Book lovers all over the world celebrated World Book and Copyright Day on 23 April. The SA Booksellers Association strives toward promoting a culture of reading and learning by supporting literary events and initiatives and by assisting its members to do so. Read more on how the country celebrated this important day. Read more on how the country celebrated this important day.
The SA Book Fair 2015 is less than one month away and preparations are well underway for a new and improved fair. After nine years in Cape Town, the fair will take place in Johannesburg for the first time from 31 July to 2 August.
Oxford University Press (OUPSA), in celebration of their centenary, donated 20 000 dictionaries to children across the country. OUPSA donated 10 000 dictionaries and asked the public to donate another 10 000 by pledging online at no cost to them. The aim of the campaign was to create awareness about the value of education and language. The 20 000 dictionaries are now on their way to 200 schools across the country.
Watch the handover of the Every Child Deserves a Dictionary campaign here.
Edward Nawotka, Editor-in-Chief at Publishing Perspectives, noted in a recent article on BEA, that “In what is a notably smaller book fair than a decade ago, the most impressive amount of floor space is occupied not by an American publisher — but by the China pavilion, one as austere and intimidating as the Great Wall itself.”
“Of course, China is itself largely a self-contained, self-serving market, one that doesn’t need interaction with foreign or overseas publishers to survive. Their commitment and appearance at international book fairs largely seems to be a gesture towards cultural exchange, albeit one sorely lacking an articulate ambassador or two who can help guide the rest of the world in understanding,” he continues. Read more here.
The government recently announced its plan to limit school textbooks to one per subject. Prof. Jonathan Jansen gives his opinion and the implications of the policy. “The combination of official incompetence and the corruption of the textbook industry makes the breathless statement that the new policy will eliminate inequality just another rhetorical spurt by officials more occupied with political impression management.”
Read the full article on Rand Daily Mail.
Over the course of the last few years, it has come to feel that we bookish types are stuck in our very own world war one re-enactment, in trench warfare over where the money lines are drawn. Who will taste defeat first? The publishers? The booksellers? The agents? Or, dread thought, might it be the writers? Mounted on my high horse, surveying the clamorous battlefield, I fear it is another regiment which is most in peril. The Readers.
Read more here.
Poetry lovers will have a feast at this year’s Franschhoek Literary Festival with 15 poetry events – for every possible taste – spread over three days. Far from being the lesser literary cousin of the novel, the form’s popularity seems to increase year after year, lending itself, as it does, generously to both quiet reading and reading aloud.
In celebration of World Book Day, the International Publishers Association released an infographic about children and reading.
View the interesting facts here.
Today, 23 April 2015, the world will celebrate World Book Day. The SA Booksellers association strives toward promoting a culture of reading and learning by supporting literary events and initiatives and by assisting its members to do so.
Read more on how you can celebrate this important day here.
The Nal’ibali reading-for-enjoyment campaign is launching the special children’s literacy rights poster below today to assert and affirm for children what they need to become inspired and competent readers and writers. Read more about the campaign here.
Give the gift of reading this April with World Book Day 2015. Organised by the SA Booksellers Association, you will be able to donate childrens’ books for only R15 from participating SA Bookseller members.
Read more on how Nal’ibali will celebrate World Book Day here.
