Focus Topics overview
Since 2026, Leipzig Book Fair has been expanding its profile to include curated Focus Topics. As a new programme strand, alternating with the traditional guest country presentations, these concentrate on topics that link literature, society and cultural exchange. The Focus Topics are deliberately broad in scope: they can highlight international perspectives just as much as socially relevant or culturally significant issues.
The Focus Topics create space to explore these questions through literature and make them accessible to a broad audience of avid readers. They invite visitors to discover new perspectives, immerse themselves in different worlds of experience and explore literature beyond the beaten track.
At the same time, the Focus Topics give publishers, authors and other partners the opportunity to showcase relevant new releases and bring topics of particular relevance to the fore at Leipzig Book Fair.
2026: Danube – Strong Currents and Between Worlds
Under the slogan “Danube – Strong Currents and Between Worlds”, book presentations, discussions and debates took place on a dedicated stage in Hall 4 on all days of the fair. The programme, curated by Stephan Ozsváth, was developed in collaboration with partners such as the German Federal Foreign Office, the German Federal Agency for Civic Education, the Goethe Institute, TRADUKI, the City of Leipzig and cultural institutions in the participating countries, and showed where stories in the Danube region connect or divide: literarily, historically, socially and politically.