Chennai Book Fair 2023 kickstarts with a touch of 'Frankfurt'
Nearly 700 stalls have been set up and a large number of new titles are to be introduced in the 16-day extravaganza; a maiden global event, on the lines of the Frankfurt fair, will be held from Jan 16-18
After a three-year COVID shadow, the 46th Chennai Book Fair, an annual event that captivates readers and writers across Tamil Nadu, kicked off on January 6 with a renewed energy – and an international touch.
Nearly 700 stalls have been set up and a large number of new titles are to be introduced in the 16-day extravaganza.
This year, a maiden International Book Fair is also scheduled — from January 16 to 18. The 2022 fair was held on a smaller scale due to the pandemic.
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While the Chennai Book Fair is organised by the Booksellers and Publishers Association of South India (BAPASI), the International Book Fair is conceived and executed by the Tamil Nadu Textbook and Educational Services Corp.
The Corp has started to translate some popular Tamil literary works into English, opening a new market for authorised translations.
International event
While the general public loves the Chennai book fair, it is new to the concept of an international one. The story is more less true for small and medium publishing houses, too.
“Many think that an International Book Fair will be another fair where international books are sold. It is not so. It is a fair where copyrights of international books are sold to interested parties from different countries for translation,” Aazhi Senthil Nathan, writer and publisher of Aazhi Publishers, Chennai, told The Federal.
Senthil Nathan was in a five-member team headed by K Elambahavath, an IAS officer who heads the public library department of Tamil Nadu, which visited the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2022 to gain experience. He shared the idea behind the effort, exclusively with The Federal.
Lessons from Frankfurt
The aim is to introduce new concepts in the Tamil publishing industry, said Senthil Nathan. “Not only former Chief Minister Karunanidhi but also the incumbent Chief Minister MK Stalin have taken many initiatives to develop the publishing industry and in supporting writers. This time the bureaucracy also has eminent officials who themselves are writers.
“The government wants to give a push to the Chennai Fair. So, it decided to organise the International Book Fair in parallel,” he told The Federal.
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“In Frankfurt, we got in touch with publishing houses from 35 countries and another 15 publishing giants. We met a diverse range of publishing houses. We gained lessons on organising such a big event,” he added.
Not merely copyright exchange
The chore of every international book fair is exchange of copyrights. It is a cultural exchange as a whole, stressed Senthil Nathan.
To execute the exchange of copyrights, the government has put up an international pavilion spread over 30,000 sq ft at the YMCA Grounds in Nandanam, Chennai.
The state government has decided to translate popular Tamil works in 30 languages this year. Also, it wants to translate works from 30 countries into Tamil. It provides translation grants to publishing houses which want to translate Tamil books into their language, said Senthil Nathan.
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In India, the National Book Trust is known to provide such grants. This is the first time a state government is providing translation grants.
Books for translation
For this, the government asked 70 publishing houses to recommend three books each from their kitty and created a list of nearly 200 books. This list is to be uploaded on the International Book Fair portal.
Asked who will represent the writers in the “rights table” given the language barriers Tamil writers face, Senthil Nathan said the publishers will handle it for most of them.
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“We also have roped in volunteers to aid Tamil writers and publishers. For some established writers, their family members act as representatives. As of now, terms like ‘literary agents’ and ‘rights agency’ are new to the Tamil publishing industry. We hope that in the coming years the state will have many publishing entrepreneurs to execute various functions like buying and selling of translation copyrights, sales and marketing, quality assurance, etc. The International Book Fair will open the doors for new kinds of employment opportunities,” Senthil Nathan added.
International participation
The countries taking part in the International Book Fair include Canada, Britain, Italy, France, Portugal, Georgia, Argentina, Malaysia, Singapore, Turkey, Kenya, Uganda, the UAE, Bahrain, Botswana and Oman.
The Tamil publishing industry is known to bring out some 10,000 new titles every year. The Chennai Book Fair is the second largest in the country after the Delhi Book Fair.
