Bodour Al Qasimi Opens Sharjah Publishers Conference

Sharjah’s 14th publishers’ conference opens with 1,065 delegates from 108 nations, ahead of Sharjah International Book Fair.

The Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi opens the 2024 edition of the Sharjah Publishers Conference with her call that, ‘Every voice, every perspective, and every culture has the opportunity be seen and heard.’ Image: SBA, Nabs Ahmedi

By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson

Bodour Al Qasimi: ‘An Increasingly Fragmented World’

In opening the 14th and largest-to-date iteration of the professional industry-facing Sharjah Publishers Conference, here in the United Arab Emirates today (November 3), the Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi has issued a ringing call for the book publishing’s international dialogue at its most urgent.

“If we allow different communities to only have conversations among themselves,” she told a reported turnout of 1,065 publishers and literary agents from 108 nations, “they will reinforce their own biases and prejudices, creating a world where understanding across cultures is lost.

“In such a world, no one wins.”

Al Qasimi’s public addresses are always meticulously phrased. In this instance, however, ahead of the coming opening on Wednesday of the 43rd Sharjah International Book Fair (November 6 to 17)., the president of the American University at Sharjah and immediate past president of the International Publishers Association (IPA) has spoken in a newly urgent dynamic, reflective of the swelling tides of political confrontations being felt by rows and rows of her audience.

‘Dangerous Consequences’

In the opening plenary session of the 2024 Sharjah Publishers Conference, produced by the Sharjah Book Authority. Image: SBA, Nabs Ahmedi

“In an increasingly fragmented world—where politics and social media often drive division—publishing has the unique potential to remain one of the last bridges connecting us as a human family.

“We must fulfill this responsibility, as failing to do so carries dangerous consequences.”

Two days before the potentially pivotal United States presidential election (November 5), Al Qasimi’s audience included prominent publishing figures, among them John Ingram, Chantal Restivo-Alessi, Markus Dohle, and the outgoing and incoming IPA presidents Karine Pansa and Gvantsa Jobava. Al Qasimi’s message was that the collective contextual capacity of world literature is too valuable an energy to be reduced to profit-and-loss statements.

“As publishers,” she said, “we must remind ourselves that we are not simply in the game of producing books for profit.

“We are also in the business of producing knowledge that keeps our societies together, drives progress, and pushes us to think differently.”

By the time Al Qasimi had concluded her keynote address to her conference delegates and 74 speakers, the event was indelibly tinged with the sense of responsibility that has guided the UAE’s third emirate since the Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi developed his concept of a reading society—a society built for outreach far beyond the Arab world, a people capable of critical thinking and an internationalist mission.

Awards and Honors

HarperCollins’ Chantal Restivo-Alessi speaks with Publishing Perspectives the Weam Ibrahim-designed stage of the 14th Sharjah Publishers Conference, from the Sharjah Book Authority. Image: SBA, Nabs Ahmedi

The Sharjah Publishers Conference, like the emirate’s region-leading annual book fair, is produced by Sharjah Book Authority, which is chaired by Bodour Al Qasimi, and helmed by CEO Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri, with programming led by Emma House and logistical coordination and press liaison work of Tony Mulliken.

Weam Ibrahim—whose design work is seen in Sharjah’s trademark international book fair stands, guest-of-honor pavilions, and conference settings—was on-hand, as he always is, supervising the opening hours of the conference and the load-in of his set for this year’s conference. Mansour Al Hassan, directing publisher relations from the Sharjah Publishing City Free Zone site of Ingram’s Lightning Source installation, greeted publishers who have traveled to be part of the conference this year.

Further programming, about which we’ll have additional coverage, included an interview onstage of HarperCollins’ Chantal Restivo Alessi with Publishing Perspectives; an interview of John Ingram with Publishers Weekly’s Ed Nawotka; and presentations of several awards including the US$50,000 “She’s Next” award from PublisHer and Visa; and Sharjah’s third round of Rights Connection Awards, going to Istanbul-based Kalem Agency founder Nermin Mollaoğlu; Cairo’s Ahmed Bedeir, general manager at Dar El Shorouk; and Bill Kennedy, the founding director of Avicenna Partnership.

A special posthumous appreciation award went to the late Bassam Chebaro, the founder of Lebanon’s Arab Scientific Publishers, with his daughter Lina and many family members present to honor this moment of remembrance for an influential player in the Arab world’s book business. More on Chebaro and his recognition is in our specific story here.

And the rest of the day was given over to the 30 round tables and their broad range of discussions, as covered by Publishing Perspectives here.

Follow Publishing Perspectives for more coverage from the week here in Sharjah.

The Istanbul-based Kalem Agency’s Nermin Mollaoğlu, left, is given a Rights Conection Award by Bodour Al Qasimi. Joining them onstage are Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri and Mansour Al Hassani. Image: SBA, Nabs Ahmedi

More from Publishing Perspectives on international book fairs and trade shows is here, more on Sharjah Book Authority and its programs is here, and more on the Sharjah International Book Fair is here.

Our 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair Magazine is now available in a digital edition here.

Download your copy here.

You’ll also read our focused coverage of issues and events in the Guest of Honor Italy program; book market trends in Brazil, France, the Philippines, the Czech Republic, and Poland; perspectives on the international rights trade from Matthes & Seitz Berlin’s Meran Mentzel; commentary from independent publishers from Greece, Colombia, and Kenya.

PEN International president emerita Jennifer Clement speaks to Publishing Perspectives on censorship ahead of the IPA’s International Publishers Congress (December 3-5); there’s an exit interview with the outgoing IPA president Karine Pansa of Brazil; a wide-ranging interview with Scholastic chief Peter Warwick; perspectives on audio in Italy from Mondadori’s Miriam Spinnato; and more.

Publishing Perspectives is the International Publishers Association’s world media partner.

About the Author

Porter Anderson

Porter Anderson has been named International Trade Press Journalist of the Year in London Book Fair's International Excellence Awards. He is Editor-in-Chief of Publishing Perspectives. He formerly was Associate Editor for The FutureBook at London's The Bookseller. Anderson was for more than a decade a senior producer and anchor with CNN.com, CNN International, and CNN USA. As an arts critic (Fellow, National Critics Institute), he was with The Village Voice, the Dallas Times Herald, and the Tampa Tribune, now the Tampa Bay Times. He co-founded The Hot Sheet, a newsletter for authors, which now is owned and operated by Jane Friedman.