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Dialogue and Jacaranda vie for LBF International Excellence Awards
The US is dominating the shortlists for the London Book Fair International Excellence Awards 2019 with Dialogue Books, Jacaranda Books, Emerald Publishing and Kogan Page flying the flag for UK publishers.
Brazil and India are following the US in the nominations with other strong performing countries include Botswana, Kenya, South Africa and Zambia while the Virtual Reading Gym in South Africa is shortlisted in two categories across the 26-country shortlists.
In the Inclusivity in Publishing Award, supported by the Publishers Association (for UK companies only), Emerald Publishing is nominated, alongside Dialogue Books run by Sharmaine Lovegrove and Jacaranda Books.
UK-based business book press Kogan Page is nominated for the Accessible Consortium International Excellence Award for Publishers, a category eligible for entries from all countries, including the UK. Also nominated is Accessible Books Consortium International Excellence Award for Publishers, as is Ediciones Godot (Argentina) and EDITORIAL 5 (Brazil).
The US has five nominations for the awards, held in partnership with the UK Publishers Association (PA), with Brazil and India nominated for three each. The prizes aim to represent “the best publishing ambassadors, innovative publishing, and ground-breaking initiatives in the industry”. In each award category, the judging panel was comprised of experts in that sector, organisers said.
Jacks Thomas, director of LBF, said: “The breadth of the sixth International Excellence Awards’ shortlist, with its impressive count of 26 countries, highlights how the global book industry is going from strength to strength. The nominees all showcase the diverse talent working in the publishing industry today, and I am thrilled to give them the international platform at the Book Fair to showcase their success.”
Publishers Association c.e.o. Stephen Lotinga said: "The geographical diversity of the shortlist reflects the growing strength of publishing markets across the globe.”
In the running for the Academic and Professional Publisher Award is De Gruyter (Germany), Rutgers University Press and University of Michigan Press (both in the US). Meanwhile an American company is also vying for Audiobook Publisher of the Year, through Macmillan Audio, along with Booklava (UAE) and Karadi Tales (India).
The Bookstore of the Year Award, sponsored by Gardners, will see BOA Bookstore (Vietnam) battling it out with Fang Suo Commune (China) and Unity Books (Wellington) (New Zealand).
Meanwhile, South Africa’s Virtual Reading Gym is nominated twice: once for in the Educational Initiatives Award, along with Tata Trusts (India) and West Java Agency of Library and Archive (Indonesia), and in the Educational Learning Resources category. Also in this latter category, supported by The China Publishing & Media Journal, is US-based Bookful by Inception and Pamegincius (Lithuania).
Meanwhile journalists Anja Sieg, of Buchreport (Germany), Leonardo Neto of PublishNews (Brazil) and Porter Anderson, of Publishing Perspectives (US), are competing for a new prize, the International Book Trade Journalist Award.
In the Library of the Year Award, Espoo City Library (Finland) is shortlisted along with Lubuto Library Partners (Zambia) and Parque Villa-Lobos Library (Brazil).
In the Literary Translation Initiative Award, Latvian Literature is nominated, as well as The Lontar Foundation (Indonesia) and Tulika Publishers (India).
Asta Trummel, of the Ministry of Culture of Estonia (Estonia), is one of the contenders for the Literary Agent Award. Joining Trummel is Pierre Astier, of the Astier-Pecher Literary & Film Agency (France) and Yasmina Jraissati, RAYA The agency for Arabic literature (France).
Nominations for the Literary Festival Award include Book Arsenal Literature Festival (Ukraine), International Literature Festival Utrecht (Netherlands) and Makassar International Writers Festival (Indonesia).
While in the Rights Professional category, Kyoko Ishigaki, Sekaibunka Publishing Inc (Japan) is shortlisted, along with Rose Janssens, Clavis Publishing (Belgium) and Yuliani Liputo - PT Mizan Pustaka (Indonesia). While eligible for entries from Market Focus Indonesia only is Educa Studio, Mizan and PT Bestari Buana Murni.
In the Market Focus Indonesia Children’s, Young Adult and Education Award, shortlisted entrants include Bentang Pustaka, Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia Publishing House and Noura Publishing.
The BC Libraries Cooperative, National Network for Equitable Library Service (Canada), is shortlisted for the Accessible Books Consortium International Excellence Award while Centre for Equitable Library Access (Canada) is also nominated alongside Companies and Intellectual Property Authority (Botswana) and eKitabu (Kenya).
The winners of several other awards will also be presented on the night including: The Simon Master’s Chairman Award and The Association for Publishing Education (APE) Student Awards.
The prize ceremony is an invitation-only event, and takes place on 12th March 2019 in The Conference Centre, Olympia, London. The LBF Lifetime Achievement Award will also be presented at the ceremony.
