Sharjah's Kalimat 'challenging boundaries' with adult fiction list

Sharjah publishing house Kalimat will later this month launch the first Arabic language translations of two books by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, including her title Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions. The books will be launched at the Abu Dhabi Book Fair, which opens on 25th April.

Kalimat has acquired all-territory Arabic language rights to the whole of Adichie's oeuvre, and will follow up with a launch of the translated novels - which include her debut Purple Hibiscus and Americanah - at the Sharjah International Book Fair in the autumn. Kalimat's founder and c.e.o. Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi told The Bookseller: "She is such an important voice for women and I am so excited to be publishing her."

The move is the latest in the evolution of Kalimat, which began purely as a children's publishing house but has now developed to include adult fiction and a comics and graphic novels list.

"The adult fiction imprint has been very interesting and a big jump for us," Al Qasimi explained, in an interview conducted at the London Book Fair. "We have published Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany's, and James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room, books which have not been translated into the Arabic language before. They are pushing the boundaries - books like these have great content, but content has been a little restricted in the Arab world. For us to be publishing literature that is challenging traditional boundaries is an interesting jump and a very important one."

Giovanni's Room, first published in 1956, tells of a gay American's life and relationships in Paris, while classic In Cold Blood is a study of a quadruple murder and the amoral young killers who carried it out, and Breakfast at Tiffany's tells of society girl Holly Golightly.

Al Qasimi said: "Now with [such widespread] access to content, there is no reason why certain books should not be available in certain countries - the United Arab Emirates is a young country, but growing very rapidly and literature should evolve to meet that demand."

Of the comics and graphic novels list, she noted: "No publishers are doing this in the Arab world and yet it is so big everywhere else." Kalimat has acquired titles for the list from French publisher Gallimard, and created its own book based on the classic Arab hero Antara, which it launched at the Middle East Film and Comic Con in Dubai earlier this month.

Al Qasimi is also the founder of the Emirates Publishers Association, an International Publishers Association member; she herself sits on four IPA committees, including the Freedom to Publish committee.

"We have had great support from the IPA on challenges with censorship," she said. "The IPA has been there to support us in the fight for our publishers. We've greated a great dialogue between us and our National Media Council [which implements laws regulating media in the UAE] and been able to resolve many issues and concerns that our publishers have. It is not a perfect world but we have moved miles ahead."

The Association is now working with the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations (IFRRO) and the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) to create a collective management society for authors' rights in the United Arab Emirates. "There isn't one in the Arab world, so this will be the first of its kind," Al Qasimi said.