Rabat will continue its development as one of the key cultural centres in Morocco, as it is also about to launch its own program, World Book Capital 2026, and host its 31st International Publishing and Book Fair, which will put the Moroccan capital at the centre of a significant international book fair season.
In October 2024, UNESCO officially declared Rabat its World Book Capital 2026, in recognition of the publishing ecosystem of the city, its work towards literary development and the activities related to reading, youth, and literacy.
UNESCO indicated that Rabat was unique in terms of 54 publishing houses, a growing network of bookstores and one of the largest international book fairs in Africa, and added that the city was striving to increase access to books and combat illiteracy, particularly in underserved populations.
The celebrations start on World Book and Copyright Day (April 23).
One of the cultural seasons of the capital of Morocco
The local program of Rabat is starting in late April, and that will be held together with the 31st International Publishing and Book Fair, which will be held from May 1 to May 10, with France as the guest of honour and Ibn Battuta as the symbolic personality of the edition.
Such a mix provides the 2026 version with a wider scope than an ordinary annual fair.
The exhibition is not being operated as an independent publishing event, but is being embedded in a more comprehensive strategy of the city that is based upon reading, dissemination of knowledge and access by the general population to culture.
The direction is in line with the rationale of UNESCO in the initial selection of Rabat; it is not that it happens to be the place of books, but that it is attempting to transfer them into daily civic life.
Books outside of the conventional channels
The one-year program will consist of 342 events on 12 themes, with the goal of bringing books out of the traditional cultural spaces and into hospitals, prisons, orphanages, shopping malls, train stations, and bus terminals.
The fair itself will be with 890 exhibitors (320 direct and 570 proxy) representing 60 countries, and over 130,000 titles will be on display. It will also come with over 204 cultural events with over 720 speakers, thinkers, and creators.
The choice of France as the guest of honour further establishes literary and cultural connections between Morocco and France, and the tribute to Ibn Battuta makes the topic of travel writing and tales of movement the central focus of this year of programming.
As an experiment in the extent to which a book-based cultural policy can be extended, the 2026 program is proving to be a test of how far it can go when it is not only institutions that are targeted, but the larger spaces of a city that people actually occupy.
