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Thursday, June 2, 2011

NEW ZEALAND HONORED GUEST AT FRANKFURT BOOK FAIR


New Zealand will be the guest of honor at the world's biggest book fair in 2012.

Frankfurt Book Fare director, Juergen Boos, visiting Auckland, said that Frankfurt will be putting New Zealand in the full glare of the spotlights during the full extent of the fair, October 10-14, 2012.

"The multicultural identity of New Zealand is based on sweeping stories," he said, "whether conveyed orally, written, sung or filmed."

He cited world-class New Zealand authors Katherine Mansfield, Michael King, Janet Frame, Keri Hulme and Alan Duff, as well as poet Hone Tuwhare.

However, he also noted that relatively few New Zealand writers were published in German, a lack that exposure at the Fair could remedy.

2 comments:

Shayne Parkinson said...

I've just been listening to an item on Radio New Zealand about this. So are you planning to go to the fair, Joan? A good opportunity to promote the German edition of "Tupaia" perhaps. And you could combine it with a visit to that beautiful library you posted a picture of a while ago, as part of your European tour. :-)

World of the Written Word said...

I wish! However, despite the honour to New Zealand and all the hoohah, Germany has never been a great promoter of New Zealand writers. Note the list of authors they have supported -- time-honoured names, to say the very least! My agent is thinking of going there, and it would be worth it to see her, but ...