The Philippines is named as the Guest of Honour (GoH) at the 2025 Frankfurt Book Fair (Frankfurter Buchmesse), which will take place from 15 to 19 October, 2025.
At a press conference held at the National Library in Manila on Thursday, 4 September Senator and project advocate Loren Legarda expressed her gratitude while announcing a significant milestone for the country. The event also featured an exhibit titled "From Calamba to Frankfurt: Jose Rizal and the Frankfurt Book Fair," initiated by Legarda and curated by Lisa Guerrero-Nakpil, which pays tribute to the works of the national hero.
"The imagination peoples the air" is the country's theme as the GoH of the book fair this year, taken from a line in a chapter of the subversive novel of Rizal, Noli Me Tangere. The said theme explains that the imagination peopling the air is describing what writers do which is creating worlds and the characters who people them.
The book fair is known as "the world's oldest and most significant" gathering of publishers, authors, creatives, and the reading public internationally. The Philippines’ Guest of Honour participation was coordinated among National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the National Book Development Board (NBDB), the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), and the Office of Senator Legarda.
Legarda told DAILY TRIBUNE that publishers, authors, and creatives were selected through an open call organized by the NBDB and the GoH committee responsible for the literary aspect.
Executive Director of NBDB, Charisse Tugade told DAILY TRIBUNE that the open call means reaching out to the delegates and discussing which books would they like to sell. She also revealed that the Philippines has now 52 publishing houses nominated for the book fair.
The event will also feature workshops, book signings, readings, and participation in other international book fairs. Additionally, Filipino literary works officially translated into German will be exhibited.
National Artist Bienvenido Lumbera described this as "an alternation of assertion and acquiescence by the creative Filipino imagination within a cultural setting fostered by our people's interaction with two different sets of colonial masters."
Over 400 Filipino delegates, authors, illustrators, artists, publishers, and cultural workers are expected to attend the event.