Slovenia recently celebrated a notable outing at the New Delhi World Book Fair, the largest international trade fair for books in South Asia. The Slovenian Book Agency (JAK) joined a group of European countries to arrange the set up for the common pavilion. The European Union was namely focused on as a collective region. A photographic summary of selected fair events is included in the gallery below. 

Slovenia was represented by the following authors: Manica K. Musil, Evald Flisar, Jasmin B. Frelih, Andrej Hočevar, Ivo Svetina, and dr. Zmago Šmitek. Manica K. Musil held an inspiring lecture, while her book Pobalinska pujsa (The Naughty Pigs) represented the platform for a string of well-received workshops for children. The essence of Slovenian poetry was unveiled during the presentation of the volume Dvojina srca (The Dual of the Heart), an anthology of contemporary Slovenian poetry (edited by Ivo Svetina and Andrej Hočevar, one of the featured authors who also attended the fair to accompany the book launch), published by the New Delhi-based Sahitya Akademi (India's National Academy of Letters). The European Union Prize for Literature recipient Jasmin B. Frelih was joined by fellow EUPL winners for a number of crowd-pleasing readings and hosted a much lauded workshop. The iconic writer, playwright and editor Evald Flisar and a company of seven other European authors (representing Poland, Austria, Germany, Portugal, Hungary, Greece, and Finland) appeared at a joint reading at the University of Delhi, while Flisar was also individually hosted as the guest of honour at an event staged by the university’s Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures. The Slovenian contingent was also active at the “Lazy Sunday of Literature” event and engaged in interesting discussions about the marketing and licensing of translation rights outside of Europe as well as opportunities for future book-production-industry-related collaboration between Slovenia and India.

Between Monday, 8 January 2018, and Tuesday, 9 January 2018, Slovenian publishers (representatives of the publishing houses Mladinska knjiga, Goga, LUD Literatura, and literary agent Gašper Malej) attended over 30 meetings, what raises hope for fruitful ventures throughout the coming years. The newly-appointed director of the Slovenian Book Agency (JAK), Mrs. Renata Zamida and representatives of the National Book Trust, one the largest publishing companies in India and the organizer of the New Delhi Book Fair, came to an agreement about the publishing of an anthology of Slovenian short prose, which is scheduled for publication in English and at least five official Indian languages in 2019. The Slovene Writers’ Association (DSP) will be part of this upcoming project as well. Furthermore, Mrs. Zamida was a featured guest speaker at the distinguished “CEO Speak” event, hosted by the president of the fair. His Excellency Mr. Jožef Drofenik, Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia to India, also invited the Slovenian authors to participate at a literary reading at the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).

In addition, the fair saw the unveiling of the English translation of Evald Flisar’s novel Besede nad oblaki (Words Above the Clouds; published by the Nirala publishing house), Ivo Svetina participated in a discussion about the possibilities for promoting European literatures across the world, while dr. Zmago Šmitek held an exciting lecture about mandalas and the myths of global warming, and took part at a roundtable discussion titled “The Planet that Doesn’t Grow”. The Slovenian delegation received high praise from His Excellency Mr. Tomasz Kozlowski, Ambassador of the European Union to India, for contributing to the appeal of the EU pavilion.

This year’s New Delhi Book Fair took place between 6 January and 14 January 2018 and attracted over a million visitors.

More about Slovenia’s participation as part of the EU pavilion at the New Delhi World Book Fair in India.