Children’s Laureate Julia Donaldson, on the eve of a countrywide tour of libraries in the UK has spoken out in support of libraries, arguing that it is a “false economy” to close them down. Read the full article on www.thebookseller.com here.
The programme for the Open Book festival in Cape Town from the 20 – 24th September is up on the Open Book website. Sessions are well spaced out and very affordable. Do check it out atwww.openbookfestival.co.za
Mr Paul Mashatile, Minister of Arts and Culture officially opened National Book Week at Babs Madlakane Community Hall in Uitenhage on Monday. South Africa commemorates National Book Week every first week of September. It is an initiative of the South African Book Development Council (SABDC) in collaboration with the Department of Arts and Culture.
The commemoration coincides with International Literacy Day on 8 September. The main purpose is to encourage reading to the general public, increase awareness of the importance of reading for the development of the nation and to promote publishing industry skills for the benefit of South African and African authors. There are numerous events and initiatives happening country wide around National Book Week. More information can be found on the SABDC website. Read a copy of the Ministers’ speech on the DAC’s website here.
As per usual the Book Lounge has a fantastic line up of events for this week. Do temember to keep an eye on their events calendar. Read more
The Booksellers’ Choice Award and a cheque for 20,000 RSA was presented to Deon Meyer at a glittering gala celebration which forms part of the Publishers and Booksellers Associations of South Africa’s Annual Conference.
This year the awards ceremony was held at the Indaba Conference Centre, in Johannesburg, in front of an audience of the great and the good from the South African book industry.
This award has run for twelve years and each year booksellers are asked to choose the books they have most enjoyed reading, promoting and selling, from these submissions. The Booksellers’ Choice Award is chosen and presented by the South African book trade in recognition of outstanding contribution to the industry. The award is only open to South African authors who are published in South Africa and celebrates the excellence and high standard of South African writing.
As well as the Booksellers Choice award, the Annual Booksellers and Publisher Sefika awards were presented at the dinner hosted by award winning author Chris van Wyk.
Van Schaik bookstores took the Academic award, Exclusive Books Hyde Park won General Trade, Afro School Supplies won Education and Hargraves Library services took Library Supplier of the year yet again.
On the publishers side, Via Afrika was awarded Education, Van Schaik Publishers won Academic, and Pan Macmillan won Trade.
Two young London publishing execs are about to launch a social media networking platform for people in the publishing industry that they believe will match-up needs with skills in a vibrant, dynamic way that doesn’t yet exist. BookMachine.me, which will go live in November, will allow users to put up examples of their work or projects, thus making the site more visual and exciting than services like LinkedIn, according to founders Laura Austin and Gavin Summers.
The site aims to match the ever increasing number of freelancers with the leaner publishing companies of the future. Read the full article at www.publishingperspectives.com
The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, CODESRIA, is calling for proposals for a new research programme supporting university-based academics in six African countries to undertake studies into higher education leadership and governance. The countries that will initially benefit from the Higher Education Leadership Programme, or HELP, are Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. Read more about this programme at www.universityworldnews.com
The Department of Justice in the US called publishers intermediaries between authors and readers but they’re so much more, bookseller and attorney William Petrocelli argues in an impassioned piece more for the reading public than the trade in a wonderful piece on the Huffington Post which is well worth a read on the eve of the SA Booksellers AGM. Read the full article at the www.huffingtonpost.com here
Google made another foray into producing original content Monday when it announced its plans to buy the Frommer’s brand of travel guides from John Wiley & Sons to augment its local and travel search results. It is rumoured that Google will pay about $23 million for the brand although the companies have declined to comment on the purchase price. It is a small acquisition for Google, but important for several of Google’s up-and-coming businesses. According to the New York Times, the deal shows how crucial a business local search and reviews are for Google. It is also the latest evidence that Google is trying to transform itself into a media company — making its mission not just to show the most relevant links from around the Web, but to produce that information as well. Read the full article on the NYTimes’ media decoder here.
Tuesday, 21 August, at 5:30 for 6:00pm – Launch of Jeannette Unite: Terra edited by Andrew Lamprecht & Ivor Powell
Join artist Jeannette Unite for the launch of this beautiful monograph on 20 years of artistic investigation into the industrial landscape of South Africa, and especially the impact mining wrought on South African history. This monograph is beautifully illustrated and replete with fascinating essays on her work.
Jeannette will be in conversation with Dr Duncan Miller of the Archaeology Materials Laboratory.
Published by SoSo Press.
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