São Paulo – Porto-Alegre-based publishing house Dublinense was invited to represent Brazil in an unprecedent program that invited publishing houses from different countries around the world to participate in the 30th Doha International Book Fair in Qatar. Dubbed Doha Publishing Fellowship Program, the initiative involves meetings, seminars, and entertainment programs in the Qatari capital. The program runs from January 10-12, but the fair started last Thursday (9) and runs until the 18th. Pictured above, the 29th fair.
“It’s a fellowship, a program that invites publishers from around the world to basically heat up the local publishing market, generate business and make the fair grow, making it more international,” Dublinense publisher and partner Gustavo Faraon told ANBA by the phone. He travels tonight (10) to Doha by the invitation of the Qatari government.
The fair invited representatives from around 40 local, Arab and foreign publishing houses from 22 countries including United States, France, Italy, Germany, Romania, Turkey, Slovenia, Lebanon, Syria, and South Africa. The only South American publishing house is Dublinense.
Faraon said that this is an opportunity for foreign publishers to get to know the Qatari market and that the more people from more places, the more international is the fair. “We’re going with open minds for some eventual find, but we don’t have any strict goal in buying or selling. We may end up buying some book from there [Qatar] or the Arab world, or we may sell some of our titles. The book that could be our greatest potential sell is our latest release, ‘Os Donos de Inverno,’ a novel by Altair Martins,” the publisher said.
Dublinense has scheduled meetings with publishing houses based in Qatar, Lebanon and Syria, as well as France, Italy, Germany, and South Africa. “We’ll have two busy days of half-hour meetings that are going to be quite robotic, as this is not a length of time that allows for spontaneity, but I hope to discover the real Qatar while I’m there,” said Faraon. This will his first travel to an Arab country.
Ten-years-old, Dublinense has over one hundred titles, 75% being by foreign authors. But it hasn’t published any book by an Arab author yet.
The publisher believes that the invitation came through connections with publishers from the Arab world, from Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. “We’ve always participated in the Frankfurt Book Fair (in Germany), and they were colleagues that became friends, as we’ve known each other for around eight years,” he said.
The program aims at building bilateral relations between local and Arab publishers in the region with international publishers from around the world, promoting cultural interchange and serving the burgeoning Qatari publishing industry.
About the exhibition
The Doha International Book Fair is an event organized by the Public Libraries and Heritage Department of Qatar’s Culture and Sports Ministry. It’s one of the oldest and largest international book fairs in the region and was first held in 1972. Initially, it was held every two years but since 2002 it became an annual activity.
The last edition featured 335 publishing houses representing 31 countries on an area of 29,000 square meters. Since 2010, the Fair is selecting one of the countries as “guest of honor” of the exhibition. So far, the United States, Russia, Turkey, Iran, Japan, Germany and Brazil were honoured. France will be the guest of honour of the 30th edition of the Doha International Book Fair this year. The Fair is being held at Doha Exhibition and Convention Center.
Quick facts
Doha International Book Fair
January 9-18
Saturday-Wednesday, 9 am-9 pm
Thursday, 9 am-10 pm
Friday, 3-10 pm
Doha Exhibition and Convention Center
Doha, Qatar
info@dohabookfair.qa
https://30.dohabookfair.qa/en/
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
