Antwerp builds up its book capital

The Belgian city of Antwerp was named as this year's World Book Capital at a ceremony last weekend.

The year-long project is being promoted with the brand name ABC2004. Its first aim will be to create a blueprint for the development of the book market in the Flanders region of Belgium over the next two decades.

Supported by Unesco, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, it is backed by €1.8m (£1.2m) of public funds, and also by private sponsorship. The biggest sponsor so far is the paper manufacturer Antalis.

The year's main objective is to promote reading and "redress the balance between image and the written word". It will be divided into three parts: promotion, history—with four special exhibitions—and the future. The agenda includes the entry of broadcast media into book publishing and its influence on the market. Other subjects will be Flanders' lack of booksellers and fixed pricing for Belgium. The year will conclude in April 2005 with the results of a debate about bookselling chains, the opening of a new public library in the De Coninckplein district, and, organisers hope, plans for a new state-of-the-art bookshop.

The number of bookshops in Flanders has remained stable for the past two years. But over the previous 30 years, it dwindled to one for every 25,000 citizens, compared to one for every 10,000 in the Netherlands. Quality is a problem too. "If the quality of our bookshops was as good as our pastry and chocolate shops, we would be the most intellectual country in the world," Dorian van der Brempt, advisor to the Flemish culture minister, said. A boost will come with the restoration of the St Felix warehouse in Antwerp, and the construction of a book museum nearby, with the aim of creating a "book street" for trade organisations and publishers to set up offices.

Many ABC2004 events will combine books with other art forms, spokesman Jan Venderheyden said. The first-day show included readings by Flemish and foreign authors, including Germaine Greer and Nicci French, as well as music and images. A collection of 26 books will be published during the year, one for each letter of the alphabet, by an author, poet or an artist from another discipline.

Antwerp's status as World Book Capital follows similar projects in Madrid, New Delhi and Alexandria. Montreal is lined up for 2005. The idea dates back to Unesco's World Book Year in 1972 and the launch in 1995 of Book and Copyright Day. It was developed as a way to continue such initiatives all year round. On average, five to 10 candidates apply each year.

In the past, selection was made in January for the following year by a panel run by Unesco and made up of the International Publishers Association, the International Booksellers Federation and the International Federation of Library Associations. But as recent organisers have found the lead time short, the decision for 2006 is likely to be brought forward to September.

Montreal's plans are still on the drawing board, but it will blanket the city with posters, banners and stickers. The organisers, led by Quebec's National Association of Book Publishers, will draw on Montreal's bilingualism and internationalism, and will ask all embassies to invite two authors from their countries for events throughout the year.