Macedonia & Vienna Travel Log
Part Nine:The Book Fair
After the day of
Canadian Culture and the discussion of fantasy in Macedonia and Canada,
during which Professor Urosevic was very complimentary about Torrie and the Snake-Prince),
it was off to the book launch at the Fair. A prominent literary critic
said a number of extremely flattering things about Snake-Prince, and I
signed quite a few copies for people. I also met a woman who had
translated a Flemish novel retelling the story of "Beauty and the Beast"
into Macedonian, which must be one of the more unlikely language
pairings to be a translator for. I'm hoping to get some photographs of
the launch and the Day of Canadian Culture from Vermilion, my publisher.
In the evening, I had a half-hour interview on
the show "Colours of Macedonia" on the national radio station. It was a
very interesting conversation. In addition to talking about the book, we
also discussed how Macedonia could create a culture of reading among
children. There are serious problems here with children not reading. We
talk about that in Canada a lot, but it's much worse here. Very little
new Macedonian children's literature is being written. They've become
stale, my translator said. One publisher had run a contest for new
children's book manuscripts, with publication and a money prize, and had
received only two entries. Imagine that in Canada! I talked about the
way that the various provincial "Writers in the Schools" programmes
bring children and writers (and illustrators) into contact, and the
TD/CCBC Canadian Children's Book Week Tour, as well as the CBC's "Canada
Reads" as ways that a "culture of reading" is being officially
promoted, but also about the importance of parents simply making reading
with their children every night a habit, not only when they're very
small, picture book age, but once they are of an age to read novels for
themselves as well.
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There are encouraging moments, too, though.
One young boy's eye was caught by the Torrie cover at the fair. He read
a bit inside, looked at a couple of the other children's books
Vermilion is publishing, and then wheedled his parents into buying them
all for him. Then he returned with a friend, whom he had persuaded to
wheedle his mother into buying him his own copy of Torrie. So there are
young readers here, and since a discussion is beginning on children and
reading among academics and in the media, it can be hoped that at future
fairs it won't only be adults crowding around the bookstalls.
Today, I attend the Ana Frank Literary
Award ceremony and read to several school classes at a public library.
For these children, I'll be the first author they've met.
I'm also the first Canadian author to be translated into Macedonian.
My flight leaves at 4:30 a.m. It's going
to be a long, long trip home. I hope all the Icelandic volcanic ash over
the North Atlantic doesn't cause a problem. The BBC says UK flights are
going to be delayed or cancelled, and coming here, we passed over
Ireland and Kent (white cliffs!). I suppose my flight from Vienna will
be able to swing south to avoid the ash.
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