The 27th biennial Jerusalem International Book Fair, which ran from February 8 to 12, differed sharply from its predecessors, as organizers sought transform the event into a cultural festival.

The overhaul included moving the fair from the Jerusalem Convention Center to six centrally located cultural institutions within the city, and adding more programming. Thirty author and book events each day, in different languages, were offered free to the public, while exhibitors were housed in a specially constructed tent area. Bad weather contributed to a decline in traffic for exhibiting publishers, but, in the end, the remade fair was given mostly positive marks by attendees.

As is traditional at JIBF, the newest class of Jerusalem Fellows—30 editors and eight agents, from 16 countries—enjoyed a special seven-day program of seminars, workshops, events, and tours, while 46 alumni fellows from more than 13 countries convened for a three-day program. The interaction among the alumni, the (mostly) younger members of the fellowship, and Israeli authors and publishers was cited by many as a highlight of the fair.

The fair kicked off with a special ceremony for the 2015 Jerusalem Prize, given to writer and poet Ismail Kadare, presented by the president of Israel, Reuben Rivlin, and the mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat. The prize is awarded biennially to an author whose writing expresses tolerance and the freedom of the individual in society.

Markus Dohle, CEO of Penguin Random House, delivered the fellows and alumni keynote. He spoke about striving to maintain the creativity of all who work in the publishing industry, never losing sight of the importance of reach, and providing authors with a platform for being discovered. Noting the apparent leveling out of e-book sales, he described the publishing landscape as diverse, stable, and full of new opportunities, and to all the professionals in attendance, he emphasized the role of the publishing professional as both curator and content provider of the best possible product.

The fair featured a first-ever “pitching session” for editors, a dramatic program in which 26 Israeli authors whose Hebrew works had not yet been translated introduced their books, followed by excerpted readings in English by professional actors. The works included acclaimed novels, short story collections, and nonfiction books. Among those chosen by local literary agents and publishing houses were Dalia Betolin Sherman’s When the World Became White, Eldad Beck’s Germany Otherwise, Moshe Cohen-Gil’s The Israelis Who Wished to Cure the World, Eyal Dotan’s Flesh, and Jonathan Kivity’s The Ashtray Effect.

The 30th anniversary of the fellowship program was celebrated at the Museum of Islamic Art with Stefan von Holtzbrinck delivering tributes to the current fair director, Yoel Makov, and publisher Esther Margolis, the longtime fair goer and adviser. Margolis’s proposal in 1983 for the JIBF to grant fellowships to midcareer editors, in order to attract younger generations of publishing professionals to come to the fair, was realized by the late JIBF director, Zev Birger, who established the first editorial fellowship program in 1985 and led the JIBF until his death in 2011. Special funding for the program, which has granted support to 500 fellows, comes mainly from contributions from the Von Holtzbrinck Group, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, and several individual supporters.

With its expanded events, its special alumni fellows program, and its new venues, JIBF offers participants a chance visit to Israel and experience Jerusalem’s vibrant literary scene. It also provides an intimate environment in which book publishing professional can forge lasting personal and professional relationships. Andrew Franklin, publisher of Profile (U.K.) and an alumni fellow from the first group in 1985, said, “This was the best Jerusalem International Book Fair for many years, and I know that this is a feeling universally shared. The events were of the highest caliber, the new venue has atmosphere and excitement, and it’s great to be surrounded by lively restaurants and bars where we could meet and talk informally.”

Rena Rossner, a 2015 JIBF agent fellow, is a literary and foreign rights agent at Deborah Harris Agency, which is based in Jerusalem.