AN ARCHIPELAGO OF STORIES

This Oct. 15 to 19, the Philippines is poised to unleash perhaps one of its most complex, and certainly the most multi-layered presentation of its culture on the international stage.

- LISA GUERRERO NAKPIL

That stage is none other than the Frankfurter Buchmesse which, since 1949, has been defining the globe's publishing directions. It is, bar none, the world's biggest book fair, featuring the likes of Dan Brown (who launched the latest of his Da Vinci Code series there) and Margaret Atwood (who wrote the book that became the blockbuster The Handmaid's Tale) but also Simon Rushdie (who survived the Ayatollah's fatwah and lived to tell the tale in Frankfurt) and Angela Merkel (whose memoirs have hit no. 1 on the German bestseller charts).

To top it all off, the Philippines has been named the book fair's Guest of Honor 2025, on which a giant spotlight will be thrown on its books, authors, and publishers.

"It's a one-time, big-time opportunity like no other," exclaims Karina Bolasco, head of the Philippines' Guest of Honor literary program and its curator for books. Karina is a bit of a legend in the country's publishing, having steered Anvil Books from its inception in 1990 up to 2016. Under her stewardship, Anvil was named Publisher of the Year a record 11 times—and 205 of its titles won the National Book Award. (Not a bad batting average, considering Anvil was turning out up to 300 books a year at one time.) In 2017, she moved to the Ateneo de Manila University Press and continues to set records Blaise Gacoscos' Kites in the Night has a German edition.