KITAB Initiatives

There’s a lot to be overwhelmed with on your first trip to Abu Dhabi (or the UAE in general). The sense of space, the clearness of the sky, the sun, heat, distances. The camel beauty pageants. The buildings, the Grand Mosque, the Emirates Palace. Not to mention the culture, the myriad events, and the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, which was the reason why I was there in the first place.

To provide a bit of background: I run Open Letter, a publishing house in Rochester, NY that’s dedicated to publishing only literature in translation. We’re one of the few presses in America that’s concerned with international literature, and since our inception in 2007, we’ve been trying to find books from all corners of the globe that we can publish. Europe, South America, Russia—all taken care of in the first year. But we’ve had a much harder time identifying Arabic titles to translate and publish in English.

There are many reasons for this—the general lack of Arabic readers in the publishing world, the efficiency of the agents and book offices representing other countries and languages—but generally speaking, there simply not a lot of information about Arabic literature flowing into our borders. But with the Arab world being one of the fasting growing world markets, it’s essential that international publishers start figuring out how to do business with companies in the Middle East. Which is why I was so excited to go to the ADIBF, and as a result, why I’ve since become so enamored with KITAB and all of its programs.

KITAB was formed in 2007 as a joint venture between the Frankfurt Book Fair and Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage with the goal of professionalizing the fair and helping to promote reading in general. From what I’ve read and heard, the fair itself has gone through an amazing transformation over the past few years. There are still hundreds of stands, piles and piles of books for the public to browse and to buy, but in addition to the more book bazaar elements, there’s a very strong publisher training program with a number of panels and sessions taking place every afternoon.

Educating publishers about copyright conventions and piracy has been a big focus of these sessions (and of the Copyright Symposium taking place just before the 2010 book fair and held in conjunction with the International Publishers Association), but in addition, there were sessions on digital publishing, and the role of women in publishing. In addition, some of the other professionalizing activities KITAB puts together include a “matchmaking session” (both at the ADIBF and at other international book fairs such as Frankfurt, London, and BookExpo America) where Arabic publishers can meet with other publishers from around the world. And the eZone will continue to attract exhibitors from throughout the world, helping make ADIBF more and more important for anyone looking to do business in the Arab World.

In a way, all of these activities are about creating access and providing Arabic publishers with the necessary tools to know how best to interact with publishers from both inside and outside the region. Another great initiative of KITAB’s that’s in this same vein is the new publisher training program that they launched earlier this year. These training courses are aimed at the new generation of publishers looking to enact best practices that will help maximize economic and cultural benefits.

A capstone of all these professionalization projects is the “Spotlight on Rights” initiative. Through this program any publisher attending the ADIBF who purchases the rights to translate a book into or out of Arabic can apply for a $1,000 USD subsidy, thus encouraging the exchange of ideas and books, but also ensuring that copyrights are honored. All of these activities work together in an interesting way and will pay dividends well into the future. On a very personal and selfish level, I think that this sort of professionalization will definitely help ensure that more information about Arabic literature will make its way to my publishing company. That through personal matchmaking sessions, I’ll be able to develop a network of contacts that can point me in the direction of great literature, and that can help me acquire rights to interesting books. And it’s more important than ever that Arab literature be made available to English-readers throughout the world.

But that’s all getting off track a bit . . . KITAB’s focus isn’t solely on helping increase the number of translations from Arabic into English—in fact, the strongest, most innovative of their activities are focused on generating interest in reading among Arabs. There are things like the KITAB Bus, which is a mobile library containing hundreds of books that traveled throughout Abu Dhabi with the goal of getting readers excited about reading. KITAB will also be sponsors reading competitions, and a very strong educational track at the ADIBF all with the goal of helping cultivate a new generation of readers.

This is absolutely crucial and helps demonstrate just how forward thinking and absolutely crucial KITAB is. Book Culture is a sort of ecosystem that relies upon readers, authors, publishers, reviewers, booksellers—and when this ecosystem is healthy, there is an easy flow between these different segments, helping increasing exposure to new ideas and entertaining works. By helping grow these different segments, KITAB will have an enormous influence on the whole of book culture in the Arab world. As I mentioned before, this is one of the fastest growing book markets in the world, as can be evidenced by the recent launch of Middle East divisions of a number of multinational publishers. With an increase in awareness of copyrights and how to sell them, and a growing interest in reading for pleasure, and better connections among Arabic publishers and with the rest of the world, the publishing scene in the Arab world promises to be one of the most vital and exciting of the 21st century.

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