Czech Republic, Guest of Honour
In 2026, the Czech Republic will be the Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the world’s most important book industry event. This prestigious opportunity follows the success of 2019, when the Czech Republic made a great impression as the main guest country at the Leipzig Book Fair.
Preparations for the presence of Czechia as Guest of Honour are being led by the Moravian Library in Brno in cooperation with experts in the fields of literature, event management, and translation. The main goal is to present the best of Czech literature and culture and to show that contemporary Czech authors truly have something to offer the world.
Bid Book project
Inspect the entry materials for the Bid Book project, which present in detail the Czech Republic’s candidacy to be Guest of Honour at the 2026 Frankfurt Book Fair. The document summarizes the project’s goals, central concept, composition, and the key metaphor reflected throughout the Czech programme.
Read the Bid Book to learn about the state of affairs in the Czech book market, support for translations, and the presentation of Czech authors abroad. The Bid Book also proposes how to raise international awareness of Czech literature.
Frankfurt Book Fair
The Frankfurt Book Fair is the largest of its kind. The role of Guest of Honour provides the selected country with long-term European and/or global attention both before and after the fair. Every year, the fair brings together more than 4,300 exhibitors, 230,000 visitors, and thousands of journalists.
The Year of Czech Culture
Czechia's appearance as Guest of Honour will be accompanied by the Year of Czech Culture in German-speaking countries, which aims to deepen relations with Germany, Austria and Switzerland and promote mutual understanding through artistic and cultural events. Czech authors and illustrators, together with literary translators, will present their works in German at dozens of events. This will strengthen cross-border cooperation and inspiration between artists and audiences, including on the professional level. The events will be complemented by scientific and educational programmes, film screenings, workshops, exhibitions, and musical performances.
The Year of Czech Culture not only offers events curated by the CZECHIA 2026 team as part of its own programme, but also events organised by literary festivals, literary houses, and cultural institutions in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and supported by the CZECHIA mobility programme. The programme will also feature cultural events supported by the project's partner, the German-Czech Future Fund, as part of the special call for proposals Der Weg zu uns (The Way to Us).
Czechia 2026 project: vision
As Guest of Honour, we aim to promote the publication of Czech literature abroad and provide for its translation into major world languages such as English, German, and Spanish, as well as into less widely spoken languages. We would like to increase the number of foreign publishers of Czech works and support creativity, innovation, and modern formats.
Other equally important tasks are strengthening of Czech studies at universities, support of cooperation with libraries and other cultural institutions, and presentation of the Czech Republic as a culturally advanced democratic country firmly anchored in the EU. We will also focus on highlighting the role of translators who connect Czech literature with the world.
Motto of the Czechia 2026 project
The title of the Czech presentation at the 2026 Frankfurt Book Fair is “Czechia: a Country on the Coast”. This metaphor, inspired by Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, in which the author placed Bohemia by the sea, symbolises the connection between Czech literature and the global “ocean of stories”.