While attending the 2011 Asian Festival of Children’s Content I met and spent time with three wonderful children/young adult authors: Chris Cheng from Australia, Dave Seow from Singapore and Jane Houng from Hong Kong. Interestingly enough, I ran into all 3 of them again at the 2012 Bologna Children’s Book Fair, and am looking forward to seeing them all again next week at the 2013 Asian Festival of Children’s Content. Besides being involved with AFCC panel sessions and workshops, each of them will also be doing a book launch during the Festival. Each launch takes place at the AFCC venue, the National Library of Singapore, and you are more than welcome to come join in the celebrations. I know that I will be there!

Dave Seow, Sunday, May 26th 4:45pm

Emma’s Elephant ~ Emma has an elephant named Ella. She’s no ordinary elephant but an invisible elephant, but if Ella likes you, she’ll let you see her.

Jane Houng, Wednesday, May 29th 11:15am

Bloodswell -  is a young adult novel suitable for readers over the age of sixteen. Billed as “a fast-paced vampire saga infused with the sights, people and atmosphere of Hong Kong”, it’s a story of intense teenage friendships, dangerous secrets and forbidden love. Read Asian Review of Books’ review here.

Chris Cheng, Wednesday, May 29th 1:45pm (Project Splash! Asia launch) and 7:30pm (SCBWI dinner)

Water ~ 2013 is designated as the International Year of Water Cooperation. This book is a celebration of water and its importance to our existence. Illustrator Susanna Goho-Quek’s beautiful illustrations are created with acrylic, water colour and pen on paper, canvas and plastic sheet. All proceeds from the sale of this title—an original contribution to the Project Splash! Asia collection to be launched at AFCC2013—go towards furthering the mission of the Asian Festival of Children’s Content.  Project Splash! Asia, is a first collection and bibliography of children’s books from Asia on a common theme—water. More information about Water and Project Splash! Asia is here.

This gorgeous poster heralds this year’s Golden Baobab Prize. Entries are now open for submissions of unpublished manuscripts of writing for children up to the age of 12 from “African citizens of all ages;” and his year, Golden Baobab will award three prizes:

· The Picture Book Prize awards $1,000 to the best story written for readers ages 6-8;

· The Early Chapter Book Prize awards $1,000 to the best story written for readers ages 9-11;

· The Rising Writer Prize awards $1,000 to the most promising young writer below the age of 18.

This year’s prize packages also include a publishing deal and opportunities to attend exclusive Golden Baobab writers’ workshops. Additional rules and regulations can be found here. The deadline for submissions is not far away – 14 July 2013 – so if you’re thinking of entering, go for it!

You can follow Golden Baobab’s news on their blog… and do read our recent Guest Post, “African youth literature: what visibility on the international market?” by Mariette Robbes of the International Alliance of Independent Publishers.

Tomorrow the winner of this year’s Diverse Voices Award will be announced at Seven Stories in Newcastle, UK.  Sadly, I won’t be able to be there (though for the best of all possible reasons, since I’ll be heading towards Singapore for AFCC) – however, I will be keeping alert for the announcement,  as the shortlist, announced earlier this week, certainly promises an exciting winning entry.

The competition is open to all writers who have not previously had a work of fiction published.  This year there are three manuscripts in the shortlist, and each writer offers plenty of food for thought in their reasons for writing their middle-grade novel and entering the Award:

  One of a Kind by Jude (Najoud) Ensaff, set in war-torn Iraq…

The idea for One of a Kind was born out of truth. Like many people who write, she wrote about something she knew: her childhood and later experiences, her losses and joys, then and now. Jude says: “Coming from a mixed race background, my father being Turkman and Muslim and my mother having been Welsh and Christian, I offer a unique perspective on cultural diversity from both a racial and religious perspective. I lived in Kuwait for part of my childhood but in 1990 following the invasion of Kuwait, my family settled in the UK in Wales, and I have lived in the UK ever since.

   Samosa Girl by Swapna Haddow, about a girl who develops super powers…

The idea for Samosa Girl arose from Swapna’s secret fantasy to be a superhero. She says: “Whilst I’m not a superhero myself and I’m yet to happen upon a magical samosa, or at least one that doesn’t give me a dodgy tummy, this novel is embellished with the humorous anecdotes of my own upbringing as a second generation Indian in Britain.”  She’s glad to see that there are far more books for children that celebrate ethnicity in their characters nowadays but felt there was a need for a tale of fun and mayhem, that honoured the strength of childhood friendship, something every child could relate to no matter what their background.

