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Terra viva. My Life in a Biodiversity of Movements

Author(s) : Vandana SHIVA
Publishing countries : Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, Spain, France, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iran, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Syria, Tunisia

Vandana Shiva has worked with farmers’ and people’s movements across the world against what she calls “seed imperialism”, economic polarisation, and the digital colonisation of our ecological and social diversity. This powerful memoir looks back at the most memorable campaigns and movements that she has been part of, while looking ahead to the challenges posed by the COVID crisis, the privatisation of biotechnology, and the commodification of our biological and natural resources. “The awareness that Vandana’s work and actions provoke is sublime”, says Gilles-Éric Séralini, “it will bring you light”.
© Women Unlimited (India)

First publication by two Alliance’s members, Women Unlimited (India) and Spinifex (Australia).

Translations and co-publishings of Terra viva by members of the Alliance:

  • Boitempo (Brazil), 2024
  • Marjin Kiri (Indonesia), 2024
  • Wildproject and Rue de l’échiquier (France), 2023
  • Continta Me Tienes (Spain), LOM Ediciones (Chile) and Econautas Editorial (Argentina) for a co-publishing in Spain and Latin America, 2024
  • Atlas Publishing (Syria), Med Ali (Tunisia), Sefsafa Publishing (Egypt) and Mamdouh Adwan Publishing (Syria) for a co-publishing in the Arab world - in progress
  • Nogaam Publishing (UK/Iran) and Dena Books (Netherlands/Iran) for a co-publishing into Persian - in progress
  • Vakxikon Publications (Greece) - in progress

Several of these translations have benefited from the support of the Jan Michalski Foundation.

Vandana Shiva is one of the Alliance’s Bibliodiversity Ambassador. Listen here the replay of the round table with Vandana Shiva during Babelica 2023.

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Meeting of the International Committee of Independent Publishers (ICIP), 22-24 October 2024

The coordinators of the Alliance’s language networks, meeting as the International Committee of Independent Publishers (ICIP), will be gathering in Paris from 22 to 24 October for the Alliance’s annual governance and operational meeting.

See the list of the 12 members (Algeria, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Indonesia, Haiti, Madagascar, Portugal, South Africa, Syria, Togo, United Kingdom/Iran) of the ICIP.

Consult the programme here.

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HotList Arab world

While the Arab world shares a language, the Arabic language, which has cemented its culture over centuries, it is far from being the only one. From the Maghreb to the Mashreq, from the Horn of Africa to Cham, this immense space covers a diversity of realities. Linguistic diversity is therefore inherent to it.

More than 30 independent publishing houses from 7 countries (Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar, Syria and Tunisia) and 9 languages offer you an immersion in the literature, humanities and children’s literature of the Arab world!

Through this HotList, available in Arabic and English, the independent publishers of the Arab world invite you to discover the 1001 facets of literary and intellectual creativity of their country.

Discover the HotList Arab world here!

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Babelica 2024 - REPLAY

Replays of Babelica 2024 are online on the Babelica platform and on the Alliance’s YouTube channel!

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The Babelica book fair opens on 19 September 2024!

From 19 September, the books of the 2024 Babelica fair will be unveiled: over 90 publishing houses represented in 53 countries around the world.

A wealth of fiction, non-fiction and children’s books to discover here (and filters to help you refine your searches, by language, literary genre or country).

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Babelica 2024, 20-21 September: the program is available!

The 2024 edition of Babelica will take place on 20 and 21 September, 21 September being International Bibliodiversity Day.

The Babelica program is online here!

The Babelica book fair is available online throughout the year. Here you can find the books presented during the 2023 edition of Babelica. The books of the 2024 edition of Babelica will be unveiled on 19 September.

To watch the discussions and debates at Babelica 2023, click here.

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Artificial intelligence and bibliodiversity, watch the workshop online

Following the round table on Artificial Intelligence organised during the 2023 Babelica book fair (see here), online workshop led by Octavio Kulesz is proposed on the challenges of AI for independent publishers (knowledge and understanding of how AI works and some of its tools, analysis of the challenges of AI for independent publishing from an intercultural perspective and with regard to bibliodiversity).

Here link to watch the workshop

This workshop is supported by Campus AFD.

