Arabic-language publishers gathered in Paris for some sightseeing and some serious business
Interview with Olivia Snaije & Karam Youssef
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On the left bank of Paris, in the 7th arrondissement, foreign visitors are common. Some are tourists drawn by world-famous attractions like the Eiffel Tower and the Musée d’Orsay. Others are high-level government officials, including delegates to the National Assembly as well as international diplomats. Last week, a party of publishers from across the Arabic-speaking world also gathered there for some sightseeing and some serious business.
From north Africa, the Middle East, and the Persian Gulf, the publishers are doing their sightseeing in the Paris offices of Gallimard and Actes Sud, and they are getting down to business at the Centre International du Livre – France’s National Book Center – for roundtable discussions with French counterparts, sharing ideas and insights on developing readership, managing book distribution, and overcoming the challenges of training a new generation of translators.
Among the group is Karam Youssef from Cairo, a multitasking one-woman activist for reading and writing. Youssef is founder of Al Kotob Khan, an independent bookstore and book publisher in the tree-lined streets of the Maadi district. Over the last decade, she has published many new and established Egyptian novelists and poets and made Al Kotob Khan a literary and intellectual center.
“We started back in 2006. Kotob Khan was one of the first cultural hubs in town where you could go to buy a good book and also attend a movie screening, a book discussion, a book signing, a poetry night, [or] some acoustic music,” Youssef says.
“My main goal [for the Paris publishing seminar] is to make the picture [of Arabic-language publishing] a bit clearer for the French publishers here and for them to know a bit more about the circumstances and difficulties we are working through, because it is very hard times,” she tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally. “We are struggling to get books published and to get the books distributed.”
Paris-based journalist Olivia Snaije covered the seminar for Publishing Perspectives. Snaije explains that the program organizers, Bureau International de l’Edition Francaise, “helps French publishers connect with publishers from all over the world.
“Here, they’re hoping that with translation funding, there might be some cooperation between Arab publishers and French publishers, whether it’s selling or buying rights. The National Book Center announced last year they’re going to be funding 70% [of costs] of translations from French into Arabic and Arabic into French,” Snaije explains.
