to get to know the programmes, tools and policies offered by Greece and the Hellenic Foundation for Books and Culture for writing, book production and culture. 

We look forward to welcoming you in Thessaloniki. A metropolis carrying the traces of centuries, the breath of cultures and inexhaustible creativity. 

The Ministry of Culture —under the guidance of Minister Lina Mendoni— and I personally, enthusiastically support the selection of Italy as the Guest of Honour country at the 21st Thessaloniki International Book Fair. See you in Thessaloniki!’ 

As Paolo Cuculi, Ambassador of Italy in Athens, said: ‘This is an excellent opportunity to promote Italy in Greece, allowing us to honour the tradition of rich cultural exchanges between two countries that have always managed to turn literature into a powerful means of outward projection and dialogue. The significant participation of Italian writers and publishers at the Thessaloniki fair shows the extent of the mutual interest of the two countries in the field of culture and the publishing industry, honouring the profound influence that Italy expresses in these areas’. 

The President of the Hellenic Foundation for Books and Culture (HFBC), Nikos Bakounakis, said: 
‘The 21st Thessaloniki International Book Fair (TBF) is the first to be organised by HFBC, the new organization for books in Greece, and ‘Italy-Guest of Honour’ is creating a new dynamic thanks to its programme, its guests, its exhibitions and parallel events. ‘Italy-Guest of Honour’ comes at a time when the number of Italian titles published in Greek is increasing, while a new generation of translators, both Italian and Greek, enhance the ‘Shared Horizons’ of the two literary worlds’. 

We also quote Innocenzo Cipolletta, President of the Italian Publishers Association: ‘After being the Guest of Honour in Frankfurt in 2024, this year our country will be the Guest of Honour on three continents: Asia, at the Taipei Fair, Europe, here in Thessaloniki in May, and South America, in Lima in July. The Italian book industry persistently builds bridges and shares opportunities in a world where the temptation to build walls is becoming stronger and stronger. Greece and Italy share a long history of exploration and reception: ours will be a meeting between people who share the same values’. 

Our country’s ambassadors in Thessaloniki, in accordance with the tradition of the ‘Guest of Honour’ at international book fairs, will be our authors. Beatrice Bandiera, Marta Barone, Roberto Camurri, Silvia Ferrara, Andrea Franzoso, Luigi Guarnieri, Antonio Manzini, Andrea Marcolongo, Melania Mazzucco, Matteo Nucci, Aurelio Picca, Marco Steiner, Matteo Strukul and Stefano Sturloni will come from Italy. Their sessions will be animated by some of the most important personalities in the cultural world of Italy and Greece: Grigoris Bekos, Dimitra Dotsi, Konstantina Evangelou, Yannis Koukoulas, Dimitris Mamaloukas, Elisavet Menelaou, Francesco Neri, Anna Papastavrou, Efthymia Sygkollitou, and Lemonia Vasvani.   

We will meet novelists and essayists, illustrators, translators and journalists, among others. The Italian Pavilion —set up by ITA (the Italian Trade Agency for the promotion abroad and the internationalisation of Italian companies)— where the planned sessions will take place, will host several prominent personalities involved in the promotion of Italian publishing in all its nuances: book industry professionals (Valeria Agliuzzo, Valentina Alferj, LeeAnn Bortolussi, Maurizio De Rosa, Antonella Fabbrini, Bruno Giancarli, Livio Muci, Francesca Marastoni, Anna Pataki, Paola Seghi, Andreina Speciale), academics (Ioannis Tsolkas, Phoebus Gikopoulos, Manuela Pellegrino), personalities from the world of arts and institutions (Kostas Varotsos, Luigi De Luca) and the literary world (Petros Markaris, Antonis Skiathas, Pierfranco Bruni). A precious chorus of voices that, for four days, will seek to explore and strengthen the many links between Italy and Greece, highlighting their natural differences and offering visitors a lively and stimulating overview of the Italian book world, enriched by the three specially set up exhibitions and by other numerous events focusing on our presence, organized by the Greek side. 

THEME AND PROGRAMME 

Orizzonti Vicini (Shared Horizons) is the title of the cultural programme through which Italy will present itself in Thessaloniki, the pearl of northern Greece, a city that even today, despite its modernity, bears the traces of the many peoples who inhabited it and passed through it: from the Macedonians to the Romans, from the Byzantines to the Ottomans, from the Sephardic Jews to the Greeks. This is already a horizon shared with Italy, along with the Mediterranean Sea, which unites and divides them, has fore centuries been the scene of migration of peoples, the meeting of cultures, but also an inexhaustible reservoir of adventures for the imagination of the narrators. 

The programme will be presented in four thematic sections: A Shared View, the starting point of which will be the relationship between Italy and Greece, Beyond the Horizon, in which a free flight will take place over the many paths – individual, collective, narrative, fictional – of contemporary Italian literature and publishing, Adventures of land and sea, which will include tributes to Andrea Camilleri (100 years since his birth) and Hugo Pratt (30 years since his death), with meetings, analyses and exhibitions, as well as the Professional Programme, aimed at professionals in the publishing world. 

