The Publisher’s Post: Vol I Ed. XXI

Dated: 27th Jan. 2008

The Publisher’s Post is a weekly newsletter that contains information relating to the book publishing and book selling industry in India.

News This Week

Scotland Guest of Honour at Kolkata Book Fair
Source: indiaenews.com
Scotland will be the guest of honour at the 30th Kolkata Book Fair, the largest book carnival in Asia, to be held at the Park Circus Maidan in central Kolkata from Jan 29 to Feb 10.

‘The British Council East India, British Council Scotland and Education UK Scotland will jointly host a series of programmes in the British Council stall at the fair on the occasion,’ Samarjit Guha, head programmes, British Council, East India, said Wednesday.

A discussion on publishing and entrepreneurship will be held Jan 30 in which a host of speakers such as the International young publishing award winner 2007 S. Anand, publisher Mandira Sen, publisher from Argentina Octavio Kules and academic Swapan Chakraborty will take part.

The discussion will be followed by the announcement of the India finalist for the International Young Publisher Entrepreneur of the Year Award by Roy Cross, Director, British Council, Scotland.

Meanwhile, British Council is initiating the bid document to give Kolkata the City of Literature title shared only by Edinburgh so far.

2007 Sahitya Akademi Awards
Novelists and poets dominated among the 23 winners of the Sahitya Akademi Awards for 2007 announced today with eminent Hindi novelist and freedom fighter Amar Kant bagging the award for his novel Inhin Hathiyaron Se.

Bengali poet Samarendra Sengupta, Kashmiri short story writer Rattan Lal Shant and Rajasthani critic Kundan Mali were among other prominent writers to receive the award.

Six novelists besides Amar Kant, who have been conferred the prestigious literature awards, are - Purabi Bormudoi (Santanukulanandan, Assamese), Veerabhadrappa (Aramane, Kannada), Devidas Kadam (Dika, Konkani), A Sethumadhavan (Adayalangal, Malayalam), B M Maisnamba(Imasi Nurabee, Manipuri) and Neela Padmanabhan(Llai Uthir Kaalam, Tamil).

The six poets chosen for this year’s awards include Samarendra Sengupta (Amar Samay Alpa, Bengali), Rajendra Shukla (Gazal-Smahita, Gujarati), Dipak Mishra(Sukha Snahita, Oriya), Jaswant Deed (Kamandal, Punjabi) and Hari Dutt Sharma, (Lasallatika, Sanskrit).

Malathi Rao has been chosen for the 2007 Sahitya Akademi Award in English for her novel Disorderly Women.

The winners will be presented the award comprising an engraved copper plaque and a cheque of Rs 50,000 at a function to be held in New Delhi on February 20

Sahitya Akademi’s Seminar on Contribution of Periodicals
Source: daijiworld.com
A two-day seminar on the contribution of periodicals to the development of literature, organized under the joint auspices of Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi and Raknno Konkani weekly of Mangalore, was held in Mangalore on the 12th and 13th of January..

Several Konkani experts, scholars and writers from Mumbai, Goa, Kerala and Mangalore presented well-prepared papers on various aspects of periodicals and their contribution to literature.

Writing Books at the Push of a Button
Source: knowledge.insead.edu
INSEAD professor Phil Parker has been granted a US patent for his software programme that writes books. It took him seven years to get the patent, and while the registered patent name is decidedly scholastic: Method and Apparatus for Automated Authoring and Marketing , the implications for the information age are not. It’s not ‘creative intelligence.’ It’s ‘reverse engineering’ – deconstructing books into ‘genres’ and then writing software programmes to fit those genres.

In Other News…
The German translation of Anupama Chopra’s bestseller King of Bollywood: Shah Rukh Khan and the Seductive World of Indian Cinema will be released on January 30. The book is being published by Rapid Eye Movies, a leading distributor of Bollywood films in Germany. This is their first publishing venture, a press release issued here today said. Source: planetbollywood.com
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PreMedia Global USA Inc (PMG), a US-based knowledge and content service provider with operations in Chennai, has received about Rs 72 crore of private equity funding from JM Financial India Fund. PMG develops content for college and school textbooks and journals in the US and Canada, and is now planning to enter the European market. Source: The Hindu
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Crossword, the 46-store strong bookstore chain that is part of Shoppers’ Stop Ltd, plans to start its own private label business in March. In a move aimed at increasing margins, the store will start its own stationery line and could extend this to music, toys and other categories. Non-book categories such as pens, stationery, toys and music currently account for 40-42% of all sales at Crossword.

