Indo-Australian maiden joint collaboration for publishing of books

Kolkata, Feb 4 (UNI) Even as uncertainty was looming large over the 23rd Kolkata Book Fair, Indian and Australian publishers have for the first time decided to jointly publish books on various topics.

To begin with and under a well thought-out pilot project, a city-based publisher had recently brought out a translation of selected poems of ten leading Australian poets like Ron Pretty, Kevin Brophy, Lizz Murphy, Margo Lnagon, Bruce Bennett and Brook Emery, while at the same time, a Sydney-based publisher also released a similar compilation of English translation of poems of a few leading Bengali poets including Joy Goswami, Subhankar Banerjee and Dhruba Sengupta for Australian readers Though both the books were to be formally released in the 23rd Kolkata Book Fair, it could not be done due to the prevailing uncertainty about the future of the fair, usually visited by about two to three million book lovers every year.

Meanwhile, in an interactive session here last evening, leading Australian publisher and writer Thomas Keneally, who had come to the city to participate in the Kolkata Book Fair at the invitation of its organiser Publishers and Booksellers Guld, underlined the importance of more such ''collaborative efforts'' between leading Indian and Australian publishing houses.

He said it would not only popularise the leading writers, novelists and poets besides widening their readers profile, but also increase the sales of their books and novels by manifold to bring more revenues.

''It is very unfortunate that despite the presence of a large number of English-speaking people in India, the knowledge about Australian literature in the country is almost razor thin and vice versa,'' Mr Keneally said.

He stressed the need for initiating more direct contacts between the publishers of both the countries to explore huge opportunities.

In this connection, the renowned Australian poet turned publisher took a dig at British and American publishers for allegedly monopolising the foreign publication rights in India.

Moreover, till recently there was no sincere effort by any Australian or Kiwi publishing house to make forays into Indian literature through collaborative venture, Mr Keneally, flanked by two other Australian writers and poets Bruce Bennett and Ron Pretty, said and called for a new beginning from the ''City of Joy'' itself.

New Australian Trade Commissioner in India Michael Carter, who was also present on the occasion, provided a detailed overview of the 1.6 billion dollars publishing industry in the Lone Continent and said about 8,500 books and more than 120,000 titles hit the stands every year catering to over 20 million readers in his country.

Until last year, books of Australian authors, valued at about 191 million dollars, were annually exported mainly to the US, UK and New Zealand on the basis of their common language.

Asked about the volume of books being exported to India every year from Australia, Mr Carter describing the figure as ''unsubstantial'' said this was mainly because of the non-availability of import rights to most of the Indian publishers. ''However, we are trying to address the problem at the senior level,'' he added.

Australia was likely to be one of the largest foreign participants in the 12-day 23rd Kolkata Book Fair, which was to begin in Maidan from January 31, with more than 50 top publishing houses from the country.

A large number of litterateurs from that country, who had arrived in the city as per schedule, described the present situation as ''unfortunate'', but hoped it would soon be sorted out keeping in mind the interest of millions of book lovers in the cultural capital of India.

UNI