  You’re Not Proper by Tariq Mehmood, set in a town”seething with Islamophobia”…

Tariq Mehmood entered the award because his three children are from diverse religious, cultural and religious backgrounds. Kashmiri, Pakistani, Tamil and English. Like many children in England, they have multiple identities. Tariq says: “I have children who are not white, who read a lot, but they themselves are fictionally invisible and where they do come into characters which may be close to them, at best they are appendages to white characters or they might as well be white. In Diverse Voices, I saw the recognition of the importance of creating a new literary landscape that reflected the world around us, that is blooming with thousands of different flowers, in which children are its scents.” In You’re Not Proper, Tariq Mehmood aims to make the  fictionally invisible,visible by creating characters whose existence is shaped not only by their ‘communities’ but also by the major issues of Islamophobia, war and identity.

You can read the synopses of their books, and more about the Award itself, in the Diverse Voices press release here.  This is a very exciting shortlist and no doubt the judges have their work cut out.  All will be revealed tomorrow!

(And an interesting coincidence – Swapna also has a picture-book manuscript shortlisted for the SingTel Asian Picture Book Award, which will be announced at AFCC next week…)

Mariette Robbes is a volunteer with the International Alliance of Independent Publishers, following an internship with the organisation in 2011.  She holds a Masters in the”World of the Book” (Aix-en-Provence University), for which she specialized in children’s book publishing in India; and she has just completed three months with the International Youth Library in Munich, pursuing her research into the history of youth publishing in India.  Mariette is also working concurrently on several textile and graphic creation projects.

At this year’s Bologna Book Fair, the International Alliance of Independent Publishers ran a workshop with African children’s book publishers (from Mali, Guinea, Togo, Senegal, Rwanda, Madagascar and Benin) and a Brazilian publisher specialized in the Afro-Brazilian culture.  We are delighted to welcome Mariette to PaperTigers with an article about the workshop and some of the issues discussed, and in which she highlights some of the challenges facing these small, independent publishers.

~ African Youth Literature: What Visibility in the International Market? ~

A reflection on multiculturalism, African children’s literature
and the international market place.

Children’s books publishing, in expansion in many regions in the world, is particularly strategic in countries where publishing is emergent – it is indeed through youth literature that tomorrow’s readership is formed. While catering for their local readership, publishers in Africa also wish to be known internationally and to have business with publishers from others countries. Their participation at some public book fairs in the North, for instance the Montreuil Children’s Book Fair (the biggest French children’s book fair) shows the existence of a readership on the Northern markets. However, publishers from African countries still participate very little in the global exchange of rights that animates the publishing world – and which is the core of international events like the Bologna or Frankfurt Book Fairs.

This question of visibility and intercultural exchange is quite complex and not specific to African children’s literature, as Gita Wolf – from the Indian publishing house Tara Books – underlines in her book Picturing Words & Reading Pictures (Tara Books, Chennai, 1997):

 ”Whether rights are bought for books from India or Africa also depends largely on current political climates. What should children in Europe or North America be reading? Are multicultural books exotic, or are they necessary? As in other industries like fashion, countries like India can be ‘in’ one season and ‘out’ the next.”

Those topics were the main subject of exchanges in a two-day workshop that saw eight independent publishers from different African countries and Brazil share their experiences and think of innovative solutions that would help them to be more visible at international book fairs, in order to promote their publishing houses worldwide.

Publishers present were:

Paulin Assem – Ago editions (Togo)
Agnès and Peter Gyr Ukunda – Bakame (Rwanda)
Antoinette Correa – BLD (Senegal)
Sékou Fofana – Editions Donniya (Mali)
Aliou Sow – Ganndal (Republic of Guinea)
Marie Michèle Razafintsalama – Jeunes Malgaches (Madagascar)
Cristina and Mariana Warth – Pallas editora (Brazil)
Cendra Gbado Batossi and Pierre Gbado – Ruisseaux d’Afrique (Benin)

All these publishers come from very different countries and backgrounds, and publish a wide array of books; from poetry to comics, to picture books and young adult literature. Their readerships are different, as well as the government policies supporting the development of book industries in their own countries. In this sense, all the publishers had different stories to share when it comes to marketing their books in the global market.

