Korea Reading Festival to be Held in Wonju on the 24th... Live Online Broadcast

[Asia Economy Reporter Seomideum] The '2022 Korea Reading Festival,' the country's largest book culture festival, will announce its host city at the '2022 Korea Book City Proclamation Ceremony' held at 3 p.m. on the 24th in the auditorium of Wonju Cultural Center in Wonju City. This proclamation ceremony will be broadcast live online.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has selected one local government each year since 2014 that leads the promotion of reading culture and has held the nationwide reading festival, 'Korea Reading Festival,' in that region during Reading Month in September. This year, Wonju City was selected as the host city last September. Wonju is the city where the late author Park Kyung-ri's novel "Toji" was completed. Since 2004, through the 'One City One Book Reading Movement' in Wonju and various projects encouraging publishing centered on picture books, the city has steadily developed its local reading culture capabilities. Notably, in 2019, Wonju joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the literature category, and in December of the same year, it was designated by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as the first cultural city (a creative cultural city created by citizens, Wonju).

At this event, along with the proclamation of the 'Book City,' the presentation of the symbolic flag, and the introduction of recommended books, there will be a special lecture by author Yoo Eun-sil, who wrote 'Pilgrimage House,' the selected book for this year's Wonju 'One City One Book Reading' program.

After this proclamation ceremony, Wonju City will actively promote reading programs (both online and offline) under the theme 'Daily Life ON with Books,' collaborating with organizations related to reading, publishing, libraries, and bookstores to revitalize grassroots local reading culture. Additionally, it will continue the reading festival programs such as the 'Park Kyung-ri Author Book Reading Challenge,' 'Philosophy Book Lecture of the Month,' 'Reading Marathon,' and 'Connecting Famous Passages in Books (Relay),' which have been ongoing since the beginning of the year to create a festive atmosphere. The main event of the '2022 Korea Reading Festival' will be held throughout Wonju City from September 23 to 25 and will aim to expand the achievements of the year-round reading festival programs.

A policy official from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism stated, "Wonju City is preparing a citizen-led reading culture festival by developing themed programs that utilize local characteristics such as author Park Kyung-ri and picture books, and operating the 'Book ON Table' linked with existing cultural city projects." He added, "Following the 'Book City' proclamation ceremony, we hope that the year-round programs and main event of the 2022 Korea Reading Festival will be successfully carried out and that a culture of reading books enjoyed by all citizens will widely spread."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.