Audience interaction with speakers on the 2023 ‘Translation Stage’ at Frankfurter Buchmesse, a space this year called the ‘Centre of Words.’ Image: FBM, Marc Jacquemin
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
See also:
Rights Roundup: Last Break Before the Autumn Season
Rights Edition: Paola Passarellli: Italian Rights, Translation, and Stereotypes
Di Blasio: ‘A Powerful Means of Intercultural Communication’
As mentioned in the introduction to today’s (August 9) Rights Roundup, the (brief) late-summer slowdown of rights-and-licensing news in world book publishing each year offers us a chance in August to look at “the heart of the heart” of rights trading: translation.
And at this year’s Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 16 to 20), you’ll find a space in Hall 4.1 at Messe Frankfurt with a name you haven’t encountered before at the world’s largest international trade show in the book business: the “Centre of Words.”
To find out more about this presentation space, we’re glad to have had a chance to speak with our colleague Elenora Di Blasio, who manages content and programming at Buchmesse.
As her name will suggest to you, Di Blasio is particularly well positioned for this year’s Guest of Honor Italy events. She’s a native of Napoli who has studied comparative literature in both Montpelier and Berlin. Her master’s degree in applied literary studies is from the Free University of Berlin, and she’s been with Buchmesse in various departments since 2011. What’s more, Di Blasio does freelance translation of German into Italian, making her perfect for helping us get an understanding of the plans for the Centre of Words.
Eleonora Di Blasio. Image: Tobias Koll
“We established this stage in Hall 4.1,” in 2022, Di Blasio tells us, “with the aim to enhance the visibility of translators and the art of literary translation as a powerful means of intercultural communication.
“This year, we decided to rebrand this space for three reasons:
- “First, with the new name, “Centre of Words: Literature & Translation Stage,” we want to highlight the thoughtful, creative work translators do to bring the original authors’ work to life in foreign languages.
- “Second, we realized that the stage has developed into a broader space of exchange between all members of the publishing industry: publishers, editors, agents, authors, translators, and readers come together here.
- “And third,” Di Blasio says, “what started out as a trade program has developed into a stage that’s a crowd-getter over the weekend of the fair with the general public, featuring some well-known literary voices. We wanted to make sure that this is reflected in the stage’s name.”
“We’re not yet able to reveal programming at the Centre of Words, although details will be available soon.”
Working To Provide More Events in English
Author Diaty Diallo speaks last year on the stage that this year is called the Centre of Words at Frankfurter Buchmesse, in Hall 4.1. Image: FBM, Zino Peterek
Di Blasio and her colleagues at Frankfurt are working again this year with the German Trade Association of Translators, the Verband der Übersetzerinnen (VdÜ); the German Translators’ Fund, the Deutscher Übersetzerfonds; the German Literature Fund, Deutscher Literaturfonds; and Kulturstiftung NRW.
“We want to highlight the thoughtful, creative work translators do to bring original authors’ work to life in foreign languages.“Eleonora Di Blasio, Frankfurter Buchmesse
The programming of the space, however, she says, will feature workshops, talks, and panels, with trending topics that should include artificial intelligence and its use (or not) in translation; focus sessions on literature from Italy plus former and future guest-of-honor markets at Frankfurt; cultural and political issues; and—of special interest in this heavily politicized year in so many world markets—”the use of language by the European New Right,” as Di Blasio puts it.
After the weekday trade-visitor days at the fair, she says, the weekend programming attended by members of the public will feature “some very well-known authors from Germany, Italy, and other countries” appearing onstage with their translators.
During the Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday trade days, Di Blasio says, the main targeted attendees for the Centre of Words’ programming are translators, publishers, editors, rights agents, and rights directors—a near-perfect list of the readership for our rights editions and much of our overall coverage here at Publishing Perspectives.
“Last year, about 50 percent of the events on stage were available in English,” Di Blasio says. “Since the partners with whom we’ve been working to host this stage and its program since 2022 are based in Germany, we naturally started out with slightly more events for translators from Germany and in German than in other languages. We’re currently working on offering as many events with simultaneous translation into English as possible.
“In order to meet the demand of our international audience,” she says, “our International Stage”—inaugurated last year and set between Hall 5.1 and Hall 6.1—”offers an all-English program.”
And from a high view, she tells us, “The Center for Words stage’s main focus is on translators and translations.”
As more becomes available in terms of 2024 programming across Buchmesse, we’ll have updates for our readership here, including specifics of the Centre of Words that Di Blasio and her associates are finalizing now.
More from Publishing Perspectives on Frankfurter Buchmesse is here, more on translation and translators is here, more on international translation and publication rights is here, and more on Guest of Honor Italy at Frankfurt this year is here.
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