Taipei International Book Exhibition Guest of Honour 2015

At an event in Taipei today, the Minister of Culture for Taiwan, Lung Yingtai, will announce that New Zealand is to be the Guest of Honour at the 2015 Taipei International Book Exhibition.  Joining her at the event is New Zealand author Lloyd Jones, who will be speaking and previewing the film of his internationally successful novel, Mr Pip.

The 2015 Guest of Honour programme will be managed by the Publishers Association of New Zealand, and is supported by Creative New Zealand, Education New Zealand, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The President of PANZ, Sam Elworthy, commented –

“The Taipei International Book Exhibition is an extremely good opportunity to extend New Zealand literature, culture, education and trade strengths into the North Asian markets. As well as the Taiwanese population, with the book exhibition attracting over 500,000 visitors per year, over 400 companies from 70 countries exhibited this year. Following on from the ANZTEC trade agreement signed between NZ and Chinese Taipei in July, and New Zealand’s record-breaking success as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair, this is a great chance for us to build on the positive view of our country, and to widen the experience of our creative culture to those in Northern Asia.”

Stephen Wainwright, Chief Executive, Creative New Zealand, added “This is an exciting opportunity to promote New Zealand literature and our distinctive voice to a wider audience”.

Clive Jones, Education New Zealand general manager for education business development, said “After the success of the Frankfurt Book Fair last year, Education New Zealand is delighted to support this next opportunity for New Zealand publishers to showcase their products to attendees of the Taipei International Book Exhibition. New Zealand’s education resources are used by teachers and students around the world and what better way to introduce even more people to our excellent learning resources than as the Guest of Honour in 2015.”

For more information, please contact:

For Publishers Association of New Zealand:

Anne de Lautour, Association Director

anne@publishers.org.nz (09) 477 5589

For Creative New Zealand:

Rebecca Lancashire, Senior Communications Adviser, Creative New Zealand

rebecca.lancashire@creativenz.govt.nz   027 677 8070