It was the fact that I was Indian that helped me get by a lot many situations in a city where the larger service industry seems to be catered by urdu/hindi speakers. It was only apt in that sense that the Book Fair had a special designated day for India. Saturday, being a weekend, pulled huge crowds to the fair, many Indians among them.

Beginning with a conversation with MT Vasudevan Nair, arguably one of the greatest writers of Kerala. Given the huge Malayalam speaking population in the region, the conversation of the beautifully located Kitab Sofa was extremely well attended. Anyone who is familiar with India would know about the literary interest of the Malayalam speaking people, who engaged with the author in a very charged discussion. The publisher Ravi DC of DC Books who publishes the author was more than happy to have crowds gather at his stand to buy books and get them signed by the famous author.

A discussion on Translating Indian Poetry into Arabic analysed the Indo-Arab literary relations of the past and present. With the Kalima programme aiming to do about 50 Books from Indian languages into Arabic in the next two years, the exchange of literatures between the two closely linked regions seems to moving  forward. I was most amazed to listen about such attempts even centuries ago at various points in history and a subsequent intermixing of words, tales and people that has lent a special color to both cultures. whether it was the arab or the indian who invented the zero remains still to be debated, the present day dialogue between the two cultures surely promises hope in a world torn with conflict.

The day also saw a host of big names in Indian writing in English. Amit Chaudhari, a writer based in Kolkata, know not just for his beautiful and lyrical prose but also for his talent as a singer, talked about his earlier impressions of books and how he took to writing.

Pankaj Mishra, a writer as well known for his novels as for his essays on the current state of the Indian subcontinent and most especially the ‘temptations of the west’ in the region, spoke on issues as wide as the Indio-Chinese relations to the perception of an Indian author in a western context.

I was most thrilled to host a session with Tarun Tejpal, a well known journalist and writer, who has been constantly challenging boundaries of the media and providing a bold face to the common man in questioning the state. He spoke on issues of balancing life as a journalist and writer, on the skewed notion of the booming India in the west as well as on the varied topics he deals with in his books, the third being already submitted to his agent.

Whether India is still ridden by its myriad problems of poverty, corruption, violence or communalism, whether it is the biased vision of the west of a selected affluent class or the rising middle one, the fact largely remains that India fascinates not just the curious foreigner but engages even a confused, at times helpless Indian like me in a way that no other culture does.

The Book Fair provides the best setting for such exchanges and I hope, inshallah, it continues to do so in the coming years.

Someone who frequents book fairs around the world would know that the success of a book fair depends as much on the business during the day as probably on the buzz around the fair in the evenings. In fact on some accounts more so!

Abu Dhabi is abuzz on the evenings with gala dinners, book awards et al. Though I decided to skip the Sheikh Zayed Book award due to some prior engagements, I am pretty sure it was an event of unmatched grandeur. As my fellow blogger, Chad has already expounded on the importance of the book awards in the region, I would try and focus on something else.

Talking about the development of publishing in the region yesterday, I was a bit swayed by the big ventures that seem to be launched in the region. What however one sees at the fair is also the small attempts around reading promotion and just making books livelier that surely make the book fair not just a zone for newer business partners but even for publishers and the like to stop by and spend a moment enjoying the world of books. Take for example, the creativity corner where a whole range of events and activities are organised for the tiny tots. I couldn’t help but join in little boys and girls sketching their way away and listening to wonderful stories.

There is an ease around the book fair which you don’t find in the rush of Frankfurt or the crowds of retail fairs in Cairo and New Delhi. The Kitab Sofa and the discussion forum are just one of the many places where one can pause and enjoy some interesting and lively discussions.

The special focus on Agents and bringing them in contact with Arab Publishers was of particular interest to me since we back in India also feel the lack of such an interaction.

Coming to a traditional book market, one wouldn’t probably imagine discussing issues of technology and e books. The Book Fair though proves you wrong there with not just a line up on sessions on eRights for Arabic Books, Publishing in a Digital Age, Using Internet community sites for promotion etc., but also a significant attendance by arab and no arab publishers which goes on to show the potential of growth in these hitherto undiscovered markets.