Book Releases & Events

Goodybye to Gandhi
Goodbye to Gandhi is a political travelogue by Bernard Imhasly, a long-time India correspondent for Swiss and German newspapers. On his journey through the country, Imhasly discovers an India that has arrived on the global stage, but struggles with the same problems - if not the solutions - which Gandhi faced. Imhasly finds Gandhi in the killing fields of Bihar and in the boardrooms of Bangalore but misses him where he is most needed: the governance by a venal State which has turned pathological

On the occasion of the 60th death anniversary of the Mahatma, Jnanapravaha will launch the book and have a panel discussion to mark the occasion. The panelists will include artist Atul Dodiya, playwright Ramu Ramanathan and the author himself. The discussion will be moderated by Rajni Bakshi, journalist and author of Bapu Kuti, a book on Gandhian economics.

For further details contact Shireen Gandhy at 022 2200 0211/12

Poems by Dr. Manohar Rai Sardessai
A collection of poems by Dr. Manohar Rai Sardessai  was released at a well attended function on Friday the 18th January, 2008 at Panaji, Goa. Titled My Song - Ma Chanson - O Meu Canto, the book of poems rendered in English, French and Portuguese contains a little over a hundred poems, most of them originally written in Konkani. Some of the poems were written in French, e.g. Adieu Paris, or translated into English by the poet himself, e.g. Call of Konkani from Konknnicho Ulo. This collection of poems is promoted by a group called “Admirers of Manohar Sardessai”. It is printed and published by the New Age Printers.

Book on Hyderabadi Emigrants Released
Source: greaterhyderabad.co.in
A book tracing Hyderabadi emigrants since 1947 settled in five continents titled - Locating Home - India’s Hyderabadis Abroad - authored by Karen Isaksen Leonard, noted anthropologist from University of California, was released by Prince Muffakam Jah recently.

Vinod K. Jairath, Professor of Sociology in Osmania University, said several previously unknown facets of Hyderabadis, who had migrated to Pakistan, have been retraced by the author.

Other Events
Source: delhievents.com
Interaction with Irish Language writer, Micheál Conghaile, as part of Irish Literary Festival
Place : India Habitat Centre ( IHC ), Lodhi Road, New Delhi-110003
Date & Time : 31st Jan at 6:30 pm
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Lecture by Ms. Alexis Wright, Australian Writer best known for her 2006 novel Carpentaria for which she got Miles Franklin Award .
Organized by SPICMACAY as part of their Virasat Festival
Place : Modern School, Barakhamba Road, Connaught Place, New Delhi
Date & Time : 30th Jan at 9:30 am

Blogs and Articles

Role of women writers in Assam
Aparna Goswami’s editorial published on the occasion of 22nd biennial conference of Sadou Asom Lekhika Samaroh Samiti

Books, Readership and Libraries
Our education system and literacy programmes do not effectively take nascent literates to the reading habit

One Man Takes Aim at Prejudice with Story Book
Source: The Washington Post
It has been called essential reading for every Indian child, a lively illustrated storybook aimed at raising youthful awareness of the injustices of the country’s caste system, much as Uncle Tom’s Cabin exposed the indignities of slavery to white America.

Kancha Ilaiah hopes his book, Turning the Pot, Tilling the Land: Dignity of Labour in Our Times, will change the way young people see farmhands, barbers, leather workers and others whose jobs are viewed with disgust by upper castes. The social activists who have lauded the book hope so, too.

Turning the Pot is the first Indian children’s book to openly challenge the 3,000-year-old caste system, which ranks professions from scholars to shoemakers in a rigid hierarchy and is reinforced by some interpretations of Hindu theology.

A New Kind of Therapy
“Prose not Prozac” is the prescription

Last Alaska Language Speaker Dies
A growing trend worldwide

Other Announcements

“Open Book Reviews” Planned
We have initiated a review section where original reviews of books will be posted, details of which are available here. We have also initiated an endeavour to list all service providers.

Associate Service Provider
CinnamonTeal Print & Publishing Services offers partnership opportunities through their Associate Service Provider (ASP) initiative. For details, visit this page.

Organizations and Publishing Houses willing to advertise for various positions related to publishing are invited to do so in this section.
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This newsletter is developed by Queenie Fernandes and Leonard Fernandes, founders of CinnamonTeal Print & Publishing Services with inputs from various individuals, publishing houses, websites and blogs.

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