3/30/2009 |

BEA welcomes the Arab World at this year’s event in New York with an exceptionally broad program of countries and publishing houses exhibiting, and with professional and cultural debates around the Arab book culture and the business of publishing. “This is the first time that BEA brings such a large regional focus to its attendees, and we are delighted that it will bring Arab books, publishers, booksellers and authors in such significant numbers to New York”, says Lance Fensterman, Vice President and Show Director for BEA.

In honour of this premier opportunity for dialogue and exchange, Mr. Amr Moussa, General Secretary of the Arab League will take part in a ribbon cutting ceremony. Publisher from 8 Arab countries, including Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates (with Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah), will show case their publications and look out for US partners in the trade.

The professional program, on Friday 29 May, will bring together editors and publishers from both several Arab countries and their American counterparts to discuss possibilities and recent success stories of translation from and into Arabic. Further debates will address key trade issues such as exports, imports and distribution as well as copyright and market analysis for the major Arab book markets thus creating unique match making opportunities for book professionals.

For the first time, BEA is also reaching beyond standard trade markets and business practices with a genuine cultural program in order to shed “New Eyes on the Arab World and Culture” – which is the title of an evening event on Saturday May 30, at the New York Public Library at 42nd Street in Manhattan, sponsored by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation and curated by ArteEast and by the Center of Literary Translation at Columbia University.

Additional cultural programs will include a celebration of Beirut as the UNESCO “World Book Capital 2009”, a performance lecture on the Islamic contexts and the European remixes of “The Thousand and One Nights”, organized by the Berlin-based cultural association west-östlicher diwan at the New York Goethe Institute, as well as a focus on children’s books sponsored and created by Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher Bint Mohammed Al-Qassimi of Sharjah. These events will in fact form a prestigious prelude to the wider festival “Muslim Voices” opening in New York just one week after BEA.

More details, names of participants and exact dates of events will be released at a press conference at the London Book Fair on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 and on the BEA website www.bookexpoamerica.com

Global Market Forum: The Arab World contact:
Ruediger Wischenbart
Phone +43 650 6615 601
Email: ruediger@wischenbart.com

For further information and general press contact for BEA:
Roger Bilheimer
Phone +1 (203) 966 0792
Email: Bilheim@aol.com

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