Colombo International Book fair 2011

September is renowned as Literature month in Sri Lanka. The mighty “Colombo International Book Fair” held this year between 17^th to 25^th September, for the consecutive 13^th time.  Under the organization of Sri Lanka Book Publisher’s Association (SLBPA) this mega book fair held annually in BMICH- Convention & Exhibition Centre since 1999. In the beginning it was only 28 stalls for the exhibition. Annually due to the grown popularity number of both books publishes and visitors drastically increased. 


This time 420 stalls were allocated for publishers. According to SLBPA, 180 more publishers were unlucky and not granted a stall in the exhibition due to the lack of space. All publishers have some thing newly published and they were publicized in the exhibition. For an example Surasa Book Shop have published 42 new books on behalf of the literature month which first come out through the exhibition. Sarasavi Book Shop introduced 24 new books. Other famous book publishers such as Wijitha Yapa, Godage, Malpiyali, Sooriya, Dayawansa Jayakody, Buddhist Cultural Centre, M.D.Gunasena, Wijesooriya Book Center also have published several new books too.

Buddhist Cultural Center Book Stall: A key book stall in the exhibition. K-Hall of BMICH
fully reserved for this stall

Buddhist Cultural Center Book Stall: Inside view

Buddhist Cultural Center Book Stall: Inside view

M.D.Gunasena Book Stall: M.D.Gunasena Book publishers are one of the oldest in Sri Lanka.
Their stall was situated in G-Hall.

Malpiyali Book Stall: Malpiyali Book shop is renowned for new novels for Youth.

Sarasavi Book Stall: Sarasavi Book Publishers are one of leading book shops in Sri Lanka.
In the exhibition they have reserved two separate stalls for both Sinhala & English books.

It should specially mention that 30 stalls were allocated to overseas publishers. India, Australia, Singapore, United Kingdom, Japan, Malaysia, United States, Thailand are such who exhibit their stalls. 

Singapore Book Stalls: This shows two international book stalls reserved for Singapore.  They  are APA Insight Guides/Berlitz and Periplus publishing. Thses stalls were situated in A-Hall.

Cambridge University Press & Oxford University Press of UK, Lonely Planet of Australia, Jaico Publishing House, Harper Collins Publishers, Harlequin Mills & Boon, NBT of India, Apa Insight Guides/Berlitz, Periplus Publishing, Worldlink Bookshop- Mighty minds of Singapore, IRH Press, Happy Science of Japan and World Health Organization (WHO) were some of well known foreign publishers who sold there valuable books in the exhibition.  

Comments: This a creative work exhibited. Comments of some book readers were attached here.

It was noted that more than hundred thousand people visited the exhibition daily. Another significant fact is that, SLBPA granted permission for 30 separate stalls reserved totally for English publishers only. As an annual practice the best novel for the year is appreciated by granting a special literature award. This year the Sinhala novel “Ath Kandura” of the author Mrs. Sunethra Rajakarunanayake got this award and noted that more that 1500 books daily sold.

This mega book fair has become a key annual event in Sri Lanka. 

Publisher Note : Please add your e-mail address for alerts in Finest Sri Lanka. You will be notified once when a new article published.