At the invitation of the FLF, minister of culture Joke Schauvliege visited the Frankfurt Book Fair on Thursday. She was shown around the fair and visited the stands of the guest country Iceland and various German publishers who have recently published translations of works by authors from Flanders. She also met Flemish publishers at the joint stand and elsewhere at the fair. In the afternoon, she learned about how the Flemish Literature Fund and the Dutch Foundation for Literature work and met staff from the publishers and the FLF at the joint stand. In her final speech, she said how impressed she was with the enthusiastic and professional approach of all those involved in putting Flemish books on the international map. A result-oriented collaboration between economy and culture.
The FLF was presenting non-fiction at the fair for the first time. The pilot project is intended to find out whether and how the FLF can incorporate the active promotion of nonfiction that goes further than literary essays into its foreign rights marketing. Foreign publishers were presented with an initial selection of nonfiction titles from Flanders to see which titles and themes would provoke interest. The results will be discussed with Minister Schauvliege. If the project is evaluated positively, and if an extra budget is granted, then the FLF can invest further effort into promoting culturally valuable Flemish books abroad.
In the many meetings, foreign publishers showed interest in popular life science titles, such Mark Nelissen's 'Darwin in de supermarkt' [Darwin in the Supermarket]. Cultural biographies, such as Jan Caeyers' 'Beethoven' and Gita Deneckere's 'Leopold I', also attracted foreign interest. The Norwegian translation of David van Reybrouck's 'Congo' has recently been published and the German, English, French and Swedish translations are in progress. Plans have also been laid for a Danish translation. Various publishers from Spain and one from Poland also expressed interest in publishing the book.
Children's and youth literature from Flanders attracted a great deal of attention at the Frankfurt Book Fair. 'Wer is hier der Chef', the German translation of 'De baas van alles' [The Boss of Everything] by Bart Moeyaert with illustrations by Katrien Matthys, was presented to the press. The book also received a prominent place and a positive review in the book fair supplement of the daily newspaper, 'Frankfurter Rundschau'. This week, 'Als gäbe es ein Himmel', the German translation of Els Beerten's 'Allemaal willen we de hemel' [We All Want Heaven] was released. The translator, Mirjam Pressler, said it was the best book she had ever read about the war. Jan De Leeuw was nominated for the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis for 'Schrödinger, Dr. Linda und eine Leiche im Kühlhaus', Rolf Erdorf's German translation of 'Bevroren kamers' [Frozen Rooms]. He just missed the prize, but was very pleased with his nomination for this prestigious award.
There was a great deal of good news for the FLF from foreign publishers planning to release translations of children's and youth books. Gerstenberg (Germany) and Cappelen Damm (Norway), for example, will be publishing 'De duif die niet kon duiken' [The Dove Who Could Not Dive] by Alain Verster and Edward van de Vendel and Protea Boekhuis (South Africa) is planning translations of 'Een miljoen Vlinders' [One Million Butterflies] by Carll Cneut and Edward van de Vendel, 'Mare en de dingen' [Mare and the Things that Matter] by Kaatje Vermeire and Tine Mortier, 'De zuurtjes' [The Sourballs] by Benjamin Leroy and Jaap Robben and 'Galgenmeid' [Gallows Maid] by Jean-Claude Van Rijckeghem and Pat van Beirs. Contracts have also been signed with publishers from New Zealand, Denmark and Sweden for Leo Timmers' 'Meneer René' [Mister René].
New titles that incited a great deal of response were Kaatje Vermeire's latest picture book 'De vraag van olifant' [Elephant's Question], which has already been sold to Denmark and Sweden, and Bart Moeyaert's 'De Melkweg' [The Milky Way], which will undoubtedly be released in German by his regular publisher Hanser Verlag, but is also being considered by numerous other publishers. Publishers from Germany, Norway, India, Korea, New Zealand, Spain and Switzerland have shown interest in 'Ik wou' [I Wish], the portrait book by Ingrid Godon and Toon Tellegen, which will shortly be featured in an exhibition in Museum M in Louvain.
There are concrete plans for graphic novels and comics, too. Avant Verlag will be publishing a German translation of 'Boerke' [Dickie] by Pieter De Poortere and Sins Entido (Spain) a translation of 'Slaapkoppen' [Sleepyheads] (Randall.C). Translations are soon to be released of a book by Judith Vanistendael at Selfmadehero (UK), Norma (Spain) and Rizzoli Lizard (Italy). Contracts have already been negotiated for Brecht Evens' new book 'De liefhebbers' [The Making Of] for Canada, the UK, Germany and Spain.
Foreign prose publishers are, naturally, interested in new titles by authors who have already been translated (such as Dimitri Verhulst's 'De intrede van Christus in Brussel' [Entry of Christ Into Brussels], Erwin Mortier's 'Gestameld liedboek' [Stammered Songbook] and 'Post voor mevrouw Bromley' [Mail For Mrs Bromley] by Stefan Brijs), but are also showing interest in titles by authors as yet unknown to them, such as Yves Petry with 'De maagd Marino' [The Virgin Marino] and Erik Vlaminck with 'Brandlucht' [Burning Smell]. A lot of other publications are also planned for the near future: Publishers btb will be issuing 
Rachida Lamrabet's 'Kind van God' [Child of God] on the German market as a mass market paperback and Annelies Verbeke's 'Vissen redden' [Saving Fish], recently published in German by Mare Verlag, will be released in November 2011 as a Finnish translation and in 2012 in Russian and Czech. Alexander Verlag in Berlin has reissued an existing translation of 'Menuet' [Minuet] with a picture of Luc Tuymans on the cover and is planning to publish more work by Louis Paul Boon. 2012 will see the publication of the Spanish translation of Erwin Mortier's 'Godenslaap'
[Divine Sleep] and the rights to 'Marcel' have been sold in Italy. In few weeks' time, a Danish translation of Tom Lanoye's novel 'Sprakeloos' [Speechless] will be published.
Poetry and translated poetry are hard to find at a trade fair like the Frankfurt Book Fair. Nonetheless, important poetry contacts are established and maintained at the fair that generate results in the longer term. Archipelago Books (USA) is planning to publish a major anthology of poetry by Hugo Claus in an English translation by David Colmer in 2013. Hadewijch's 'Liederen' [Songs] is to be published in German and French translations and there is interest from Portugal, Hungary and Russia. The exchange project 'Poesie der Nachbarn' will be concluded with a beautiful edition of a collection of poems presented in a series of readings in Remagen (Erik Spinoy), Berlin (Dirk van Bastelaere) and Koblenz (Els Moors).
