Meeting Place for the Nobel Prize Laureates

At least one Nobel Prize winner attends the Göteborg Book Fair every year. Most of these are Nobel Laureates in Literature, but Nobel Peace Prize Laureates and Nobel Laureates in Medicine have also attended.


It started with Isaac B. Singer, who was a tremendous success at the first Fair in 1985. The former MD of Göteborg Book Fair, Bertil Falck remembers: "This great little man kept an audience of almost one thousand people spellbound. He gave us all shivers in our souls. Thanks to him we got the best possible start."


In 1993, the two Prize winners and world poets Derek Walcott and Joseph Brodsky met at the Fair and enjoyed themselves greatly. Derek Walcott said: "I find the Book Fair very stimulating and I think the Swedes at heart are mad. That's excellent!"

Many Nobel Laureates in Literature have visited the Fair, including: Wole Soyinka, Nigeria, Nadine Gordimer, South Africa, Kenzaburo Oe, Japan, Seamus Heaney, Ireland, Günter Grass, Germany, José Saramago, Portugal and Dario Fo, Italy. The 2002 Nobel Laureate, Imre Kertész, Hungary, participated at the Fair both in 1996 and again in 2003.


The Peace Prize Laureates Willy Brandt from Germany and Elie Wiesel from Romania and the US, have attended the Fair, as well as Arvid Carlsson from Sweden, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 2000.


 2006 we welcomed Shirin Ebadi of Iran, recipient of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, to the Book Fair.

In 2006 we also received Orhan Pamuk as our guest for the third time after his previous visits in 1995 and 2005. A couple of weeks after the fair, the Swedish Nobel Prize committee announced Mr Pamuk as recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Litterature.

In 2007 we had the pleasure of welcoming Desmund Tutu, recipient of 1984 Nobel Pease Prize, to the Book Fair.
 
2007 year's Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded to Doris Lessing who where a a guest at the Book Fair in 1986 and in 1995.