In this photo taken at the Salone Internazionale del Libro di Torino in May, Circulo de Poemas’ Rita Mattar is in the center, with runners-up Alba Donati of the Libreria Sopra la Penna, left, and Friedrike Doppenberg of Fifth Wave. Image: SILT
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
‘Independent Publishers Working Together’
As Publishing Perspectives readers know, the Aficionado Award is a project of Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 16 to 20) and Italy’s Salone Internazionale del Libro di Torino (May 15 to 19), working together to support the creation of the award by its four-person board of founders:
- Michael Gaeb, Literarische Agentur Gaeb & Eggers GmbH, Berlin
- Rebecca Servadio, London Literary Scouting
- Tom Kraushaar, Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart
- Aleksi Siltala, Siltala Publishing, Helsinki
The 2024 award represents the second round of the Aficionado, the inaugural award having gone to Lola Shoneyin for her Lagos-based Aké Arts and Book Festival.
The Aficionado Award’s intent is “to recognize and pay tribute to the people, companies, and initiatives which innovate and impress in original collaboration.”
Such initiatives, the program’s organizers say, “improve the quality of international publishing.” And the further mission of the Aficionado, then, is “to make visible what is great and wonderful in publishing to all who are eager to be inspired and to collaborate for the greater good of the industry—to learn, teach and share; to encourage and establish a sustainable exchange of ideas about the important questions central to publishing.”
It has been announced today (September 11) that the 2024 Aficionado Award in its second annual cycle will go to Brazil’s Circulo de Poemas, an imprint of Fósforo Editora, São Paulo.
A program at Frankfurter Buchmesse will include an award ceremony and is set for 11 a.m. CEST on Frankfurt Thursday, October 17, at the International Stage in the foyer area between Halls 5.1 and 6.1.
‘A Small Community Growing and Becoming Stable’
From left in Torino are Frankfurter Buchmesse president and CEO Juergen Boos; Friederike Doppenberg of Aficionado Award runner-up Fifth Wave; award co-founders Michael Gaeb and Tom Kraushaar; Alba Donati of award runner-up Libreria Sopra la Penna; award co-founders Aleksi Siltala and Rebecca Servadio; Rita Mattar of Circulo de Poemas; and Giangiacomo Feltrinelli’s Camilla Cottafavi. Image: SILT
Circulo de Poemas is a rotating collective of independent publishers, a project that releases two books per month. Based on the motto “poetry can be for everyone,” its intent is to foster a community of readers fond of poetry and literature, offering a monthly subscription and local events. Additional partners of the project include bookstores, Germany’s Goethe-Institut, and restaurants.
The jury for the program’s selection of three finalists comprises Patrizia van Daalen (Astra House/Thinkingdom); Karsten Kredel (Ullstein Buchverlage); and Aleksi Siltala (Siltala Publishing). In addition to Circulo de Poemas, the finalists were:
- La Libreria Sopra la Penna, Alba Donati (Italy), a “literary cottage,” once burned and now revived, and its initiatives
- Fifth Wave, Friederike Doppenberg (Netherlands), a magazine focused on the writings of Russian dissidents
During the Torino fair, publishing professionals voted on which of the three nominees they’d like to see win the award.
In announcing this year’s win, the jurors are quoted, saying, “In Círculo de Poemas we were all agreed about how wonderful it is to see independent publishers working together in this way.
“The idea of rotating responsibility is simple and genius, as is the wish to make Círculo self-sustainable in the future. In Círculo we’ll see a small community growing and becoming stable, perhaps blooming with its potential of 1,000 or more subscribers. Creating a strong local community around poetry is in itself irresistible.”
More from us on Frankfurter Buchmesse is here, more on the Torino International Book Fair is here, more on international book fairs and trade shows overall is here, more on publishing and book awards programs is here, and more on the Aficionado Award is here.