As many as 500 Saudi, Arab, and international publishers are showcasing the latest versions of their titles in over 350 pavilions at the first edition of Al-Sharqiya Book Fair, which kicked off at the Dhahran International Exhibition Center (Dhahran Expo) on Thursday. The Literature, Publishing, and Translation Commission, under the Ministry of Culture, is organizing the 10-day event that will run through until March 11. The festival of writers and readers, titled “Exhibition, Culture, Civilization, and Art,” is the first book fair of its kind in the Eastern Province. A wide variety of more than 140 cultural and literary events are being held as part of the fair. These include seminars, symposia, dialogue sessions, workshops, poetry evenings, and a concert of poems, performed by the Saudi National Orchestra on the last days of the fair. The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra), which is the cultural partner of the book fair, will organize a specialized cultural program on the sidelines of the fair. The fair includes qualitative and specialized cultural programs alongside an expansion of the cultural activities of children. The cultural program attracts literate and cultural symbols, such as interlocutors, intellectuals, writers, and pioneers of the publishing industry at the local, regional, and global levels. Dr. Mohammed Hassan Alwan, CEO of the Commission, said that the fair constitutes a cultural window that brings together the makers of literature. “The fair will provide a unique window for publishers and literary figures from various parts of the world to exhibit their latest literary, cognitive, and scientific publications. The fair will also give visitors and book fans an opportunity to meet writers and literary figures in one place,” he said. TikTok has partnered with the fair to bring #BookTok, a popular literary trend on the platform, into the real world. The trend took off a few years ago when users of the video-sharing platform began posting about their favorite books using the hashtag. In Saudi Arabia alone, TikTok said there have been more than 442 million views of #BookTok videos in the past six months. Al-Sharqiya Book Fair, which is the first book fair in Saudi Arabia in 2023, comes within the Book Fairs program, which is one of the strategic programs of the commission after holding book fairs in Madinah, Riyadh and Jeddah in a row by the end of 2022.