2025 Guest of Honour Country: Estonia

Greetings from Bologna Global Rights Exchange!

As you might have noticed, this week we are focusing on all major events and initiatives directed by the Bologna Book Fair. 

Today we are looking at the Guest of Honour programme, which every year gives the chosen country an opportunity to showcase their work in children’s publishing and engage a wider audience to their own market. The 2025 Guest of Honour country is Estonia, a country where publishing has long been responsible for preserving culture, tradition and creating a vibrant community of illustrators and authors. Since Estonian is not a particularly well known language, the emphasis will be on translation and broadening the chances for readers around the world to have access to the country’s literature. 

The Guest of Honour programme will include a series of author events, seminars and workshops where the audience will be able to participate but most importantly, get to know Estonian publishing through the people that make it happen in the first place. For instance, members of the Estonian Children’s Literature Centre, the Estonian Publishers’ Association and the Estonian Ministry of Culture will be attending. 

In parallel to these discussions, there will be book and illustration exhibitions such as the BolognaBookPlus Talking Pictures event with focus on Estonian illustrations and the 25 Best Designed Estonian Books. 

If you wish to know more about the programme, please visit Bologna Book’s Fair official website (Programma eventi 2025) and the Estonia Guest of Honour dedicated website (Programme - Estonia - Guest of Honour Bologna 2025). 

See you in Bologna!

- Lara Abrahams