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Algiers book fair closes with more than 6.27 million visits and Oman as next guest of honour

9 November 2026 · Algeria Now

Algiers book fair closes with more than 6.27 million visits and Oman as next guest of honour — Photo : prod.cdn-medias.jeuneafrique.com (adresse collée)

ALGIERS — The 29th Algiers International Book Fair (SILA) closed on Saturday evening with more than 6.27 million visits, according to its commissioner, Mohamed Iguerb, the highest attendance in the event's history and the largest cultural gathering in Algeria.

The figure covers visits up to 8 p.m. on Friday, so the final total will be higher. Friday alone drew 886,546 visitors, the highest single-day count. The 2025 edition recorded 6,241,718 visits, a rise of about 0.5 percent, though one reader can account for several visits. This year's fair at the Pins Maritimes exhibition centre brought together 1,567 publishers from 51 countries, 350 of them Algerian, with nearly 300,000 titles on display and about 1,000 cultural events.

Presiding over the closing ceremony, Culture Minister Malika Bendouda described the fair as the country's most important cultural meeting and a popular event of regional standing. Saudi Arabia, the guest of honour, won the prize for best stand. The Sultanate of Oman will be guest of honour at the next edition.

The ceremony also honoured writers. The Mon Premier Livre prize went to Meroua Ziane for the best book in Arabic and to Dahia Hamitouche for a novel in Amazigh, while Mohamed Sari received the new translation prize created for this edition. Tributes were paid to Nadjat Khadda, Fouad Soufi and Mohamed Meflah.

The programme reflected the country's preoccupation with history and memory, with new works on the colonial period and the war of independence, as well as titles on Palestine, a cause that remains central in Algerian public life.

Visits are not readers, however. Public libraries recorded about 146,000 registered readers and 229,000 loans in 2025, according to the Culture Ministry, a gap that shows how far the book world still has to go in turning crowds into regular readers.

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