My favourite time of the day however still is when I man the Indian Independent Publishers Stand. Again approached by a group of young boys who sheepishly asked Urvashi Butalia, a feminist publisher from India and also a co-exhibitor at the stand about the small litte dolls scattered on the table. After Urvashi gave them a nice explanation about how these dolls called Tsunamikas were actually produced by people affected by the Tsunami of 2004 to spread awareness of the impact of the same. One of the cheeky boys however immediately interrupted her saying he thought it was a ghost. The story wouldn’t have been as dark had the boys after much reluctance of touching doll not started choosing colours. One even took some for his ‘sister’. The fair seems to attract the most interesting kinds!

-AP

In advance of tonight’s Sheikh Zayed Book Awards ceremony (which will undoubtedly be quite elegant), there was a special panel discussion on the impact of literary awards on the Arab cultural movement featuring representatives from the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, the Sultan Bin Owais Award, and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.

Conventional wisdom is that book prizes – and the requisite long and shortlists – are extremely helpful in bringing attention (and readers) to noteworthy books. As Body Tonkin pointed out, this is especially true in the case of the IPPF, which honors literature published in English translation. There’s a dearth of international literature making its way into English, and the vast majority of these books are ignored (or at least under-reported on) by the mainstream media. In some cases, the IPPF longlist is the first time these titles are brought to the attention of general readers.

For people like Boyd (and myself, and Azar Nafisi) who believe that “literature is a way to project and communicate stories of richness and humanity that the news media are never going to tell us,” getting more international fiction into the hands of readers is de facto a Very Good Thing. It’s through novels that we can start to respect and understand another culture. Or, in the words of Ezra Pound, “literature is news that stays news.”

Boyd did raise some concerns about the trappings of prizes, concerns that were echoed in some of the other panelist’s statements. One of the main goals of a prize such as the IFFP is to celebrate the diversity and plurality of what’s being produced. That an award like this can show us the range of voices out there, the variety of experiences. Unfortunately, by the very nature of a prize, of naming a single book or author as the “best,” one can actually reduce a region to a single author or two. It happens all the time that a single writer comes to represent a culture and is “the” person to read from that particular part of the world. In the States, Roberto Bolano fills that role in regards to Latin America, Jose Saramago does for Portugal, and Naguib Mahfouz does for the Arabic world. So there is a danger in awarding prizes – the danger of promoting just a small number of books that have “broken through” in some way. Or, as another panelist alluded to, the idea that prizes frequently honor the already-popular, the already-established, instead of using the power of the prize to confer respect onto an up-and-coming author.

One of the other dangers worth mentioning is the connection between literary prizes and governmental organizations. Regardless of panel independence, if a prize doesn’t stand on its own as its own institution, there will always be a cloud of suspicion that certain books were honored for political, instead of cultural reasons.

But on the whole, the culture of prize giving is an incredibly positive one. Coming from a part of the world where people barely read, much less read books from other parts of the world, anything anyone can do to help get a fantastic piece of literature into the hands of more readers is incredibly important. And hopefully over the next few years, even more prizes will come into existence–both in the Arab World and in the West–to celebrate the diversity of creative voices working in the world today.

In order to further promote Arabic literary culture throughout the rest of the world, there needs to be more literary agents representing Arab writers, and there needs to be some sort of translation subvention programme in place to support foreign publishers interested in these titles.

Those were the two key points that came out of the “Agents–How They Operate, How to Cooperate” professional panel that took place this afternoon and featured Ira Silverberg of Sterling Lord Literistic (USA), Nermin Mollaoglu of Kalem Agency (Turkey), Anna Soler-Pont of Pontas Agency (Spain), and Lucien Leitess of Unionsverlag (Switzerland).

