The FLF occupied a new, larger booth and covered it with the dancing figures of ‘Ergens waar je niet wil zijn' (Somewhere you don't want to be, published by Oogachtend), a most peculiar graphic novel by Brecht Evens. The French and English rights have already been sold. In Frankfurt, several Italian, Spanish, German publishers as well as an Indian one showed a lot of interest.
Due to the successful turn of Flanders as guest-of-honour at the international Angoulême comics festival, graphic novels were on the rise. Publishers were particularly drawn to collected stories, like ‘Jaren van de olifant' (‘Years of the elephant') by Willy Linthout, ‘De maagd en de neger' (The virgin and the negro) by Judith Vanistendael and ‘De tweede kus' (The second kiss) by Conz. ‘Wachten op een eiland' (Waiting on an island) by Marc Legendre also got a lot of attention.
The FLF put the rich literary harvest in the picture with information files and sample translations in English. The selected novels by Bart Koubaa (‘De leraar', The teacher), Bart Moeyaert (‘Graz'), Peter Terrin (‘De bewaker', The guard) and Margot Vanderstraeten (‘Mise en place') did well with publishers from Germany to the United Arab Emirates. More controversial, ‘Wij' (We) by Elvis Peeters mainly scored points from our neighbouring countries and Scandinavia. ‘De engelenmaker' (‘The Angel Maker') might soon add Polish to its list of translations. ‘De buitenkant van Meneer Jules' (The outside of Mister Jules) by Diane Broeckhoven might soon be published in France. Germany and Hungary bought the rights for Chika Unigwe's ‘Fata Morgana', partly due to the publication of the English translation, ‘On Black Sisters' Street'. Another deal that was sealed in Frankfurt was the sale of Hugo Claus' ‘Het verdriet van België' (‘The sorrow of Belgium') to Croatia.
In the children's and youth category, publishers liked ‘Ik denk dat het liefde was' 
(I think it was love) by Kathleen Vereecken and ‘De zomerzot' (The summer fool) by André Sollie. The rights for ‘Het geheim van de keel van de nachtegaal' (The secret of the nightingale's throat), Carll Cneut and Peter Verhelst's prize-winning picture book, had already been sold to many countries. At the book fair, the fairy tale story still had a lot of momentum and publications in amongst others Japan and India might soon follow. Plans for less recent titles were made concrete. Do Van Ranst's ‘Mijn vader zegt dat we levens redden' (My father says we save lives), for instance, will appear in Denmark in November, ‘Moeders zijn gevaarlijk met messen' (Mothers are dangerous with knives) will soon be released in Germany. Van Ranst was nominated for the Deutsche Jugendliteraturpreis, which is traditionally awarded during the Buchmesse. He won the prestigious award in 2007. For Bart Moeyaert too, this was a second nomination. However, the prize was won by Markus Zusak for ‘The book thief'.
As the international poetry website lyrikline.org celebrated its tenth anniversary, our Flemish poets got a fair deal of attention from German publishers. Aside from some German, Spanish and English publishers too looked at ‘Liederen' (Songs) by Hadewijch. A new edition of ‘Liederen' was recently published by the Historische Uitgeverij with a production grant from the FLF.
The yearly presence of the FLF at the international book fair pays off. Not only is the FLF-booth a compulsory stop for most European publishers of literature, more and more new and important contacts are made with publishing houses and organisations in Asia, Latin-America and the Middle East. As a result, the FLF has plans for projects in Japan, India and Argentina. In addition, an expansion with regards to content is imperative. The FLF is often pressed for translation grants for non-fiction. In this area, our Dutch partner organisation, NLPVF, has a successful track record, including recent titles like ‘Ararat' by Frank Westerman and ‘In Europa' by Geert Mak.
