Chennai Book Fair is organised every year in Chennai, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu by the Booksellers and Publishers Association of South India or BAPASI for a period of 10 days, particularly during the season of New Year till Pongal. It continues till the third week of January, starting from the final week of the month of December. Chennai Book Fair is believed to be amongst the most reputed book fairs observed in the nation, thanks to the globally acclaimed book publishers of India who assemble here. Apart from the Chennai Music Season, the Chennai Book Fair is one of the popular social events which is thronged by a large congregation of crowds. It is also referred to as the Madras Book Fair.

History of Chennai Book Fair
BAPASI had organised the oldest book fair in Madras, which spanned between 14th December and 24th December, 1977 and boasted of only 22 stalls. The venue of this Chennai Book Fair was the premises of Madrasa-I-Azam School. The publishers of this book fair were known to have organised yet another book fair dedicated to the students, known as the `Student Book Fair`. The first four book fairs of Chennai were observed at the same venue, which is the Madara-I-Azam School. During the year 1981, this book fair was shifted to the grounds of YMCA which is located in Royapettah, Chennai. The 1982 edition of Chennai Book Fair had been organised at a restaurant, and with the passage of time this fair started gaining more popularity. On 22nd December, 1989, the 12th Madras Book Fair was held and it lasted till 1st January, 1990. Since the Chennai Book Fair was quite successful, other book fairs were held at regions like Tiruchirapalli, Thiruvananthapuram, Pondicherry and Udagamandalam. The Chennai Book Fair was moved to the time around the middle of January during the 1990`s.

Recent Editions of Chennai Book Fair
The quantity of Tamil book publishers has increased in the 24th Chennai Book Fair as it was noticed that from the 180 publication organisations whose books were exhibited at this event, 80 belonged to Tamil publication houses. This proved to be a significant improvement, since the 23rd book fair wherein only a single book stall was dedicated to Tamil publications. The Chennai Book Fair of the year 2002 witnessed the celebration of the silver jubilee of the book fair. To commemorate this special festive occasion, the Chennai Book Fair, 2002 continued for 15 days as opposed to the traditional 11-day event. From 9 January, 2003 to 19th January, 2003, the 26th Chennai Book Fair was observed and it consisted of 272 stalls. The Education Minister of Tamil Nadu had been invited to inaugurate the 27th book fair which had been held on 9th January and stretched till 19th January, 2004, possessing 310 stalls.

S.P. Thiagarajan, the mayor of Chennai had inaugurated the 28th Chennai Book Fair on 7th January, 2007 while the Speaker of Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly named K. Kalimthu inaugurated the 29th Chennai Book Fair during 6th January, 2006. 375 stalls were a part of this fair and it continued till 16th January. However, the lack of adequate space compelled the organisers of Chennai Book Fair to alter the venue of the fair to St.George`s School, Kilpauk, from the Quaid-e-Milleth Women`s College in the year 2007. There existed 474 stalls at the 2007 edition of Chennai Book Fair. This fair also bore testimony to the literary creations of M.Karunanidhi, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.

St.George`s Anglo-Indian School, Poonamallee High Road was the venue for the 32nd Chennai Book Fair which had been inaugurated by Abdul Kalam which was held on 8th January, 2009. It continued for 10 days and comprised 600 stalls. Besides the various book stalls, Chennai Book Fair also possesses numerable stalls dedicated to food and refreshment. Competitions, debates and discussions were also organised at the Chennai Book Fair. Movie videos of popular films were displayed at this book event and awards were offered to the best publisher and best writer. The 36th Chennai Book Fair occupied 1, 80, 000 square feet which witnessed 450 participants and was organised at a period between 11th January till 23rd January, 2013.