The first half of the panel was spent on the basics – how to approach an agent (don’t be persistently pushy, try and meet them at book fairs), the role of an agent (to serve as a bridge between authors and publishers), the benefits of an agent (multitude of connection and a certain power due to the large number of clients represented) – with the latter part becoming both more theoretical and specific, as the esteemed panelists took questions from the audience.

Some of these questions were rather challenging. It’s no secret that there are occasionally tensions between publishers, agents, and translators, especially in today’s book publishing world. Nevertheless, the value of a good agent can not be over-stated. As Anna Soler-Pont pointed out, the main function an agent fulfills is the ability to sort through tons of books and authors, picking out the ones that are most worthy and bringing them to the attention of the proper publishers. Agents act as a sort of filter and information clearinghouse – something that’s absolutely crucial when it comes to regions like the Arab world, where there is no cultural organization responsible for specifically promoting Arabic literature abroad.

This became a big point of discussion, since the vast majority of European countries either have “book offices” or strong literary agencies that work to make international publishers aware of the best works being written in their country. The existence of these organizations has a huge impact on getting books translated and published all over the world. Frequently, these agencies are paired with translation subsidy programmes – generally paid for by the government – that provide foreign publishers with the funds necessary to pay translators.

Turkey is a perfect case in point for how this can work. As Lucien Leitess explained, five years Turkey had no literary agents or subvention scheme. Enter Nermin Mollaoglu. In the four years since setting up the Kalem Agency and helping with the implementation of the translation funding programme, Nermin has arranged more than 600 rights deals all of the world.

Ira Silverberg – who worked for an independent publisher before becoming an agent – referred on a few occasions to the idea of a “literary ecosystem” made up of diverse parts: authors, translators, agents, publishers, funding organizations, booksellers, and the like. For this ecosystem to remain as healthy as possible, all of these pieces have to work together. It’s absolutely the case that the Arab world has an amazing wealth of great literature, but for these works to reach as large of a worldwide readership as possible, more Arab authors and publishers need to start working with agents, and either the governments or some philanthropic organization needs to put up some money to support translations out of Arabic.

Waking up to the sound of thunder is probably not something I expected while coming to Abu Dhabi. It probably was some sort of a sign signaling the advent of something big, something grand.

Sure enough, I walked through a slight drizzle to the fair grounds where the 20^th edition of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair ADIBF was being launched. The moment one enters the state of the art exhibition ground, ADNEC ,one is reminded of the fairs in the western world, where things are governed by a method we are not so used to back home.

It is then even more intriguing to find how the book fair heralds into a new era of developing publishing in the Arab world. With a professional programme that aims to not just give the Book Fair an international appeal but also to bring the Arab Publishing World in close contact to the rest of the world, the fair seems to have the energy of something new about to happen. An excitement of sorts which can be felt in the alleyways of the 10,000 odd square metres of stalls spread through one large hall.

It was then not that surprising that Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) launched the Abu Dhabi Distribution (in collaboration with Newmex Consulting). The infrastructure around publishing ails many traditional societies, the Arab world being even more complex with the same language not just spanning countries but even continents. Although a very ambitious task, the ADD in that context seems to be a welcome move.

Within this infrastructure building is the initiative of the Abu Dhabi Library to set up librarys in kiosks, buses and mobiles. I am thrilled to explore the idea of a library in the most unconventional of places and to imagine people having access to something without going through the intimidation of a huge shelves. It surely takes away a certain romanticism from the warmth of the paper that envelopes you in a library as I know it, it nevertheless can make books into a more approachable idea for many who never bothered.

Collecting my thoughts while I was manning the stand for the Indian Independent Publishers that the GBO New Delhi has organized, I felt a tap on my shoulder from a young reader who asked me if he could have a bag. Not having a bag to offer, I did ask him about what he bought at the fair and was entertained with his enthusiasm on the various books/games he bought with the voucher given to him! He however was not very entertained to know that though I was from India, I had never met Shahrukh Khan!

