BEA Day 2 - Highlights from the simply amazing Author Breakfasts

Author appearances at BEA have always been a highlight and this year’s programming is providing more opportunity to meet and hear authors than ever before.  Neil Patrick Harris and Jason Segel hosted the first two author breakfasts which have included some of the best speeches in recent memory.   Anjelica Huston was introduced by Neil Patrick Harris on Thursday and she poignantly began her talk by reading a Maya Angelou poem which then framed the rest of her speech.  Continuing and enriching the theme, Tavis Smiley delivered an inspiring speech about Ms. Angelou which then weaved perfectly   into a discussion of Martin Luther King.   Lisa Scottoline was next up and she summed up Tavis Smiley’s appearance by exclaiming that this was her worst nightmare, referring to the fact that she had to speak after such an inspiring performance.  Jeff Kinney had the same experience at the Children’s Breakfast.  He was the final speaker and when he took the stage after Mem Fox he commented that having to follow her speech, which had hushed the room to a whisper, was the last thing he wanted to do.   But of course he rose to the challenge.   Carl Hiaasen was the first speaker.  The author breakfasts are what make BEA unique.   Each day they pull in over 1,000  members of the trade, who are also genuine book lovers, and for that moment everyone is completely connected.   

Guest Post summarizing BEA's Books in Translation Program

Dr. Ruediger Wischenbart offers up a wonderful summation of today's Global Market Forum program  on Books in Translation.  While reviewing, you may feel the pangs of missing something, this may be true but we can offer that on the BEA show floor there will be an additional 25+ programs on the Eastside/Translation Market stage that will be outstanding.

BEA GMF Books in Translation summary:

The winds of opportunity are blowing into the sails of that old ship that is the business of translation. Such was the broad consensus in yesterday's "BEA Global Market Forum 2014: Books in Translation. Wanderlust of the written word."

The agreement came from voices so diverse as Carol Brown Janeway of Knopf Doubleday, scout Maria Campbell, translator Esther Allen, start up publisher Michael Wise of New vessel, or John Siciliano of Penguin who had launched its newest star in translation, Joel Dicker, author of the international best seller, just hitting the US market, "The Truth of the Harry Quebert Affair", by a Swiss author, co-published initially by a legendary Swiss small press, L'Age d'Homme, together with a tiny Paris boutique publisher, Bernard de Fallois, is the Wunderkind of the season: A 600+ page thriller and a page turner, backed up by intellectual reflections on the art of writing, and in an about-face, a satire of New York's machinery of buzz around books, star authors and their vanity.

Joel Dicker, age 28, politely explained at the opening panel of the forum how he crafted this piece, and how important it was to him that this book would be both entertaining and light, and yet stand up to big American contemporary classics such as Philip Roth.

But a total of six sessions about translations, as an art, a craft and a business, also focused on all the routine burdens to bring good books from far away shores successfully to be embraced by an American readership, through building (Internet based) communities, by catering to not just English, but also Spanish language audiences, by establishing fruitful relationships between original authors, translators as mediators, and insightful editors and booksellers. And at the end, half a dozen organizations even proposed cash, in the form of translation grants, for easing the burden of going the extra mile that a translation requires.

This day of accounts, facts, anecdotes and discussions was opening on a wide horizon. But judging by the remarkably strong audience - one of the largest from the wide choice of Wednesday's sessions and topics - the "Wanderlust for the written word" hit an inspiring chord for many attendants. Which was the best compliment for the crowd of translation enthusiasts that we could have hoped for.

Join us for Books in Translation. Wanderlust of the Written Word“ at the BookExpo America Global Market Forum on May 28, 2014, in New York. Details here.

International Activity Ramps Up: China, Italy, Romania, Nordic region, Russia and so much more

A highlight for BEA 2014 will be the marked increase in international activity and programming.  With the Global Market Forum (GMF) program focused on Books in Translation and the launch of the Translation Market pavilion and stage on the show floor - there is now a dedicated spotlight to this critical element at BEA. It is aggregated as a genre and destination during BEA, with a full schedule programs and events.  The GMF professional program is Wednesday May 28th all in room 1E11 in the conference area.  During the BEA show days - the Eastside Stage in the Translation Market will host 25+ dynamic programs.  Also worth noting: with China being the 2015 GMF Country of Honor, there much advance planning that will bring more than 100 executives from China to BEA in 2014 as planning and execution begins in earnest for 2015. 

Below are a handful of program highlights and events:

• Italy "Voices from the South", a new project to introduce publishers and authors from four regions of the South of Italy: Apulia, Calabria, Campania, and Sicily. The launch of  "Voices from the South" will be on Thursday, May 29 at 1:00 on the stage of the Translation Market. The Italian writer Cosimo Scarpello, author of Stressbook about social media. A reception will follow Booths #1513 & #1613 .
• Italy on Friday, May 30 at Noon crime fiction writer Marco Malvaldi will sign copies of his book Game for Five (Europa Editions) booth # 1513. The English edition was published by Europa Editions.  Malvaldi is the winner of both the Isola d’Elba Award and the Castiglioncello Prize for his crime novels. 
•  NEW: NordLit - Booth 1649: is a network of Nordic Literature Centres representing Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The Nordic Literature Centres support translations; award travel grants for translators, writers and publishers; and support the production and promotion of Nordic literature.
• NEW: Romania Cultural Institute- - Booth 2357 Cultural exports from Romania are facilitated by the institute’s 18 foreign branches.
• ·      Reception at Qatar booth ( # 621) Friday May 30 at 12:30 with the Minister of Culture and Heritage, Dr. Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari

Below is the schedule as it stands for the East Side Stage in the Translation Market - featuring a ton of great programs from PEN, Read Russia and much more.  
 