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Alliance’s programme for 2024

1. The Alliance, a space for experimentation and reflection through the Bibliodiversity Observatory
Continue the analyses, reflections and advocacy via the 4 thematic working groups

  • Book ecology
  • Digital publishing: workshops on artificial intelligence
  • Public book policies: mapping public book policies in the Arab world (launch as part of a book fair in the Arab world at the end of 2024) + Guide to Good Practice for public book purchasing (translation and adaptation of this Guide for other geographical and linguistic areas)
  • Freedom to publish: publication of transversal analyses and a series of interviews and podcasts

Equipping and documenting international independent publishing

  • Guide to Good Practice (see here)
  • Bibliodiversité journal (see here): special issue on precariousness in 2024

2. The Alliance, a space for collaboration and sharing
Sharing practices and expertise between publishers; meeting up and strengthening the flow of exchanges

  • Workshops and exchanges of know-how, within the thematic groups and as part of Babelica
  • Virtual meetings, workshops and training sessions on themes defined with the Alliance’s thematic groups (with a particular focus on artificial intelligence and other themes).
  • On-site training (venue to be confirmed) for publishing houses in French-speaking Africa
  • Professional meetings at the Brussels Book Fair (4-7 April 2024) 

3. The Alliance, a tool for the promotion and the visibility of independent publishing
To encourage the visibility and promotion of independent publishing; to promote the circulation of books and other publications by independent publishing houses

  • Babelica (see here), September 2024 (book fair, meetings and discussions dedicated to international independent publishing)
  • Tehran Book Fair, Uncensored (see here)
  • Presence of members at book fairs and exhibitions in 2024

4. The Alliance, a laboratory of alternative publishing practices
Pursue and strengthen solidarity-based publishing partnerships (transfer of rights, translations, co-publications, etc.)

  • Publishing groups by catalogue affinity (literature, humanities and social sciences and children’s literature): online project fairs (transfer of rights, exchanges on publishing projects) + support for transfer of rights and co-publications (see here)
  • Publishing projects in progress and/or under consideration

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Moussa et la poule reine

Author(s) : Julien ALIHONOU (MAKEJOS)
Publishing countries : Benin, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea, Mali
Language(s) : French

A pan-African solidarity co-publication: Éburnie (Côte d’Ivoire), Ganndal (Guinea), Sawa (Mali), Nstame (Gabon), Ruisseaux d’Afrique (Benin)

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Bibliodiversity Observatory

Minority languages / Coordinated by Nathalie Carré and Raphaël Thierry

Coordinated by Nathalie Carré (Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Inalco) and Raphaël Thierry (independent researcher)
Publication: 2020

Contact the Alliance team to get a free digital version of this issue.

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Bibliodiversité review is co-published by Double ponctuation and the International Alliance of Independent Publishers.

See all the other issues of the review here (“Public book policies”, “Self-publishing”, “Publishing and commitment”, “Translation and Globalization”...)

Presentation
More than half of the languages spoken in the world are in danger of disappearing; if nothing is done, UNESCO estimates that 90% of languages will have disappeared in the course of this century. Languages are an essential part of a people’s culture, yet they are much more than just a tool for communication; they offer a unique view of the world and of the people who live in it. What can the publishing sector do – and is already doing – to help preserve and sustain these minority languages? This book attempts to answer this question through academic articles and testimonies of book professionals who, together, propose a novel approach to the subject.

In the light of their publications, the book analyses the situation of several minority languages - Haitian Creole, Corsican, Innu, Yiddish, Kikuyu, Basque, Malagasy, Náhuatl, etc. and shows that solutions are possible when the actors in the book system are mobilised.

Summary:

  • Publishing in minority languages – On diversity of publishing languages in a
    globalized context / by Nathalie Carré (Inalco, France) and Raphaël Thierry
    (independent researcher, France)
  • Creole publishing in Haiti – Obstacles, initiatives and development prospects /
    by Sandie Blaise, Duke University (United States)
  • The spread of Yiddish poetry in German speaking world – The case of bilingual editions / by Caroline Puaud, Paris Sorbonne University
  • Write and publish in Madagascar – How to reach the world? / by Dominique Ranaivoson, University of Lorraine (France)
  • Make minority languages dialogue (online) – The example of intergenerational collaboration in East Africa / by Pierre Boizette, Paris-Nanterre University (France)
  • Normativity, diversity and dynamics of creation in the contemporary Basque literary field – Study of its operating trends through the literary trajectory of Eñaut Etxamendi / by Itziar Madina Elguezabal, Bordeaux-Montaigne Doctoral school (France)
  • Locate, catalog, make visible – The place of minority languages in collections of the University Library for Languages and Civilizations Studies (BULAC) / Interview with Marine Defosse, Soline Lau-Suchet and Nicolas Pitsos, librarians at BULAC (France)
  • As long as the language circulates, we will have books to produce” / interview with Bernard Biancarelli (Albiana Publishing, Corsica/France)
  • Publishing must grow the world” – Mémoire d’encrier and the languages of the world / interview with Rodney Saint-Éloi, Mémoire d’Encrier Publishing (Quebec / Canada)
  • Saving a language is a task for all of us” / by María Yolanda Argüello Mendoza, Magenta editions (Mexico)
  • Public book and reading policies for indigenous languages in Chile. Intervention (updated in 2020) in the Parliament of Books and Speech / by Paulo Slachevsky, Lom Ediciones (Chile)
  • Save, transmit – An example of transcription-translation from oral literature
    of some Vietnam’s peoples / by Mireille Gansel, translator, writer
  • PEN’s commitment to Linguistic Rights – The importance of writing, publishing and reading in marginalized languages / interview with Peter McDonald (University of Oxford) and Carles Torner (PEN International), July 2018, Oxford and London

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Proposals and activities to develop solidarity publishing partnerships

These recommendations and proposals are taken from the 80 recommendations & tools in support of bibliodiversity; they are built on the principles upheld in the 2014 International Declaration of independent publishers.

These recommendations are based on the experiences and practices of the International Alliance of independent publishers: they mainly focus on publishing partnerships between publishers from the South, given that support for publishing in these countries is often weak or inexistent, and between publishers of the South and North, given that these exchanges are few.

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“Terres solidaires” collection

The “Terres solidaires” collection was created in 2007, to strengthen the circulation of African literature in the Francophone space. Publishing houses that contribute to the collection are based in sub-Saharan Africa and in North Africa. Initially created to republish books written by African writers published in France and make them accessible to an African readership through the solidarity co-publishing process, it is now republishing books originally appearing on African publishers’ lists. Such is the case with Munyal, les larmes de la patience, by Djaïli Amadou Amal, the 13th title of the collection, originally published in 2017 by Proximité publishing, based in Yaoundé, Cameroun.

Publishers select texts and work in close collaboration throughout the editorial process. The principle of a selling price adapted to the buying power of the readership (on average 3 500 FCFA, or 5 Euros) remains one of its pillars.

Read more here...

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Digital Lab

The Digital Lab was created by the International Alliance of Independent Publishers to support independent publishers in their activities, reflections and digital practices. As a space of reflection, exchanges and discussions on digital bibliodiversity in both the Northern and Southern hemisphere, the Lab also offers digital tools adapted to the needs of independent publishers while respecting local ecosystems.

The Alliance Lab is built around four focus areas:

  • Tools and resources for professionals
  • Reflections and discussions on digital publishing, including innovative initiatives in the countries of the South (surveys and analyses);
  • In situ workshops (capacity building and peer exchanges on digital matters);
  • A personalised tutorial offered to member publishers of the Alliance.

The Lab is updated and facilitated by independent publishers, the team of the Alliance and also through partnerships with independent professional organisations and collectives from various continents.

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Publishing in Africa: Where Are We Now? An Update for 2019, by Hans M. Zell

Read here the pre-print version uploaded on Academia.edu 21 May 2019

Final version, to be published in two parts, in Logos: Journal of the World Publishing Community (https://brill.com/view/journals/logo/logo-overview.xml)

Part I: Volume 30 (2019): Issue 3, Part II: Volume 30 (2019): Issue 4

Reprinted with permission of the author.
Copyright © Hans Zell Publishing Consultants 2019

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Les éditeurs d’Afrique francophone sur l’échiquier du “glocal” (1980-2019), by Raphaël Thierry

Abstract:

