World Book Day celebrations in Georgia moved online

For the first time in its history, this year's World Book Day will be marked remotely in Georgia, with organisers preparing everything from book presentations to author talks online.

The customary annual date, led in the country by the Georgian Publishers and Booksellers Association, will involve Georgian and foreign writers, games and activities for young readers.

On Thursday, as publishers, bookstores, literary agencies, authors and readers mark the celebration, the GPBA will host its programme on Facebook to join the call for citizens to stay at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Books have been one of the major ways people around the world have chosen to survive in the reality of the mass self-isolation [...] We decided to switch to an online form and show our society an example of major opportunities arising from a crisis" - GPBA Chairperson Gvantsa Jobava

Norwegian author Marta Breen will speak about her book 'Women in Battle', a "150-year history of the fight for freedom and equality" (Off the Shelf UK literary festival). Photo via Off the Shelf UK.

The association will invite artists and literary personalities to speak in live video links, with popular and prized people like authors Gela Charkviani and Marta Breen, actor Nino Kasradze and more lined up for the talks.

Among the hosted links, Breen will talk about her comic book Women in Battle, dedicated to subject of feminism and the struggle for gender equality. In her own section, Kasradze (Comets, Line of Credit) will read children's books for young viewers as part of the Actors for Literature series.

Author Gela Charkviani will be one of writers joining the event via video link. Photo via GPBA.

Latest books will be unveiled in other online presentations, while finals of GPBA's literary quiz competition will also be hosted and children tuning in to the event will have entertaining activities to take part in.

Augmenting the day's events - scheduled to run between 11am-8pm Georgian local time - this year's edition of Gift a Book Day will also run online.

Co-founded by Giorgi Kekelidze, General Director of the National Parliamentary Library of Georgia, its 2020 issue will involve social media users tagging their friends on images of books intended as presents for them. The books will be given to tagged friends after the restrictive measures for the pandemic are eased.