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Publishers, translators and journalists from Germany visit Riga

September 14, 2018

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From 10th to 15th September, the “Latvian Literature” platform is welcoming German publishers, translators and journalists to Riga. The German guests will have the opportunity to get to know Latvian literature, publishing industry and its representatives.

During the visit, the German publishers, translators and journalists will be exposed to various individual and group activities, and will be introduced to the Latvian Book Fair, our contemporary literature, grant programmes for translators and publishers of Latvian literature, our best children’s books and illustrations, and will be meeting Latvian authors and publishers in person. In the course of this week, the translators will participate in a seminar-workshop run by the director of “Guggolz” publishing house, Sebastian Guggolz. He will be exploring the nuances and specifics of the German book market and advising on how to find the best German publishers for the translations of Latvian works, as well as holding a workshop on translation and editing. The workshop has been organised by the “Latvian Literature” platform in collaboration with the National Library of Latvia.

Meanwhile, the German publishers have personalized meetings with Latvian publishers scheduled. “One of the peculiarities of the Latvian book market is that the publishing companies rather than agents or authors themselves hold the rights to publish the works abroad. So, we wish to offer the publishers the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues of similar profiles in other countries, and provide the opportunity to tell us about their authors, to convince our companies to publish them in Germany,” explained the “Latvian Literature” representative Juta Pīrāga. The German journalists will be attending tours in Riga, and meeting with representatives of the Latvian Institute.

“Last year, while preparing to the London Book Fair, we organized several visits of British publishers and journalists to Riga, and the result was overwhelmingly positive — about 90% of the publishers bought the rights of at least one book, and the British press issued several articles about Latvian culture and literature. Now we are trying to introduce Latvian literature into the German speaking market the same way,” Juta Pīrāga elaborates.

Riga is welcoming representatives from German publishing houses Parasitenpresse, Jungbrunnen, Baobab Books, Wallstein Verlag, Klak Verlag, Edition Rugerup, Leiv Verlag, as well as the director of the art and visual culture marketing development of the Frankfurt Book Fair, and journalists from Sinn und Form magazine and RBB Kulturradio.

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