 

During the two days of the workshop, intense discussion took place between publishers, sharing their own experiences of the international marketplace: for example, Marie Michèle Razafintsalama from the publishing house Jeunes Malgaches (Madagascar) related her experience of buying the rights of The Little Prince by Saint-Exupéry to translate it into a bilingual Malagasy and French edition Ilay Andriandahy Kely; while Cristina and Mariana Warth from Pallas Editora (Brazil) explained their preparation process for the Fair, beginning months in advance.

Though it is well noted that the invitation program of Bologna Book Fair is a great opportunity because it allows publishers to attend, it is not sufficient in itself for creating a convincingly visible presence at the Fair.  On this point, a presentation by Hannele Legras, Literary Agent from Hannele and Associates agency, was very helpful. She gave an introduction to foreign rights management, practices of the profession, a panorama of international markets, and a lot of tips and advice that publishers were eager to try.

The workshop was also the place for publishers to express their views on the difference between their local readerships’ tastes, expectations and purchasing power, and what can be seen in the Western marketplace. Do publishers need to adapt their books in order to market them internationally? What are the market standards in other emerging markets i.e China, Brazil, Mexico, etc? How might they differ from the Western standards, thus creating not one standard for publishing, but many different business models?

In the coming months and as a follow-up to the workshop, the Alliance will produce a small guide which will summarise all the ideas shared by publishers and the different speakers at the workshop.

The workshop also allowed publishers, who do not often have the opportunity to meet up, to exchange projects, books and ideas among themselves. Watch out for new projects and collaborations coming soon!

N.B. This workshop took place in the context of the International Assembly of Independent Publishers (more information here), and thanks to a partnership with the Bologna Book Fair to engage in reflection about the visibility of African independent publishers in international book fairs and rights events.

The other day, Corinne gave a heads up to Dr. Myra Garces-Bacsal’s sparkly Pre-AFCC Glitter posts – well, today’s features Corinne herself – so head on over to the wonderful Gathering Books blog  to see what Corinne is going to be doing at AFCC…

One thing it doesn’t mention, though, is that Corinne is also on the judging panel of one of the children’s book awards that will be presented during AFCC… Just looking at the shortlists makes you gulp at the decisions she and the rest of the panel are having to make!

Following up on our post about the Singtel Asian Picture Book Award (Author) shortlist, here are the details for the shortlisted illustrator candidates. The objective of the Singtel Asian Picture Book Award is to encourage and inspire the creation and publication of more Asian-themed picture books. The award is also intended to stimulate public interest and awareness of picture books. The first SingTel Asian Picture Book Award 2013, with a prize of S$10,000 (to be split evenly amongst an author and an illustrator), will be presented during the Asian Festival of Children’s Content on 28 May 2013.

Reza Dalvand
(Iran)
Title: Who Knows Mr. Pink

Reza Dalvan is an author and a member of the Iranian Society of Illustrators. He won several prizes inc
including the Encouragement Prize for Nami Island International Illustration Concours, South Korea 2013, First prize for the Niayesh Illustration biennial – Iran 2012 and the First prize of Grand exhibition Isfahan University of Art – Iran 2012.

Bolormaa Baasansuren
(Mongolia)
Title:  Old City

Bolormaa Baasansuren was born in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. She graduated from the Institute of Fine Arts
in Mongolia and was a research student of Bunkyo University in Japan. She won the grand prize for
Noma 14th picture book competition in Japan and has four published picture books including Legend of Wives and My Little Round House. {See PaperTigers’ features on Bolormaa here, here and here}

Lak – Khee Tay Audouard
(Singapore)
Title: Wayang Night

Born in Singapore, children’s book illustrator Lak – Khee grew up in a multi – racial neighbourhood. She saw her first picture book at ten and since then she has been “hooked” on books. Lak – Khee is most keen to share her love for fast – disappearing cultural treasures with a whole generation of IT savvy children of today.

Gina Eugenia
(Indonesia)
Title: Cap Go Meh

Gina received her BA in Visual Communication from ITB University, Indonesia. Illustrated around 25 children books and has worked with Disney Magazine Indonesia, a project for Children Folktales in Southeast Asian Countries and Korea by the SEAMEO in 2012

Head on over to Dr. Myra Garces-Bacsal’s wonderful Gathering Books blog  and read her Pre-AFCC Glitter posts in which she  conductings short interviews with AFCC invited guest speakers and other conference attendees. Recent posts include Holly Thompson, Naomi Kojima, and Emily Lim. Hard to believe that AFCC starts in only a week and half! The excitement is building! Check out the official AFCC website to see all that’s in store.

