PH as guest of honor at 2025 Frankfurt Book Fair: ‘A moment of immense national pride’
FRANKFURT—The first thing that strikes you about the Frankfurt Book Fair is its size. It’s massive—equivalent to six football fields, they like to say. But I’m not just talking about its physical magnitude. The Frankfurt Book Fair, or Frankfurter Buchmesse in German, is huge in every sense of the word.
It’s the world’s largest and oldest international book fair and the most important global marketplace for content, gathering publishers, literary agents, scouts, translators, authors, and illustrators from across the globe in one place. Deals happen here for international rights and licensing, translation, and other partnerships. At this year’s action-packed fair, which took place from Oct. 16 to Oct. 20, there were 230,000 visitors from 153 countries, attending over 3,300 events.
Seeing it for ourselves drove home just what a big deal it is that next year, at the 77th Frankfurter Buchmesse, the Philippines will be the guest of honor.
The book fair has featured an annual guest of honor country since 1976. The guest of honor country gets its own pavilion—a 2,000-square meter one—and is given the chance to put the spotlight on its book market, literature, and culture in different ways.
This year, Italy had that honor. Next year, it’s the Philippines’ turn.
It was in 1998 that the National Book Development Board (NBDB) first participated in the Frankfurt Book Fair, bringing 45 Filipino publishers and displaying 302 titles in their 8-sq m stand.
The Philippines joined the fair until 2000 and then resumed its participation only in 2015.
Karina Bolasco, stalwart of the Philippine publishing industry who founded and ran Anvil Publishing for 26 years, started going to Frankfurt in the ’90s, as part of the fair’s invitational program. She said, “We came back 2014, 2015, because we were ready with books. There were a sizable number of books that we could showcase.”
In 2015, they had no money for a decent booth, she recalled. “When we got here, we bought paper, cut it up like buntings. It turned out interesting, people wanted to pose in our booth all the time, but we had no lights. Jun Matias walked past and said, ‘Anong nangyari sa atin, brownout ba tayo?’ Singapore was so well-lighted, and all the others … kami lang ‘yung madilim.”
Did she ever imagine that the Philippines could be the book fair’s guest of honor one day?
“No. Not at all, not at all,” Bolasco told Lifestyle.
This sentiment was echoed by other longtime Frankfurt Book Fair goers—the idea of the country getting that privilege seemed so far-fetched, so impossible, that they didn’t dare dream.
But Sen. Loren Legarda did.
‘Why not the Philippines?’
In 2015, Bolasco, then director of Ateneo De Manila University Press and NBDB board member, reached out to Legarda to ask for her support for the Philippine participation at the fair. Bolasco said, “We’re the same group sa TOWNS (The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service) so I had the nerve to do it.”
The senator, known for being an advocate for the country’s culture, heritage, and the arts, did help. The following year, the Philippines had a nice stand at Frankfurt. But Legarda didn’t stop there. When she heard that Indonesia was guest of honor for 2015, she asked, “Why not the Philippines? Why shouldn’t our rich literary heritage and diverse voices be celebrated alongside the world’s best?”
It wasn’t the first time Legarda dreamed big for the country. In 2013, almost 50 years after the Philippines’ first and only participation at La Biennale di Venezia, she asked at a Senate hearing: “Why is the Philippines not represented in the Venice Biennale?”
Two years later, the Philippines made its return to the Biennale and has consistently participated since, thanks to the efforts of Legarda and her office, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
“She’s a leader with conviction, she knows that arts and culture are important, na ang sining at kultura ay pananagutan ng gobyerno, bihira yun eh … Rare breed. Papanindigan,” Riya Brigino, who heads the NCCA’s Philippine Arts in Venice Biennale Coordinating Committee, said of Legarda.
“Her mind knows no bounds. Thinker, doer. For her, it can be done as long as it’s for the country. Hindi siya papayag na hindi mangyari, at kailangan mangyari nang maayos at kapaki-pakinabang sa bayan natin.”
‘Gargantuan feat’
Legarda approached her quest to secure the guest of honor status for the Philippines with the same conviction she did for Venice. It was a long shot, but she was persistent.
Bolasco said, “It’s her willpower. She was so resolute that every year she was working on it. She was inviting Buchmesse officers to Manila, entertaining them in her house … Talagang she worked on it.”
While the NBDB continued its annual participation at the fair, in 2017, Legarda welcomed Frankfurt Book Fair officials led by director Juergen Boos to the Philippines. That same year, the country submitted its letter of intent to be the guest of honor through then NBDB chair Neni Sta. Romana Cruz.