A Shared View, the section focusing on the relations between the two countries, will start with a lecture by Andrea Marcolongo, the most ‘Greek’ of the contemporary Italian writers, and will continue with a discussion on the secrets of translation between Dimitra Dotsi (translator in Greece of many contemporary Italian writers) and Maurizio De Rosa (translator in Italy of Greek writers), which will take on ancient-futuristic implications thanks to Silvia Ferrara, professor of Aegean cultures at the University of Bologna, who will help the audience discover the relationship between undeciphered scripts and modern technologies. Two other sessions will look at the ‘myth’ from new perspectives: one with Matteo Nucci, focusing on the fragility as strength of the hero, and one with Aurelio Picca, a tribute to the epic of sport in the country where the Olympic Games were born. Luigi Guarnieri will analyse the biography of Ugo Foscolo, the star of Italian literature who carries the Italian-Greek connection in his own biography, while poetry will be at the heart of reading M’illumino d’immenso, edited by Antonis Skiathas, with readings by Pierfranco Bruni. Last but not least, an interesting reversal of perspectives will be offered through the conversation between leading Italianists from the Universities of Athens (Ioannis Tsolkas) and Thessaloniki (Phoebus Gikopoulos). 

Beyond the Horizon is the thread that runs through the second section. Again, there will be multiple perspectives and interpretations. From Moving Horizons at the heart of the session with Melania Mazzucco, an author who has always followed the red thread of emigration and exile in her literary production, to the borders that are constantly being knocked down by the new voices of literature, represented in Thessaloniki by Marta Barone and Roberto Camurri. The Pillars of Hercules may also be what separates the written page from other creative means of expression. Antonio Manzini has crossed them many times —between books, film and television- often along with his most famous character, Rocco Schiavone, and those are at the heart of the artistic research in Beatrice Bandiera’s illustrated books. We don’t always have to travel long distances to reach them: sometimes they may be hidden in our garden, like the leaves Stefano Sturloni will talk about. What is more, the journey can also take place on the axis of time, so as to rediscover the past or reinvent the future. Matteo Strukul, author of historical adventure novels, will take us to the Venice of Giacomo Casanova, the author, philosopher and great seducer (300 years since his birth on 2 April 2 1725) while Andrea Franzoso will be exploring bullying, discussing a social problem that has plagued generations of teenagers. 

Adventures of Land and Sea is a tribute to two authors who have essentially dedicated their writing careers to crossing the pillars of Hercules, exploring new creative paths and winning over millions of readers all over the world: Andrea Camilleri and Hugo Pratt. The Sicilian writer (2025 marks the 100th anniversary of his birth) will be the star of 100 Montalbano. A tribute to Andrea Camilleri, a round table with the participation of the very important Greek author Petros Markaris (‘father’ of Inspector Costas Haritos, Montalbano’s ideal Greek duo), Anna Pataki of Patakis Publishing (which publishes Camilleri’s novels in Greece) and Valentina Alferj (his former historical assistant and literary agent). On the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of Hugo Pratt’s death, one of his closest collaborators in recent years, author Marco Steiner, will speak about the creator of Corto Maltese. 

The Orizzonti vicini (Shared Horizons) journey will conclude with the Professional Programme, which brings together thematic sessions and analyses on the world of publishing, aimed particularly at a specialist audience. It will start with the session Identikit Italia: the market, trends, innovations, a snapshot of the book market trend in Italy presented by Bruno Giancarli of AIE – Italian Publishers Association. The representatives of the publishing houses in the collective pavilion will introduce themselves to their Greek colleagues during the Interview with the Publishers, a Q&A format presented by Paola Seghi (AIE) and The construction of the myth. The cultural role of contemporary publishing (with LeeAnn Bortolussi, Andreina Speciale, Livio Muci, Valeria Agliuzzo and Antonella Fabbrini). A special area will also feature the Region of Puglia, which has always been historically, geographically and culturally linked to Greece. 

THE ITALIAN PAVILION 

In the TIF-Helexpo exhibition centre, Italy will occupy the 200 square metres traditionally allocated to the Guest of Honour country. Inside the Italian Pavilion, set up by ITA – an organization for the promotion abroad and internationalization of Italian businesses, there will be a bookstore space managed by Konstantinidis bookstore with books by Italian authors, as well as a ‘professional space’ reserved for b2b meetings. The Italian exhibitors attending will be Editrice Il Castoro, Edizioni Centro Studi Erickson, Giunti Editore, IT Publishing, Reggio Children and Tomolo EdiGio’ Edizioni – while with the support of the Puglia Region, Claudio Grenzi, Gruppo Editoriale Les Flaneurs, Kurumuny, Sfera and Besa Muci will also attend. Alferj Agency, Camelozampa, Feltrinelli/Crocetti, Garzanti, Giulio Einaudi Editore, Ischirè and Mondadori Libri will also be present in Thessaloniki as part of the fellowship programme organized by the exhibition. 

THE EXHIBITIONS 

Inside the Italian Pavilion, visitors will be able to admire the exhibition I colori dell’antico (The Colours of the Ancient), organized by the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in collaboration with AIE – Italian Publishers Association and curated by the Drosselmeier Academy, an exhibition of Italian illustrators who have given new forms and new colours to the classical world, stating the strong attraction that ancient art still has today in accordance with classical and digital techniques and pop colours. Two more exhibitions will be held in the allocated spaces: Hugo Pratt: His legacy, his work, his biography —curated by Patrizia Zanotti— which will pay tribute to one of the world’s greatest illustrators and comic book creators through 27 large panels representing his career, and Camilleri 1925-2025, which, as part of the Camilleri 100 —promoted by the National Commission to commemorate the centenary of Andrea Camilleri’s birth, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Fondo Andrea Camilleri— will highlight the life, work and legacy of this giant of Sicilian literature through an informative journey filled with texts, images and excerpts, curated by Professor Giovanni Capecchi.