PublisHer founder Bodour Al Qasimi speaks at the 2024 Thessaloniki International Book Fair, coordinated by Nopi Chatzigeorgiou. Image: Nabs Ahmedi
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
In the Context of the UN General Assembly
Close on the heels of our news about PublisHer‘s partnership with Visa in the She’s Next program in the United Arab Emirates, Publishing Perspectives has learned that the international network for women in professional publishing will make its event debut in North America on September 30, the final day of the 2024 United Nations 79th General Assembly.
The United Nations’ Publications division and the New York University’s School of Professional Studies are collaborating with PublisHer on this upcoming discussion and networking forum, which of course will be following the UN’s Summit of the Future, as we’ve reported in our piece on the work of Melissa Fleming, the UN under-secretary-general for global communications who is giving a keynote address to the 34th International Publishers Congress from the International Publishers Association (IPA) at Guadalajara. (That report is here.)
Sponsors for the PublisHer event in New York City are the United Kingdom’s Shimmr.ai; Italy’s Bologna Children’s Book Fair; and Bologna Book Plus. As organizers of the event say, the timing of the event with the General Assembly’s high-level days near the end of the month will put the PublisHer activities in good proximity to debates around the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the fifth goal of which is gender equality.
The program, “Gender Equality in Publishing: Empowering Women To Drive Innovation for a Better World,” is set for 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. ET at the NYU School of Professional Studies Building, and more information is here.
During a panel of international female publishing professionals discusses women’s roles in the world book business, the conversation will include the importance of aligning with the Sustainable Development Goals to address not only publish but broader international challenges, as well. Speakers anticipated for the PublisHer program:
- Lisa Lyons Johnston, Canadian publishing consultant
- Andrea Chambers, associate dean at NYU’s School of Professional Studies Center for Publishing and Applied Liberal Arts
- Elena Pasoli, director of Bologna Children’s Book Fair
- Bodour Al Qasimi, PublisHer founder and president of the American University at Sharjah, who will address the program in a digital message
An evening panel is to be moderated by UN Publications chief Mary Glenn, with panelists Sabrina McCarthy, president of Bloomsbury USA; Regina Brooks, president of the Association of American Literary Agents; and Judith Curr, president of HarperCollins’ HarperOne Group.
Shimmr.ai’s Brooke Dobson and Brittany Pinney will give a talk on leveraging artificial intelligence in publishing to advance women’s voices, and attendees can join a networking session to connect, share knowledge, and build their professional support structures with new and established contacts.
As Publishing Perspectives readers know, PublisHer was created during the 2019 London Book Fair (next set for March 11 to 13) by Al Qasimi, a Sharjah publisher, past president of the IPA, and now chair of the Sharjah Book Authority. PublisHer has continued to expand its reach and traction, in addressing “entrenched gender imbalances and driving a worldwide agenda for change in the publishing industry.”
The September 30 program in the States is understood by PublisHer’s leadership to signal the organization’s developing maturity and to support a more inclusive and meritocratic publishing industry in all world markets of the industry. It also promises to be an inspiring affair that will galvanize women who feel their professional progress has faltered because of their gender, and not their ability.
A Programming Note
The NYU program led by Andrea Chambers also is the producer of the Advanced Publishing Institute (next set for January 6 through 10), and those who are interested in plans for the 2025 institute have a chance to learn more in a digital informational program about it on Wednesday (September 18) at 12:30 p.m. ET (16:30 GMT, 17:30 BST, 18:30 CEST). Registration for that NYU digital session is here.
More from Publishing Perspectives on PublisHer is here, more on women in publishing is here, more on the United Nations and most specifically on its Sustainable Development Goals is here, and more on the United States market is here.