'September Reading Month' Nationwide 10,000 Reading and Cultural Events to Be Held

1-3 Days in Goyang City: 'Korea Reading Festival'
Awarding 20 Reading Culture Prizes

To mark the ‘September Reading Month,’ the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 1st that over 10,000 reading culture events will be held nationwide under the slogan ‘Let’s Unfold Books and Dreams!’

The kickoff event is the ‘Korea Reading Expo’ held from the 1st to the 3rd in Goyang Special City, known as the ‘City of Books.’ Lectures and book talks will be held featuring authors Kim Young-ha, Park Sang-young, Kang Hwa-gil, Park Jun, and Eun Hee-kyung. There will also be an academic forum to share experiences of reading club activities and to reflect on the role of local bookstores.

During the event, the ‘2023 Digital Book Fair Korea,’ which looks at the present and future of electronic publishing, will also take place. There will be corners to meet web novel authors and booktubers, as well as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and metaverse exhibition sections.

On the opening day of the ‘Korea Reading Expo’ on the 1st, 23 Reading Culture Awards will be presented to individuals and organizations who have contributed to the promotion of reading culture. The reading education community ‘Treasure Island Namhae Reading School’ will receive the Presidential Citation, while Gong Jeong-ja from Anseong City Library and Gwa Jang, who provided book delivery and reading services, will receive the Prime Minister’s Citation. In addition, Choi Jun-young, head of the Small Library Book Obsession, who conducted reading activities for homeless and low-income groups, will also receive the Prime Minister’s Citation, along with 20 other Minister’s Citations.

Besides this, over 10,000 reading culture events will be held nationwide. These include the Seoul Outdoor Library (Seoul), the Tenth Autumn Book Caf? (Incheon), Emotional Transcription Filling Autumn (Daejeon), Middle School Reading Quiz Contest (Gwangju), Geumhogang Book Festival (Daegu), Folk Games at the Library (Ulsan), Recording Daily Life through Drawing (Sejong), Mission Book Possible (Gangwon), Reading Wizards (Chungbuk), Joint Book Reading and Discussion Festival (Chungnam), Invited Speaker ‘Life Q&A’ Lecture (Jeonbuk), Mokpo Library Festival (Jeonnam), 2023 Gyeongbuk (BOOK) Festival (Gyeongbuk), Andersen Fairy Tale Concert (Gyeongnam), and Small Library Book Festival (Jeju). These events will be held by 17 local governments, education offices, and affiliated libraries nationwide, highlighting regional characteristics.

Kang Su-sang, Director of the Media Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said, “Books are the foundation of imagination and thinking skills and are the source of K-content that can expand into movies and dramas. As we enter September, the threshold of autumn and Reading Month, I hope all citizens will keep books close in their daily lives and fully enjoy the wisdom and pleasure contained within them. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will spare no effort to support the expansion of the reading base.”

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