• Iraq’s publishing and bookselling industry has been damaged by decades of war, sanctions and violence. • However, Baghdad’s al-Muthanna Library — a traditional Iraqi publishing and bookselling powerhouse — has just released its first catalog of fiction and non-fiction titles for the international market since the war. By Chip Rossetti BAGHDAD: Founded in 1936, the al-Muthanna Library in Baghdad …
Do Cash Awards Promote Publishing in Growth Markets?
By Edward Nawotka Today’s lead story covers the ongoing Sharjah International Book Fair. This year, the Fair introduced three new book awards for English language works (discussed in the piece). In addition, the Egypt-based Dar El Shorouk won the second edition of the Etisalat Prize for Arabic Children’s Literature with the book, Al Noqta Al Sawda (The Black Dot), written …
Web-based Entrepreneurs in the Arab World
By Chip Rossetti Today’s Gulf News — the English-language daily based in Dubai — has an interesting piece on entrepreneurs in Lebanon who are using social media to build their businesses on the web. The first profiled is a comics-blogger-turned-author, Maya Zankoul, who ended up self-publishing her book, Amalgam, because no local publisher would take it on: even with a …
Middle East Graphic Novelists Push Boundaries
By Chip Rossetti • Last week, we looked the market for comic books and graphic novels in the Middle East is small, but growing. • In this, the second part of our two-part series, we examine how graphic novelists in the Middle East are pushing the boundaries of publishing by tackling controversial topics in their work, but also paying a price …
Are Graphic Novels and Comics More Dangerous than Prose Novels?
By Edward Nawotka Today’s lead story looks at how graphic novelists are pushing boundaries and challenging taboos in the Middle East. In one case, that of Magdy El Shafee’s groundbreaking Metro, the Egyptian courts objected to its depiction of corruption and criminality, fined the author and publisher, and had the book pulled from store shelves. Surely, this is not an …
Undiscovered Art: Comics and Graphic Novels Emerge in the Middle East
By Chip Rossetti • The market for comic books and graphic novels in the Middle East is small, but growing. In this, the first part of a two-part series, we report on a recent conference in Cairo for comic book artists writing in Arabic, and look at Samandal, a popular bilingual comics magazine published in Beirut. • Next Tuesday we …
Are Comics a Universal Medium?
By Edward Nawotka Today’s lead story looks at the emergence of comics and graphic novels in the Middle East. Different cultures have different relationships to graphic novels: the French and Belgians are passionate about their bande dessinée, the Japanese are mad for manga, while Americans are still best known for their superhero comics. Word pictures date back to the cave paintings of …
Oasis or Mirage: Are there Really Opportunities for Publishers in the Middle East?
By Edward Nawotka We at Publishing Perspectives have offered dozens of stories about publishing in the Middle East — which, with its population of some 300 million people, looks like a fertile market for publishers. We’ve identified several opportunities and believe the region has real potential for publishers looking to grow. Andy Smart, consultant publisher of Bloomsbury Qatar, agrees and …
Abu Dhabi Launches Pan-Arab Book Distribution Company
By Edward Nawotka ABU DHABI: On the opening day of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH), the organization responsible for the event, has launched Abu Dhabi Distribution (ADD), a new private company to facilitate book distribution to the GCC countries, the Maghreb and the Levant, as well as servicing Arab communities …
Saudi Author Abdo Khal Wins Arabic “Booker”
By Edward Nawotka Saudi Arabian author Abdo Khal won the $60,000 International Prize for Arabic Fiction (the Arab Booker) for his novel Spewing Sparks as Big as Castles, which is also known as She Throws Sparks, and is published by Al-Jamal Publications. Taleb Alrefai, who served as chair for this year’s panel of judges, said, “The winning novel is a brilliant …