The Catalan author Baltasar Porcel and the Turkish author Elif Shafak participated in this "torch passing event" between Catalonia and Turkey as the Cultural Guest of Honour for the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Frankfurt, October 13th - With a speech the Catalan author Baltasar Porcel will close the Guest of Honour presentation of the Catalan Culture at the book fair 2007 in Frankfurt on Sunday. Within the handover ceremony of the GastRolle on 3.30 pm. at the Auditorium in the Forum of the fair he speaks about the role of the literature as a bridge between cultures and countries.

Frankfurt, October 12th – The days for professional visitors on the book fair 2007 in Frankfurt were successful for the Catalan publishers. Based on the presentation as the Guest of Honour more professionals caught up on the Catalan publishing industry than the years before.

Frankfurt, October 11th - This Saturday the International Frankfurt Book Fair will be opened for interested visitors. The Catalan Culture is Guest of Honour for this year. The visitors are provided with the opportunity to meet both language and culture which are still less known in Europe. The agenda at the Book Fair is enriched with numerous readings, events and exhibitions.

From today the Literaturhaus Frankfurt exposes drawings of different Catalan landscapes, painted by the german author Günter Grass. He composed them during his time at Embordà as a homage to Catalonia.

Frankfurt, 09th Oct. 2007. With a cultural aperitif the Guest of Honour Catalan Culture starts its presentation at the book fair in Frankfurt 2007. Following the official opening of the book fair the catalan artits, musicians and authors guide through 800 years of catalan history and culture at schauspielfrankfurt.

On September 14, two exhibitions opened at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) in Frankfurt, designed to bring a broad vision of Catalan culture to this Germany city on the occasion of Catalonia's presence as guest of honour at the Book Fair. The exhibitions are entitled: Construccions patents. Nova arquitectura feta a Catalunya (Patent Constructions: New Architecture Made in Catalonia) and Gaudí Unseen. The official opening was attended, amongst others, by: IRL director Josep Bargalló; DAM director Peter Cachola; and Albert Ferré, the curator of Construccions patents.

At around noon today, some fifty writers took part in a presentation of the literary programme that the Institut Ramon Llull (IRL) has prepared for the 2007 Frankfurt Book Fair.

More than 800 artists will be taking part in the artistic programme that the Institut Ramon Llull has prepared for the Frankfurt Book Fair, at which Catalan culture is the Guest of Honour. At midday today, some fifty of them accompanied the director of the IRL, Josep Bargalló, and the head of the Creativity section, Borja Sitjà, at an event to present the artistic programme.

Josep Bargalló, director of the Institut Ramon Llull (IRL), has presented the programme for Catalan Culture, Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2007 in Palma together with the president of the Institut d'Estudis Baleàrics (IEB), Gabriel Janer Manila, and the vicerector of the University of the Balearic Islands, Martí Marc.

GeoGraphia: Literary Landscapes is a programme jointly organised by the Institut Ramon Llull, the Goethe-Institut and Literaturhaeuser.net in collaboration with the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes to coincide with the presence of Catalan culture as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2007.

"Singular i Universal - Unique and Universal" - Catalan Culture uses this motto to present itself as guest of honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2007. The organizers of the appearance introduce the program and the authors of the Catalonian delegation of artists at press conference in Frankfurt today.

Today Catalan culture held the last of its programmed activities at the Leipzig Book Fair (held from 22 to 25 March). These events, held within the precinct of the Book Fair and at other venues around the city, were focused on literature but also encompassed language, music, and cuisine. Last night, at one of the city's iconic venues, the Tangomanie, these four aspects were brought together before an audience given over to the authors and artists participating in the Catalan party.

(EFE).- Today, in a meeting at the Leipzig Book Fair, the Institut Ramon Llull (IRL) formally invited the Nobel prize-winner for literature Günter Grass to participate in the events being organised to mark the invitation of Catalan culture as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

The director of the Institut Ramon Llull (IRL), Josep Bargalló, today took part in the presentation of the activities the IRL has organised for the Leipzig International Book Fair being held from 22-25 March. Catalan Culture is the guest of honour at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair to be held in October, and Leipzig is the first major event which Catalan culture is attending to raise people's awareness about it in Germany.