Congratulations to Sarah Garland, whose wonderful graphic novel for young readers, and our current Book of the Month, Azzi In Between was announced as the winner of the 2013 Little Rebels Children’s Book Award on Saturday at the first London Radical Bookfair.

From the official press release:

Commenting on today’s announcement, guest judge and children’s author Elizabeth Laird said, “Azzi tells a simple and powerful story, one with which we should all be tragically familiar, with a text and pictures that are rich, appealing and satisfyingly detailed”. Booktrust founder and guest judge Wendy Cooling added, “The graphic novel style gives it freshness and immediacy. The text and illustration work together brilliantly as they invite children to enjoy the story and to think about the lives of other children”.

In a marked departure for the author, best known for her warm narratives of family life, Azzi In Between is in a graphic format and tells the powerful story of a family forced to flee their homeland and settle in a strange and unfamiliar country. The book is based on the author’s own experience of working among refugee families and is endorsed by Amnesty International. Kate Kellaway of The Observer described Azzi In Between as a “masterpiece”. Fen Coles, director of Letterbox Library who administered the award, said, “At a time when there are so many damaging myths circulating about refugees and asylum seekers, it is heartening to see a book which tells the truth- and in a way which children can relate to”.

Earlier in the day, Wendy Cooling chaired a discussion on ‘progressive children’s writing’ with two of the shortlisted authors, Sarah Garland and Jeanne Willis. Elizabeth Laird described Willis’ shortlisted book, Wild Child (Walker) as “a truly radical work, celebrating freedom and originality on every page”. The two other shortlisted titles were John Boyne’s The Terrible Thing that Happened to Barnaby Brocket (Corgi Children/Random House UK) and Yokococo’s Hans and Matilda (Templar Publishing).

The Little Rebels Children’s Book Award is a new award given by the Alliance of Radical Booksellers and administered by specialist children’s booksellers, Letterbox Library. The award recognises children’s fiction for readers aged 0-12 which promote social justice and is the brainchild of Nik Gorecki, Housmans Bookshop; speaking about the award, Nik said, “The Alliance of Radical Booksellers is working hard to promote radical publishing and children’s books are an important element of that. There’s still lots of plans in the pipeline for the future and next year we hope to introduce a category for teen readers”.

Here’s a photograph of Sarah talking about Azzi In Between during the panel discussion on Saturday, taken by www.ivereadthat.com – you can see all their photos from the day here – I wish I could have been there! (I know that Zoe from Playing by the Book was, and I will add a link to her post as soon as it goes live…) And also, below, is the great Little Rebels cartoon created by Guardian cartoonist Ros Asquith: a print will be given to each year’s winner as part of their prize.

Following up on yesterday’s post, here are more details about the shortlisted candidates for this year’s  SingTel Asian Picture Book Award (Author). The objective of the award is to encourage and inspire the creation and publication of more Asian-themed picture books. The award is also intended to stimulate public interest and awareness of picture books. The first SingTel Asian Picture Book Award 2013, with a prize of S$10,000 (to be split evenly amongst an author and an illustrator), will be presented during the Asian Festival of Children’s Content on 28 May 2013.

The 2013 SingTel Asian Picture Book Award (Author) candidates are:

Swapna Haddow
(United Kingdom)

Don’t Eat That, Phoenix!
Phoenix, a young Chinese boy, is celebrating New Year with his family. Phoenix is excited to get the banquet started and sets his dinner table with lots of Chinese New Year items he discovers in his home. The entire family sits down to dinner and enjoys Phoenix’s unique banquet.

Sophie Dewayani
(Indonesia)

Cap Go Meh
Nisa, a Muslim girl, and Lili, a Chinese – Indonesian, debate over where cap go meh rice cake is the genuine icon of Eid Al – Fitr tradition or Chinese New Year celebration. After sharing the rice cakes and the excitement of experiencing each celebration, Nisa and Lili end up discovering what is more essential; that a dish is able to bridge diversity.

Debra Chong
(Singapore)

If I Were…
“If I were a lion, I could scare enemies away with a single roar.”
If I were a giraffe, I could reach out and pick delicious fruits from the tallest tree.”
But Shan Shan is neither.
She’s a panda that’s good at….hmmmm, just what is it that pandas are good at anyway?

