Minister Anbil unveils logo for 4th edition of Chennai Int'l Book Fair

CHENNAI: Minister of School Education Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi unveiled the logo for the 4th edition of the Chennai International Book Fair (CIBF) on Tuesday at the Anna Centenary Library.

Scheduled for January 16-18, 2026, the motto for the fair, "CIBF 2026: Bringing the World to Tamil; Taking Tamil to the World", emphasises Tamil Nadu's continued commitment to promoting literature and reading culture.

The fourth edition of the CIBF will be held at the Kalaivanar Arangam in Chennai. The event is jointly organised by the Directorate of Public Libraries and the Tamil Nadu Textbook and Education Corporation, under the initiative of the Department of School Education.

The CIBF is a unique business-to-business platform that brings together international conferences, book licensing trade shows and literary forums under one roof. Publishers, translators, and literary agents will interact directly to facilitate book licensing exchanges and cultural and literary exchanges.

Launched in 2023 with 24 countries, the first CIBF saw the signing of 365 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs). During the CIBF in 2024, 40 countries participated, and 752 MoUs were signed. In 2025, 1,125 MoUs were inked with 60 countries in participation.

Among the 1,125 MoUs signed, 1,005 MoUs were signed for translation from Tamil to foreign languages and 120 MoUs for translation to Tamil.

In previous years, books were translated from Tamil to international languages like Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Nepali, Malay, Albanian, English, French, German, Italian, Sinhala, Spanish and Turkish, and to Indian languages such as Assamese, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada. Maithili, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Telugu and Urdu.