Later tonight the winner of this year’s International Prize for Arabic Fiction (aka the Arab Booker) will be announced. The IPAF was launched in April 2007 and is probably the most prestigious and important literary prize in the Arab World. It “aims to reward excellence in contemporary Arabic creative writing and to encourage the readership of high quality Arabic literature internationally through the translation and publication of winning and shortlisted novels in other major languages.”

To help promote awareness of the award and the finalists, the IPAF puts out the annual “Best of New Arabic Fiction” anthology with excerpts from each of the six shortlisted titles. So, in advance of tonight’s announcement, I thought it would be interesting to post short bits from the book about the titles in contention:

“Spewing Sparks as Big as Castles” by Abdo Khal (Saudi Arabia, Al-Jamal Publications):

Totally dig this title. Sounds like something I’d write late at night . . . too late at night. Here’s the description: “A painfully satirical novel, “Spewing Sparks as Big as Castles” depicts the destructive impact that power and limitless wealth have on life and the environment. It captures the seductive powers of the palace and tells the agonizing story of those who have become enslaved by it, drawn by its promise of glamour.”

“When the Wolves Grow Old” by Jamal Naji (Jordan, Ministry of Culture Publications, Amman):

Another nice title. And a solid opening: “Azmi al-Wajih has humiliated me three times. The first was in the house of his father, who had fallen in love with me and married me. The second was on the day he caught me in the inner room of the house of Sheikh Abd al-Hamid al-Jinzir. And the third was thirteen years later, when I was thirty-eight years old.”

“Beyond Paradise” by Mansoura Ez Eldin (Egypt, El-Ain Publishing):

If I remember right, both of the first two Arab Bookers went to Egyptian writers, so perhaps Mansoura can be considered one of the favorites . . . She’s quite young–younger than I am, actually–and in addition to this book, she is the author of a collection of short stories (“Shaken Light”) and the novel “Maryam’s Maze,” which is forthcoming in English from American University in Cairo Press. She was also selected for the Beirut39, as one of the 39 best Arab authors below the age of 40. “Beyond Paradise” is about an editor of a literary magazine who “is trying to dispose of her negative self-image by liberating herself from a past loaded with painful memories.”

“A Cloudy Day on the West Side” by Mohamed Mansi Qandil (Egypt, Dar El Shorouk):

According to the description, this novel “evokes the period of great archeological discovery and nationalist struggle in Egypt.” It’s about a translator, a young woman who is abandoned after her mother is forced to flee her abusive husband. As she grows up, her life intersects with a number of historical figures, including Howard Carter, Lord Cromer, and Abdulrahman al-Rifa’i. “This thrilling tale is brought to life by the author’s detailed and vivid descriptions of real historical events and places.”

“The Lady from Tel Aviv” by Rabai Al-Madhoun (Palestine, Arab Institute for Research and Publishing):

Focused on the Palestinian-Israeli issue, this novel also has a pretty good opening: “The question surprises me. From the moment I sat down in my seat until the moment she asks the question, it bothers me. From scenes of war, the question pulls me right up to the edge an answer. At first I am nervous, too unsettled to choose an answer. I might have picked any other nationality–anything but Palestinian–in my fear that someone might overhear us and shout out to all the other passengers: ‘Palestinian! This man’s a Palestinian!’ It’s possible. What if one of them got up and made the announcement? ‘Ladies and gentlemen: there’s a Palestinian on board this airplane!’”

“America” by Rabee Jaber (Lebanon, Al-Markaz al-Thaqafi al-Arabi):

 This is the book that I think is going to win. The whole East-West theme. America. And a compelling story: “‘America’ evokes the story of the Syrians who left their homeland in the early twentieth century to try their luck in the young America. Spurred on by a sense of adventure and the desire to escape poverty, they made the epic journey. Leaving their homeland with only a few belongings, their journel takes in everything from their travels across mountains and plains, to their gradual integration into American society, later becoming citizens of America and fighting its wars. In particular, the novel focuses on the character of Martha, who travels alone to New York in search of her husband, with whom she has lost contact. America is a tribute to those who left Syria in search of a new life from those who remained behind.”

I’ll post about the winner as soon as possible . . .