Ganbaatar Ichinnorov
(Mongolia)

Old City
Little boy Anar loves his toy horse. Suddenly his horse escapes into grandpa’s old photo album. Anar goes after the horse and finds himself in the photo album where everything is like in real world. Anar wanders in the city streets looking for his horse but the horse runs away from him and he can not catch it. However grandpa helps him to find his favorite toy horse and makes him happy.

Lak – Khee Tay Audouard
(Singapore)

Wayang Night
A narrative about a much awaited evening of roadside theatre outing for two siblings with their parents. As the young reader turns the pages, glimpses of culture, food and Peranakanarchitecture are offered. In the style reminiscent of 50s era comics, the central attraction will be the pop – up stage.

Maria Agnes Du’a Bewa
(Indonesia)

Utan For Marcia
Marcia is about to turn six years old and, as is tradition, should received an utan (type of sarong) woven by her mother as birthday gift. Unfortunately, her mother is very busy but Marcia has a plan to ensure she receives this special gift.

ASIAN FESTIVAL OF CHILDREN’S CONTENT ANNOUNCES TWO MAJOR AWARDS

Press release:

Announcement of Shortlists of Hedwig Anuar Children’s Book Award 2013 and SingTel Asian Picture Book Award 2013

Singapore, 25 April 2013 – At the Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC) 2013 Press Conference, held today at Hotel Grand Pacific, Ms Claire Chiang, announced the shortlisted names for the Hedwig Anuar Children’s Book Award 2013 and the SingTel Asian Picture Book Award 2013. Ms Claire Chiang also unveiled the five-day festival, which will be held from 25 to 30 May.

Winners for both prizes will be announced during the Children’s Literature Lecture and Award Ceremony on 28 May 2013. The prize for the Hedwig Anuar Children’s Book Award is worth S$10,000, to be shared by the writer and illustrator. The SingTel Asian Picture Book Award offers a total of S$10,000, the First Prize consisting of S$5,000 for an author and S$5,000 for an illustrator. These will be individually known as the SingTel Asian Picture Book Award – Author, and the SingTel Asian Picture Book Award – Illustrator.

For the Hedwig Anuar Children’s Book Award, a total of 33 titles were submitted, out of which 16 entries were Novels and 17 entries were Short Stories or Picture Books. For the SingTel Asian Picture Book Award, a total of 158 manuscripts were submitted, out of which 79 were with illustrations. The award attracted submissions from 19 different countries in total.

The following shortlisted titles are not listed in order of merit:

The Hedwig Anuar Children’s Book Award 2013 Shortlist Candidates:

The Mudskipper by Ovidia Yu

Extraordinary Losers: Operation Pants on Fire by Jessica Alejandro

Farrer Park by Ann Peters

Where’s Grandma? by Edmund Lim

The SingTel Asian Picture Book Award 2013 Shortlist Candidates:

Author:

Don’t Eat That, Phoenix by Swapna Haddow (United Kingdom)

Cap Go Meh by Sophie Dewayani (Indonesia)

If I Were by Debra Chong (Singapore)

Old City by Ichinnorov Ganbaatar (Mongolia)

Wayang Night by Lak-Khee Tay Audouard (Singapore) [See PaperTiger's gallery of her work here]

Utan for Marcia by Maria Agnes Du’a Bewa (Indonesia)

Illustrator:

Who Knows Mr. Pink by Reza Dalvand (Iran)

Old City by BaaSanSuren Bolormaa (Mongolia) [Read PaperTigers' interview with her here and see two galleries of her work here and here]

Wayang Night by Lak-Khee Tay Audouard (Singapore) [See PaperTiger's gallery of her work here]

Cap Go Meh by Gina (Indonesia)

The Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC) brings together content creators and producers with parents, teachers, librarians, and anyone interested in quality Asian content for children. With a mix of professional conferences, masterclasses and workshops, a rights fair and media mart, as well as public events, AFCC is a unique and popular event right here in Asia that provides an opportunity for writers, illustrators, editors, publishers, agents, distributors, parents, children, teachers, and librarians to meet, learn, develop their craft, and discover business opportunities.

PaperTigers is a proud sponsor of the Asian Festival of Children’s Content and both Marjorie and I will be attending this year. To learn more about the AFCC check the official website and read our July 2011 PaperTigers issue  Singapore and the Asian Festival of Children’s Content. Stay tuned to the blog tomorrow to learn more about the SingTel Asian Picture Book Award 2013 Shortlist Candidates.