Some prominent guests throughout the years at the Göteborg Book Fair

Authors and other cultural personalities love to come to the Book Fair in Göteborg. One reason is that here the authors meet their readers. Another secret behind the attractiveness of the Fair is the outstanding Seminar Programme.

Below we have listed some of the prominent guests who have appeared at the Fair from the start in 1985. This will give you an idea of the development of the Fair, its international range and the quality.

The journalist Clara Ferreira Alves, Expresso. Lisbon, Portugal wrote the following statement about the Fair:
”If we were to give a prize to the nicest and most well-arranged book fair in the world, we would choose Göteborg. There, the books are still the important thing.”

Here is a list of some of our participants.


Alaa al-Aswany, Egypt		 2008
H.R.H. Crown Princess Victoria, Ivars Godmanis, Jutta Ditfurth, Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, Mahasweta Devi, Aidan Chambers, Hoda Barakat, Elias Khoury, Herta Müller, Ernesto Cardenal, Hanif Kureishi, Alaa al-Aswany, Sandra Kalniete, Les Murray, Susan Faludi, Thomas Buergenthal, Anne Rambach, Mircea Cărtărescu, Caroline Graham, Michael Ondaatje, Sabina Naber, Nora Ikstena, Christa von Bernuth, Denise Mina, Alan Bennett, Ian Buruma, Knuts Skujenieks


Amos Oz		 2007
Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Claudio Magris, Alberto Manguel, Amos Oz, Gioconda Belli, Mark Lynas, Desmond Tutu, Jan Eliasson, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Christer Fuglesang, Peter Robinson, Sebastian Faulks, Leonora Miano, Maryse Condé, Lena Adelsohn-Liljeroth, Jaan Kaplinski, Diane Wei Liang, Faïza Guène, Adrian Goldsworthy, Sigrid Rausing, Giorgio Faletti, Ahmet Zappa, Judith Kuckart
Nobel Laureates Shirin Ebadi and Orhan Pamuk 2006
Orhan Pamuk, Turkey, Julian Barnes, Jacqueline Wilson, Tom Maschler, Jung Chang and Cynthia Lennon, UK, Michel Onfray, France, Shirin Ebadi, Iran, Sara Paretsky, USA, Erlend Loe, Norway, Hanne Vibeke Holst, Denmark, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, The Netherlands and USA, Frank McCourt, USA, Yasmina Khadra, Algeria, Angie Sage och Eoin Colfer, Ireland, Ingo Schulze, Germany, Svetlana Aleksijevitj, Belarus, Leena Lander, Finland, DBC Pierre, Australia.
Sir Arnold Wesker was a guest at the Fair in 2005. In February 2006 he was knighted by Queen Elisabeth 2005
Adonis, Syria, Orhan Pamuk, Turkey, Dario Fo, Italy, Jenny Diski, Jeanette Winterson, Tracy Chevalier, Simon Singh, Arnold Wesker and Susanna Clarke, UK, Sjón, Iceland, Noreena Hertz, USA, Roddy Doyle, Ireland, Jurga Ivanauskaite, Sigitas Parulskis, Thomas Venclova, Laura Sintija Cerniauskaite, Lithuania, Monika Fagerholm, Finland, Corinne Maier, France, Elias Khoury, Lebanon.

Margaret Drabble &
Michael Holroyd: "We love to come here"		 2004
Lygia Bojunga, Brazil, Gore Vidal, Eric Schlosser, Jeffrey Eugenides, USA, Shere Hite, Minette Walters, Margaret Drabble, Michael Holroyd, Phillip Knightley, Sarah Waters, Michel Faber, Tony Harrison, Adam Thirlwell, Shazia Mirza, Joanna Trollope, Michael Morpurgo, UK, Elieshi Lema, Tanzania, Glenn Patterson, Northern Ireland, Märta Tikkanen, Finland, José Carlos Somoza, Spain, Lian Hearn, Australia, David Mitchell, Ireland.


Anna Politkovskaja,
guest at the Book Fair 2003		 2003
Anna Politkovskaja, Vladimir Sorokin, Russia, Ryszard Kapuscinski, Hanna Krall, Adam Zagajewski, Andrzej Stasiuk, Olga Tokarczuk, Poland, Ali Bourequat, Morocco-USA, Christine Nöstlinger, Christoph Reuter, Elke Schmitter, Germany, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Indonesia, Ken Alder, Michael Connelly, Diana Gabaldon, USA, Jurga Ivanauskaite, Lithuania, Vandana Shiva, India, Paulo Coelho, Brazil, Imre Kertész, Hungary, Calixthe Beyala, Kamerun, Paulo Lins, Anna Maria Machado, Brazil, Charlene Smith, South Africa, Nicci French (Nicci Gerrard and Sean French), Mark Billingham, Tariq Ali, UK, Margaret Atwood, Canada.