Catalan Culture, Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2007, will also be present from 22 to 25 March at the Leipzig International Book Fair with a programme including readings, poetry and a Catalan party, amongst other activities.

On Wednesday the director of the Institut Ramon Llull, Josep Bargalló, appeared before the Cultural Policy committee of the Catalan parliament to give details about the participation of Catalan culture as Guest of Honour at the 2007 Frankfurt Book Fair.

From 26 January until 4 February 2007 the Centre de Cultura Contemporània in Barcelona will be holding exhibitions to mark International Children's and Youth Book Week.

From 23 November to 18 December the German city of Munich will be home to the cycle Avantguarda. Música i poesia experimental catalanes (Vanguard. Catalan experimental music and poetry), the aim of which is to show the evolution of the pioneering spirit which characterised Catalan culture in the 20th century. Music and poetry -two disciplines that admit fusion and aesthetic experimentation- will be the vehicles used to evaluate this vanguard movement through recitals and conferences organised jointly by the Institut Ramon Llull, the Instituto Cervantes and various German cultural centres.

The Frankfurter Buchmesse (Frankfurt Book Fair) and the Institut Ramon Llull (IRL) will share a space at the second Saló del Llibre de Barcelona (Barcelona book fair), which will be held from 21 to 26 November. The two bodies have joined forces to present their main aims and activities at the Frankfurt Book Fair and explain to the public at large what it means to be the guest of honour at the world's most important literary fair. Catalan culture will be the guest of honour at the next Frankfurt Book Fair, which will be held from 10 to 14 October 2007.

(EFE).- The head of Section of the Institut d'estudis baleàrics, Antoni Planas, and the director for Culture of the government of Andorra, Cristina Martí, attended a meeting of the Frankfurt 2007 Executive Committee this morning for the first time. The meeting was held at the ministry of Culture of the Catalan government and was presided by its minister for Culture, Ferran Mascarell. According to the Catalan government, there were two main items on the agenda: an appraisal of the programme for the participation of Catalan culture as guest of honour at the 2007 Frankfurt Book Fair, and the presentation of the progress report and committee task plan.

(EFE).- Today India passed the baton as guest of honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair to Catalan culture, which will be the guest of honour in 2007, with one of the most ambitious programmes in the history of the Fair.

The 2006 Frankfurt Book Fair is the starting point for the wide-ranging exhibitions of Catalan culture that will be held in the main cities in Germany throughout the coming year and which will culminate with Catalan culture participating as the guest of honour at the 2007 Frankfurt Book Fair. The minister for culture of the government of Catalonia, Ferran Mascarell, described the general outline of the programme at a press conference. He was accompanied by the Fair director, Juergen Boos; the director of the programme of the Guest of Honour, Marifé Boix; the commissioner of the programme Catalan culture, guest of honour at the 2007 Frankfurt Book Fair, Anna Soler-Pont; the director of the Institut Ramon Llull, Emili Manzano; the president of the Gremi d'Editors de Catalunya (Publishers' Association of Catalonia), Antoni Comas and the president of the Associació d'Editors en Llengua Catalana (Association of Publishers in the Catalan Language), Lluís Pagès. The author Biel Mesquida, who won Catalonia's National Literature Prize this year, gave a brief talk about Catalan literature.

The Frankfurt International Book Fair will welcome an exposition that will incorporate "a full range of cultural diversity" of Catalan-speaking territories, as is evident in the contract that directs the participation of Catalan Culture in the edition of the festival to be celebrated October 10 to 14, 2007. The contract was signed this morning in Frankfurt by the Counselor of Culture and acting director of the Institut Ramon Llull (IRL), Caterina Mieras, and the director of the Frankfurt International Book Fair, Juergen Boos, in the presence of the director of the IRL, Xavier Folch.

Catalan culture is to be guest of honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair, as a result of the agreement reached this morning in Frankfurt between the president of the Fair, Volker Neumann, and the director of the Institut Ramon Llull (IRL), Xavier Folch.