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31 March 2020

International Publishing Fellows for 2020 announced

11 March 2020

Marion Sinclair, CEO of Publishing Scotland, has announced the 10 publishers who have been chosen for the sixth International Fellowship. This marks 55 publishers who have visited the country to meet Scottish publishers and experience the culture and landscape. This year's Fellows are:

  • Dr. Cordelia Borchardt, S. Fischer Verlage, Germany
  • Sarah Cantin, St. Martin's Press, USA
  • Johannes Engelke, Mosaik, Goldmann Taschenbuch, Germany
  • Nicolás Rodríguez Galvis, Éditions Métailié, France
  • Esther Hendriks, De Arbeiderspers/Singel Publishers, The Netherlands
  • Peter Joseph, Hanover Square Press/HarperCollins, USA
  • Talia Marcos, Keter Books, Israel
  • Jean Mattern, Editions Grasset & Fasquelle, France
  • Andrea Stratilová, Albatros media, Czechia
  • Mark Tauber, Chronicle Prism, an imprint of Chronicle Books, USA 

 

All Fellows headshots 2020

The group will spend a week in Scotland at the end of August meeting Scotland-based publishers, agents and writers in a varied programme of events across the country including the Edinburgh International Book Festival, dinner at Robert Louis Stevenson's former home, a writer showcase in Glasgow and a trip to the Highlands to meet publishers and writers based there. 

The purpose of the visit is to help develop relationships between the international publishing community and the Scottish sector, facilitate rights selling and bring Scottish books to an international audience. Previous fellows have acted as advocates for the Scottish publishing scene; and the Scotland stand receptions at the Frankfurt and London Book Fairs are now a hive of international activity as Fellows reconnect with the Scottish publishers. Sadly, Publishing Scotland's drinks reception will not be going ahead this year due to the cancellation of London Book Fair, but conversations continue regardless.

Scotland-based literary agent Jenny Brown of Jenny Brown Associates, who has been involved with the Fellowship since it was established in 2014, said: "The Fellowship enables us to meet publishers and understand their markets, introduce them to authors and for them to encounter the vibrant literary scene here, in a way that brief 30 minute meetings at book fairs can never achieve.  And it works in terms of selling rights, especially successful for our authors, both in fiction and non-fiction."

Marion Sinclair, Chief Executive of Publishing Scotland, said: "We are hugely privileged to have this Fellowship Programme as a means of attracting publishers to come and experience the industry here. Thanks to our funders, in the six years since the Fellowship began, we will have invited 55 senior international publishers to Scotland and given our publishers, agents, and writers the chance to get to know them in a more relaxed setting. It's part of a wider internationalisation strand within our work and is paying dividends in terms of rights deals made, and in the very important relationships that have been forged between the Fellows and the sector."

The award-winning programme from the network, trade and development body for the book publishing sector in Scotland is supported by funding from the arts body Creative Scotland.

Alan Bett, Literature Officer, Creative Scotland, said: "The International Publishing Fellowship builds relationships between publishers and therefore develops channels for voices in Scottish literature to reach readers beyond the UK. By facilitating rights sales in international territories, the programme builds a more global readership and profile for our authors, as well as contributing towards sustainable writing careers."

 

PRESS RELEASE

Download the full press release of 11 March 2020 (pdf).