Frankfurt's afterlife

From the IIML Newsletter

Well, the Frankfurt Book Fair came and went, and it all feels like it happened pretty fast. The real test of the success of our Guest of Honour year will be how many books by NZ writers find their way on to German publishers’ lists (and into other European languages) over the next half-dozen years.  For us, one of the stand-out events was the afternoon sponsored by Victoria University at the Weltkulturen Museum, where Hamish Clayton and Tina Makereti had had residential scholarships, and where good writing rather than razzle-dazzle held the floor. 

We also enjoyed the Transit presentations (see below) in the pavilion, and continue to enjoy the Herald report that tempted Bill English into saying that the Frankfurt Book Fair might actually be bigger for New Zealand than the Rugby World Cup. We never did learn how many pavilion visitors fell in the water.

Meantime, for those who missed the actuality, here are NZ at Frankfurt's facts and figures, here is the report from the Publishers' Association (PANZ) and here are some of the blog postings that reported on the week:

Guy Somerset’s overview at the NZ Listener

The other pavilion opening: photos and text

Lawrence Patchett’s three things

Robert Sullivan
and again

Catherine Robertson

Alva Gerhmann (the Book Fair's in-house blogger)

Tina Makereti bidding Frankfurt farewell

A night in old Vienna

And just to hand, an admirably thorough wrap-up, with links, of New Zealand at the Book Fair.

Grimms and Transits

There were two Frankfurt events that the IIML actively took part in.

One was the Transit of Venus Poetry Exchange, which saw German and New Zealand poets collaborating on new poems and translations prompted by the Transit of Venus celebrations in Tolaga Bay earlier this year. There’s a video which gives a good sense of the overall project and its early stages, while Guy Somerset, courtesy of the Goethe-Institut, posted a thorough report on the German phase on the Listener website.  Plus there’s more here and here.

There are plans afoot to produce a publication. More about that when we know more.

We hear there may also be plans to produce an anthology of stories from entries in the Grimms fairy tale competition  which we ran earlier this year in association with the Listener and the Goethe-Institut.  At the Frankfurt Book Fair Bill Manhire and Kate De Goldi reported on the winning entry  in a special presentation at the ARTE television stand. We are confident that the German people now despise possums. There's a glimpse of the event on this YouTube clip.