The Bookseller.com

20th November 2008

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Frankfurt rebuffs anti-Finn criticism

10.03.08 Alison Flood

The Frankfurt Book Fair has disputed claims that the decision to invite Iceland to be Guest of Honour at the 2011 Fair was in any way influenced by a perceived anti-Finnish sentiment in Germany.

According to reports in Finland, picked up in the UK, Finland had originally thought it was to be guest of honour at the fair in 2011, but the invitation was withdrawn over growing anti-Finnish feeling in Germany after Nokia's decision to pull its factory out of Bochum in the Ruhr valley, leading to the loss of more than 3,000 jobs.

But the Frankfurt Book Fair said that it "very much hopes to welcome Finland as Guest of Honour in the near future and is continuing its amicable conversations with Dr Iris Schwank of the Finnish Literature Information Centre".

It said that both countries presented "particularly strong bids" for 2011; that it had long wanted to invite a Scandinavian country to be guest of honour; and that exploratory discussions were held in both Finland and Iceland, with formal expressions of interest from both countries received in 2007.

It said that a decision was recently made to invite Iceland to be Guest of Honour, with a formal announcement to be made in the near future.

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