Legarda continued to meet with Buchmesse officials in Manila and in Frankfurt even at the height of the pandemic.
She was relentless, and her determination inspired everyone else. Bolasco said, “I said, I’ll go na into it. Andyan na si Loren, ano ba naman, we just have to rise to the occasion. She said, do the bid document. And I did, over the pandemic, and I used Rizal as our connection to Germany.”
In July 2023, they got the answer they were waiting for: The Philippines was going to become guest of honor in 2025—only the second Southeast Asian nation to achieve this once-in-a-lifetime distinction.
Boos said, “Every island has a story to tell, and we want to hear them all. Every story is exciting … It’s a joy for me to welcome the Philippines as the guest of honor in 2025.”
“This is a moment of immense national pride,” said Legarda. “Becoming the guest of honor is our commitment to presenting Filipino genius and flair in the most esteemed stages of art and culture, just as we did when we brought back the Philippines into the important contemporary art platform, the Venice Biennale.”
It’s “a gargantuan feat,” she said, but one that would require a lot of work. “It is also crucial that government support remains strong. Global projects that amplify Filipino voices on the world stage need more than sporadic backing—they require sustainable, long-term programs. That’s why I am committed to supporting and collaborating with like-minded partners in the government to ensure that the buttresses are steady, consistent, and unwavering.”
Vibrant literary market
As visionary and project principal, Legarda brought together different government agencies—the NCCA, the NBDB, the DFA, and her entire office—to work on the project.
NCCA executive director Eric B. Zerrudo said, “This opportunity to stand among the global literary community is not only a privilege, but a responsibility we embrace wholeheartedly.”
Legarda tasked Brigino and NBDB executive director Charisse Aquino-Tugade to become codirectors of the Philippines Guest of Honor Committee (PhlGoh).
Bolasco is curator of books and head of the literary program. Patrick Flores, chief curator at the National Gallery Singapore and professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman, is curator of the Philippine pavilion, while Stanley Ruiz is head designer. Flores, who was curator of the Philippine Pavilion at the 56th Venice Art Biennale and curator of the Taiwan Pavilion at the Biennale in 2022, also heads the Cultural Program Committee with Brigino.
Also part of the core team are Ani Almario of Adarna House who heads the Creatives and Publishers Engagement Committee; Sta. Romana Cruz; poet, fictionist, and filmmaker Kristian Cordero who head the Translation Committee; and Nida Ramirez, the publisher behind Avenida Books who, along with Aquino-Tugade, heads the Industry Development Committee.
Aquino-Tugade said, “With the spotlight on our book publishing industry, Philippine literature will reach audiences it has never reached before… It’s about showcasing the Philippines as a vibrant literary market—one worth exploring and one worth investing in. This opportunity brings with it tremendous benefits, opening up economic and cultural opportunities… The political and cultural significance of this event cannot be overstated.”
Almario said, “I think it’s going to open a lot of doors for authors and publishers to get our books translated and read by everyone else in the world. Our world, our audience will get bigger. I’m excited about that. Gusto kong dumami ‘yung mambabasa ng panitikang Pilipino.”
The timing of the country’s guest of honor status is just right, publishers, authors, and officials believe. Ramirez said, “I think we are ripe for it, the world is ripe for us…. They’re ready for us.“
In 2023, the Philippine publishing industry released 10,297 new books—a milestone, the highest number in the last decade.
Sarge Lacuesta, novelist, screenwriter, and publisher, said, “Never has the writing industry, not just literary but all kinds of writing, been so rich in the Philippines… It’s not just in terms of actual books being produced, but also publishing houses coming out, new publishing houses, independent publishing houses… It’s so diverse. So this is a perfect moment for us.”
NBDB chairperson Dante Francis “Klink” Ang II called the country’s guest of honor participation “a crucial step that will reinforce our efforts to promote the growth of the Philippine book industry, and to gain local and international support and recognition.”
NCCA chair Victorino “Ino” Mapa Manalo added, “As guest of honor, we are afforded the unique occasion to share Philippine culture, our realities and stories through our art and literature from the indigenous to the contemporary. We optimize this platform to promote our stories forged by the diversity of our unique culture and its richness.”
Visit www.philippinesfrankfurt2025.com. Follow @philippinesfrankfurt2025 on Linkedin, Instagram and Facebook and @phguestofhonourfbm2025 on Tiktok.