In terms of languages, markets and labels, African publishing represents a field of constant discourse. It also continually questions not just the way we look at books, but also our relationship with them and with the international publishing industry. The time has long passed when the leading discourse on publishing in Africa was devoted primarily to a “book famine” related to the African economic crisis of the 1980s. Over the past three decades, the African book market has done nothing but grow on the continent, diversifying its increasingly dense and transnational production through the circulation of books and of publishing information. Nonetheless, quite often African publishing is presented in terms of the difficulties faced by its stakeholders, rather than those stakeholders’ agency, their capacity to develop their markets. Indeed, history has shown that the African publishing industry is a mirror of the globalisation of publishing and of its economic flux. That being the case, the economic challenges that one can observe in the African industry is thus a reflection of the imbalances, alternatives – also margins – of a world of books that is increasingly concentrated. In this sense, African publishing invites a two-fold interrogation: in Africa it must advocate a cultural and economic legitimacy within evolving socio-political situations and an outward-looking educational market. Internationally, it must position itself in terms of non-African publishing of literature and non-fiction that makes up the majority of African intellectual production in the world. By examining the discourse around African books, African publishers’ discourse, and the evolution of African books in French since the 1980’s, this article aims to question the relationship between the book industry in Africa and the globalisation of books phenomenon in order to bring to light a network of exchanges, tensions, and influences that turns the African book market into a veritable “glocal” space.

Read the article here (in French).

Thierry, R. (2019). Les éditeurs d’Afrique francophone sur l’échiquier du « glocal »
(1980-2019). Mémoires du livre / Studies in Book Culture, 10 (2).
https://doi.org/10.7202/1060972ar

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Public book policies

Contact the Alliance team to get a free digital version of this issue dedicated to public book policies.

Publication: June 2019
The Bibliodiversité review is copublished by Double ponctuation and the International Alliance of independent publishers.
See other issues of Bibliodiversité review here: “Self-publishing”; “Committed publishing”…

Overview of the issue:
From censorship to safeguarding, public initiatives in the book sector are varied.
This issue proposes academic articles, professional’ views and two previously unpublished regional analyses (sub-Saharan Africa and Spanish-speaking Latin America), taking us from Russia to Switzerland, via Syria, Lebanon, Tunisia, Morocco, Quebec, France and Argentina.
All contributions seek an answer to this question: does the intervention of public authorities support editorial diversity?

Contents of the ‘Public book policies issue’:

  • “Introduction: action taken by public authorities to support books”, by Étienne Galliand, Editor-in-Chief of Bibliodiversity Journal
  • “Federalism and cohesion – New book policies in Switzerland”, by Carine Corajoud, historian (Switzerland)
  • “A relative autonomy – A comparative analysis of the room for manoeuvre
    in public publishing in France”, by Hélène Seiler-Juilleret, École des hautes études en sciences sociales (Higher School of Social Sciences, France)
  • “Negotiating control, promoting reading – Independent publishers and the Russian State in the 2010s”, by Bella Ostromooukhova, Paris Sorbonne University (France and Russia)
  • “Morocco: escheated books – The shortcomings in state involvement in the books and written word sector”, by Anouk Cohen, CNRS (France and Morocco) and Kenza Sefrioui, Ph.D. in comparative literature, literary critic and publisher (Morocco)
  • “Government policy on books in Tunisia” – A publisher’s view, by Nouri Abid, Med Ali publishers (Tunisia)
  • “Government policy on books in Syria” – A publisher’s view, by Samar Haddad, Atlas Publishing (Syria)
  • “Government policy on books in Lebanon” – A bookseller’s view, by Michel Choueiri, bookseller (France and the United Arab Emirates)
  • “Government policy on books in sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar. A cross-sectional analysis of data collected in 12 countries”, by Luc Pinhas, University of Paris 13 Villetaneuse (France)
  • “Publishing and public authorities: the Quebec case – Or the influence of public action on editorial independence?”, by Pascal Genêt, Sherbrooke University (Quebec-Canada)
  • “Laws, public policies, institutions and measures to support books and reading
    in Latin America – An analysis of data gathered in 10 countries”, by Andrés E. Fernández Vergara (University of Chile)
  • “From culture towards business – An analysis of a state support programme
    for local publishing in Buenos Aires: Opción Libros”, by José de Souza Muniz Jr., Federal Centre for Technological Education, Minas Gerais (Brazil)

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Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2018, by Hans M. Zell

Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2018
The fourth in a series of annual reviews of select new literature in English that has appeared on the topic of publishing and the book sector in sub-Saharan Africa.

Read the pre-print version here.

To be published in The African Book Publishing Record, Volume 44, Issue 2, (May 2019)

Reprinted with permission of the author.
Copyright © Hans Zell Publishing Consultants 2019

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African Book Industry Data & the State of African National Bibliographies, by Hans M. Zell

African Book Industry Data & the State of African National Bibliographies:
Read the Pre-print version here.

Published in The African Book Publishing Record, Volume 44, Issue 4 (Dec 2018): 363-389.

Reprinted with permission of the author.
Copyright © Hans Zell Publishing Consultants 2018

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