Authors exiled from Iran, Cuba, Afghanistan, Egypt, Algeria and the Congo discuss oppression, inspiration, and the cost of freedom.
Does a Narrow Focus Give a Trade Publisher a Competitive Advantage?
By Edward Nawotka Today’s feature story offers a profile of Gallic Books, a UK-based publisher that specializes in translations from the French, a previously underserved niche in the market. As publishers face increasing competition from self-publishing, tech start-ups and the Web, does such single-mindedness offer them any competitive advantage? Certainly by developing an expertise in a particular market segment, publisher …
The Elegance of Gallic Books
The English publisher is devoted exclusively to translations from French, and business is good By Olivia Snaije Books in translation? And only from French? Most would have seen it as a long shot. Yet the founders of the 3-year old London-based Gallic Books, Jane Aitken, Managing Director, and Editorial Director Pilar Webb, have pulled it off and then some. They …
Casablanca Book Fair Roulette
A dramedy of errors starring North African literati, Italian bureaucrats, and an innocent American journalist lost among the phone trees of Morocco. By Amanda DeMarco MOROCCO: The road to SIEL is paved with good intentions. This I learned while trying to write an article for Publishing Perspectives on the SIEL (Salon international de l’édition et du livre) Book Fair in …
Plagiarism Scandal, Part Deux: Is a New French Celeb Hemingway Bio Bogus?
by Olivia Snaije PARIS: Plagiarism is the name of the game in France right now. After the brouhaha last September about 2010 Prix Goncourt-winner Michel Houellebecq stealing passages from Wikipedia for his novel, now a celebrity TV presenter, Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, known in France as PPDA, has been accused by l’Express magazine of lifting up to a fourth of his …
New Zealand’s Kiwa Media Pioneers Multi-lingual, Multi-media (and Maori) E-books for Children
By Edward Nawotka AUCKLAND: Looking for an enhanced e-book that you can read in English, Spanish, Japanese, Italian Chinese or . . . Maori? Kiwa Media, a software developer in Auckland, New Zealand has has what you need. Throughout 2010, Kiwa Media has launched some fifteen enhanced e-books for children -– dubbed QBooks –- that function like typical illustrated e-books, …
A Very French Melancholy: Olivier Adam, the Man Who Lost the Goncourt
• The latest in Lewis Manalo’s series looking at underappreciated writers worthy of wider translation considers the work of French writer Olivier Adam, who was shortlisted for this year’s Prix Goncourt. • Prior articles in the series cover Louis Cha (China), Rodrigo Fresan (Argentina), Agnar Mykle (Norway), and Stephen Vizinczey (Hungary). By Lewis Manalo Anyone who gives half an ear …
Lebanon’s Francophone Book Fair Honors Camus, Features Local, Int’l Talents
By Olivia Snaije Opening on the heels of the Francophone summit in Montreux, Switzerland – Lebanon’s 17th Francophone book fair kicks off this Thursday in Beirut and runs until November 7th. Articles about the former French protectorate regularly lament the loss of French speakers to English but the Beirut event has nevertheless gained the status of being the third Francophone …
Haitian Authors Star at France’s Etonnants Voyageurs Festival
By Olivia Snaije SAINT-MALO: This past weekend, the 21st edition of the French literary and film festival Etonnants Voyageurs took place in Saint-Malo, Brittany. While Russia, with an impressive line-up of authors and films was the guest of honor, Haitian writers played the starring role. Last January the second Haitian edition of the festival was just about to begin in …
Review: The Boy with the Cuckoo Clock Heart by Mathias Malzieu
By Gwendolyn Dawson Jack, the first-person narrator of Mathias Malzieu’s most recent novel, is born in Edinburgh on an uncommonly cold day in April 1874. A clever midwife saves the newborn from certain death by surgically implanting a cuckoo clock in his chest to regulate his weak heart. Abandoned by his mother and sporting a loudly ticking clock for a heart, Jack …