Thursday, April 07, 2016

INTERNATIONAL AWARD FOR SMALL NEW ZEALAND PUBLISHER




New Zealand publishing house Book Island has received the Bologna Prize 2016 for Best Children’s Publisher of Oceania at the International Children’s Book Fair in Italy. This award has been designed to pay tribute to excellence in the world of children’s publishing. Children’s publishers and cultural institutions from all over the world had voted for the children’s publisher, who's well-known for its best-selling titles The Lion and the Bird by Marianne Dubuc and The Umbrella by Ingrid and Dieter Schubert.

"For a small publishing house like Book Island it’s a great honour to be the winner of the Bologna Prize for Oceania this year. We would like to pay tribute to the original publishers of the beautiful and meaningful picture books that we have translated into English and Dutch in the past four years. Without them, their illustrators and authors – and not to be forgotten – our translators and editors, there would be no Book Island. This award is a tremendous acknowledgement of our combined efforts,” said publisher Greet Pauwelijn, who attended the award ceremony in Bologna.

The prestiguous Bologna Award has recognised the best in children’s publishing every year since 2013. It is awarded to one children’s publisher from each of the following 6 regions: Europe, North America, Central-South America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. The previous winners in the Oceania category were Gecko Press (2013), Walker Books Australia and NZ (2014) and Allen&Unwin (2015).

Photo above shows Greet Pauwelijn, publisher at Book Island, winner of the Bologna Prize for Oceania, with Klaus Flugge, publisher of Andersen Press, winner of the Bologna Prize for Europe.

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