In 2012, Caroline Fortin, a Quebec publisher and then-president of Livres Canada Books (the association tasked with supporting Canadian-owned book publishers’ export sales activities), received an official document inviting Canada to be Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF).
Recognizing the opportunity this invitation presented for Canada’s publishing sector, Fortin reached out to members from coast to coast to coast and, with their support and collaboration, in 2016 succeeded in championing the project to the Government of Canada. Canada FBM2020 was then established as an entity to manage, in French and English, the role and involvement of the Canadian book publishing industry as Guest of Honour at the 2020 edition of the FBF.
Our first goal for the project was to ensure that by 2020, 200 Canadian-authored and-illustrated titles would be translated into German. At the time of writing, over 300 translated books have been published or will be published in German by December 2021, thanks to several initiatives – including a fellowship of German publishers who travelled to Western Canada and met with Canadian publishers from Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alberta, and British Columbia.
Gillian Fizet
Over the course of the project, approximately 30 German editions of books by Canadian authors originally from or currently living in the Prairies were recently published, including books by David A. Robertson and Joshua Whitehead. Also worth noting is that since the beginning of the Guest of Honour project, several Prairie-based publishers sold translation rights to Canadian-authored and -illustrated books.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, our plan to present Canadian authors and illustrators from across the country in Frankfurt in 2020 came to a crashing halt. In July 2020, the federal government and the FBF announced that Canada’s Guest of Honour year would be postponed to 2021.
Since this announcement, we have tirelessly navigated pandemic-related challenges and frequently adjusted our plans, always with great optimism that Canadian writers will have their moment on the international stage this October no matter what. As I write this, we are waiting for indications from public health authorities regarding a Canadian in-person presence at the FBF.
In the interim, we are fervently planning virtual literary content and have launched promotional campaigns targeted at German booksellers, media, and the reading public to inspire curiosity in our vibrant literary landscape and ultimately encourage sales of Canadian books in Germany.
One recent example is a magazine called Singular Plurality – Singulier Pluriel, which provides a full catalogue of the translated titles, as well as features written by Canadian authors and illustrators – including one titled “The Prairies from the View of Paul Seesequasis and Katherena Vermette,” offering their insights into their home region.
By the time this feature is published in Prairie books NOW, Canada will be concluding its Guest of Honour presentation. In the last year we have faced challenges no one could have predicted, but I’m confident that the Canadian publishing industry is leaving just as lasting an impression as we initially intended back in 2016.
As our Guest of Honour years come to a close, we are eager and excited to look back at this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity granted to our authors, illustrators, and industry, and to reap the opportunities created by this project, which we hope will last for years to come.
Gillian Fizet is the executive director of Canada FBM2021, the entity responsible for representing the Canadian publishing industry’s presence at Frankfurt Book Fair in 2021 where Canada will be the Guest of Honour. Prior to this, she was the international rights director for House of Anansi and Groundwood Books.
