Cairo International Book Fair started in 1969. At that time, Cairo was celebrating its millennium anniversary, and then Minister of Culture Tharwat Okasha decided to mark the anniversary culturally, entrusting writer and scholar Suhair al-Qalamawi to oversee the organisation of the first book fair. This is why the 2008 edition celebrated Qalamawi as the Person of the Year.

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Since the 2019 edition, the fair has been held during the mid-year school holidays at the end of January at the Misr International Exhibition Centre in New Cairo. Previously it was held at the Nasr City Fairgrounds in Nasr City. It is usually runs for 14 days, with the participation of publishers from various Arab and foreign countries. The fair includes many cultural seminars, as well as cinema, theater, plastic exhibitions and musical performances.

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The 55th session of Cairo International Book Fair 2024 was held between January 25th to February 6th, at the Egypt Center for International Exhibitions and Conferences in the Fifth Settlement. It was presented under the slogan: “We create knowledge, we preserve the word,” with a participation of 1,200 publishers from across the world. This was an increase of 153 publishers compared to the previous session. Also, the number of participating countries reached 70 countries of different nationalities, with the Kingdom of Norway as guest of honor.

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The Supreme Advisory Committee of the Cairo International Book Fair chose the Egyptologist Dr. Salim Hassan to be the character of the exhibition, and Yaqoub Al-Sharouni; the pioneer of children’s literature, to be the character of the Childrens’ exhibition.

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As preparations are ongoing for the 56th edition of the fair, which will take place in the last week of January 2025, more details will be available later this autumn.