Alain Robbe-Grillet: "I was impressed by the VIP lounge where my wife and I met a lot of other authors and it was an oasis of the Fair."		 2002
Ahmadou Kourouma, Ivory Coast, Colm Tóibín, Ireland, Javier Cercas, Spain, Roma Ligocka, Poland-Germany, Alain Robbe-Grillet, France, Homi K Bhabha, India-USA, Barbara Ehrenreich, Noam Chomsky, Jean M Auel, USA, Alan Warner, Janice Galloway, Jackie Kay, Sally Beamish, Scotland, Jessica Durlacher, Bart Moeyaert , Karel G van Loon, The Netherlands, Ama Ata Aidoo, Ghana, Alexis Kouros, Iran, Lidia Jorge, Portugal, Assia Djebar, Algeria, Patricia Schonstein Pinnock, Charlene Smith, South Africa, Tony Parsons, Joanne Harris, Hari Kunzru, Margaret Drabble, Iain Pears, Antony Beevor, UK, Waris Dirie, Somalia, Boris Akunin, Russia, Claudine Monteil, France, Wladimir Kaminer, Germany.


Allan Sillitoe: "A fantastic arrangement!"		 2001
Ian Rankin, Scotland, Jilly Cooper, Kevin Crossley Holland, Ruth Fainlight, Val McDermid, Alan Sillitoe, UK, Donna Leon, USA, Moses Isegawa, Uganda-The Netherlands, Ismail Serageldin, Egypt, Suad Amiry, Palestine, Kim Seong-Kon, Korea, Anantha Murthy, Krishna Sobti, Githa Hariharan, India, Yehuda Bauer, Israel, Evelyn Schlag, Radek Knapp, Austria, Jakob Arjouni, Germany.


Nuala O'Faolain: "This was a marvellous experience. Young children, youths, middle aged, seniors, all strolling around at the Fair. Everybody seems interested in books here."		 2000
Ivan Klima, Czech Republic, Elke Erb, Inka Parei, Germany, Vasil Bykau, Belarus, Pepetela, Angola, Christian Jacq, France, John Pilger, Australia-UK, Aubrey Flegg, Nuala O’Faolain, Ireland, Edward W. Said, Michael Cunningham, Jayne Anne Phillips, Edwidge Danticat, Ron Padgett , Susan Faludi, USA, Vizma Belsevica, Latvia, Jaan Kaplinski, Estonia, Tomas Venclova, Lithuania, Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, UK, Joy Fielding, Canada, Yi Mun-Yol, Kim Yong-Jik, Korea.


John le Carré		 1999
Hanna Johansen, Zoë Jenny, Switzerland, Raoul Schrott, Jutta Treiber, Peter Marginter, Austria, Peter Schneider, Alice Schwarzer, Ingo Schulze, Martin Walser, Ingrid Noll, Hans-Ulrich Treichel, Germany, Mark Kurlansky, Canada, Palagummi Sainath, India, Mahmud Doulatabadi, Iran, Germano Almeida, Cape Verde, Patrick McCabe, Ireland, Zoé Valdés, Cuba, John le Carré, Leone Ross, Andrea Levy, Margaret Yorke, UK, Alessandro Baricco, Italy, Waris Dirie, Somalia, Carolyn Cassady, Melissa Bank, Will Eisner, Walter Mosley, USA.


Isabel Fonseca		 1998
Wolf Erlbruch, Germany, Leslie Beake, South Africa, Uri Orlev, Israel, Marita Conlon-McKenna, Ireland, Ana Maria Shuha, Argentina, Nélida Pinon, Brazil, Sergio Ramirez, Nicaragua, Terry Pratchett, Claire Tomalin, Michael Holroyd, UK, Mary Higgins Clark, Louis Simpson, Sandra Brown, Don Rosa, Isabel Fonseca, USA.


Maeve Binchy		 1997
Harry Mullish, Magriet de Moor, Cees Nooteboom, Tim Krabbé, The Netherlands, Hugo Claus, Belgium, Edward W. Said, Bud Grace, Robert Crumb, USA, Marion Gräfin Dönhoff, Günter Wallraff, Germany, Lawrence Norfolk, Tibor Fischer, Gillian Cross, Frederick Forsyth, UK, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Azouz Begag, France, Thanasis Valtinos, Greece, Maeve Binchy, Ireland.


John Kenneth Galbraith: "I very much enjoyed my trip to the Göteborg Book Fair and was wonderfully impressed by both the size and the substance of this remarkable enterprise."		 1996
Elie Wiesel, Romania-USA, Peter O’Donnell, Lee Falk, Pat Conroy, E. Annie Proulx, John Berendt, John Kenneth Galbraith, USA, Imre Kertész, György Konrád, Péter Esterházy, Hungary, Jean Rouaud, France, Hanna Krall, Poland, Buchi Emecheta, Nigeria-UK, J Nozipo Maraaire, Zimbabwe-USA, Wole Soyinka, Nigeria, M G Vassanji, Tanzania-Canada, Milo Dor, Austria, Albie Sachs, South Africa, Mia Couto, Mocambique, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Peru, Bernardo Atxaga, Spain, Irvine Welsh, Scotland, Kate Atkinson, Hanif Kureishi, Nick Hornby, UK, John Marsden, Australia.

Our guests 1985-1995