Meetings, workshops & book fairs

The International Alliance of Independent Publishers calls on all international solidarity organisations to mobilise in Haiti. The Alliance will do do its outmost to support Haitian book professionals in the long-term, particularly librarians, publishers and booksellers, by joining forces with existing and future stakeholders in Haiti.

The importance of culture should be considered in the reconstruction process. In the Haïtian context, where symbolism has a special place, reinventing Haïti also involves supporting the arts and culture, particularly books and authors that promote the people’s complex and fascinating identity. A people cut off from its culture is a dead people.

Rodney Saint-Éloi, author and publisher member of the International Alliance of Independent Publishers

The Spanish-language network and the Portuguse-language network of the Alliance met in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) from 25 till 27 November 2009, during « la Primavera dos livros ». These meetings allowed both networks to build their respective initiative programme for 2010-2011 but also to strengthen the « regionalisation » of the Alliance, through an inter-network meeting.

On Monday 12 October 2009, the Alliance brought together the five language network coordinators and six members of the Board. This meeting, prepared in advance by the permanent staff, was an opportunity to address several core issues for our movement. A French version of the minutes in full – including the verbatim of this long and exciting day of work – was sent to the participants. They wished however to have a communiqué, summing up the main points discussed and decisions taken together, drawn up in three languages for circulation among all members of the Alliance.

The Alliance language network coordinators will meet in Paris on Monday 12th and Tuesday 13d of October 2009. This meeting comes further to a request formulated by the publishers at the International Assembly of Independent Publishing (July 2007), who wished that the coordinators could meet the members of the Alliance’s Board.

Language network coordinators :

• Nouri Abid, Tunisia (Med Ali), coordinator of the Arabic-language network ;
• Marc Favreau, United States (The New Press), coordinator of the English-language network ;
• Guido Indij, Argentina (la marca editora), coordinator of the Spanish-language network ;
• Serge D. Kouam, Cameroon (Presses universitaires d’Afrique), coordinator of the French-language network ;
• Cristina Warth, Brazil (Pallas), coordinator of the Portuguese-language network.

Do you want your collection to diversify ? Are you fond of youth literature ?
Set out to discover African youth literature thanks to an exclusive selection of books published in Africa : colofur, sometimes bilingual quality books, with engaging characters and extraordinary adventures.

These books are available from the Alliance, get in touch with us for any request or any order.

The Alliance is present at the Geneva African Book Fair (April 22 to 26, 2009) and gives you the opportunity to participate in a smart book donation operation. By buying one or several youth books produced in Africa from the African bookshop on the Fair, as well as a pre-paid envelope from the Alliance, you can mail the books yourself to a library in Africa.

The members of the Spanish-language network met at the Buenos Aires Book Fair in Argentina, from April 18 to 22, 2009. On this occasion, the representatives from 6 Latin-American collectives of independent publishers held a specific meeting to exchange their experiences.

From January 5, 2009 on, you are invited to discover Books About Books, a resource center specialized in « Books & Publishing » in the middle of Paris.

Books About Books is open from Monday to Saturday, from 10am to 6 pm. For any additional information, don’t hesitate to call us at +33(0)1 43 14 73 66.