Thursday May 29th
10:00 - 10:30	PEN/BEA	How to find the right translator for your project.
10:30 - 11:00	National Book Center, Romania	Romania: “Translation as an Icebraker”
11:00 - 11:30	PEN/BEA	How to draw a crowd for translated books.
11:30 - Noon	ReadRussia/ Russian State Literary Museum	Russia: Read Russia – How Russia Supports Its Literature
12:00 - 12:30	HISPABOOKS /Acción Cultural Española (AC/E)	Spain: Spanish literary fiction. “Antón Mallick Wants to Be Happy”, by Nicolás Casariego, Hispabooks.
1:00 - 1:30	Italian Trade Commission	Italy: "VOCI DAL SUD" (Voices from the South). Translations from Italy.
1:30 - 2:00	Brutas Editoras	The Amazing New World of Bilingual Publishing Houses
2:00 - 2:30	PEN/BEA	How to market your translated book.
2:30 - 3:00	Goethe-Institut New York	Germany: The German Translation Programs of the Goethe-Institut
3:00 - 3:30	PubMatch	Selling Rights in the 21st Century
3:30 - 4:00	Saudi Arabia
4:00 - 4:30	ReadRussia/Institute of Translation	Russia: Read Russia – New Modes of International Translation Support
Friday May 30th
10:00 - 10:30	Copyright Clearance Center	How to deal with translation and copyright.
10:30 - 11:00	Amazon Crossing	USA: Amazon Crossing. Bestsellers Crossing Borders.
11:00 - 11:30	Austrian Cultural Forum New York (ACFNY)	Austria: Austrian Cultural Forum New York- Translation Prize 2014
11:30 - Noon	Amazon Crossing	USA: Amazon Crossing. Author & Translator Q&A.
12:00 - 12:30	Sharjah Dept of Culture & Information	Fostering Translation Between the Arab World and International by the Sharjah International Book Fair
12:30 - 1:00	CNPIEC	China: Enter the Chinese Publishing Market with CNPIEC.
1:00 - 1:30	CNPIEC	China: Solutions of Global Digital Resources Integration and Services.
1:30 - 2:00	ReadRussia	The New International Congress of Literary Translators Eugene Reznichenko, Institute of Translation
2:00 - 2:30	NextPage foundation/BEA	How to work with international translation grants and grant sponsors.
3:00 - 3:30	Balassi Institute	Hungary: Publishing Hungary
3:30 - 4:00	Amazon Crossing	USA: Amazon Crossing: Author & Translator Q&A.
4:00 - 4:30	National Book Center, Romania	Romania: “How to Translate Eminescu - a Famous Romanian National Poet”.
Saturday May 31st
10:00 - 10:30	PEN/BEA	How to edit a translation.
10:30 - 11:00		Literary Writing in Other Languages Being Published Within the English-Speaking World
11:00 - 11:30	National Book Center, Romania	Romania: “Crossing and Re-crossing International Borders”.
12:00 - 12:30		Japanese Literature in English

A PILFERED POST: Shelf Awareness today offered The Rough Guide to First Time NYC

This post was lifted wholesale from Shelf Awareness - if you are going to BEA - you should also subscribe to the Shelf:  http://www.shelf-awareness.com/xs/register/theshelf

BEA14: The Rough Guide to First-Time New York City

The Javits Center is a labyrinth. Celebrity-author panels are packed. Galleys stream from publishers' booths like sweet, golden honey from the comb. For a first-timer, BEA can seem as big as its home city of New York, and combining these two great adventures into one trip is a book industry rite of passage.  Deciding where to go, what to do, and how to get there during your first trip to New York City is easier than it sounds. And, like organizing your daily schedule for BEA itself, a good guide always helps. Fact File Population: 8.3 million (NYC), 20,000 (BEA); 750+ (autographing authors) High/low temp: May is when New York is at its glorious best outdoors--breezy, sunny, perfect. The climate at the Javits hinges on location (for workshops, panels, booths), proximity to ventilation and amount of people crossing your personal space boundaries. As for any expedition, dress in layers. Cocktail index: Beer & wine are available at the Javits Center. For post-BEA drinks, expect a cocktail in the East Village to cost about $9; in the Meatpacking District: $19. Brave the outer boroughs and you can imbibe during Happy Hour starting at $4. (Check mta.info for service delays, especially on the weekend.) The Big Adventure Getting to BEA: The New York City subway can claim all sorts of superlatives: it's one of the oldest and largest subway systems in the world, with more than 450 stations. And, by ridership, it's the busiest in the United States. Plus, the subway fans out to all corners of New York, so you can reach the furthest reaches of the boroughs for just $2.50. There is one spot, though, that it doesn't quite get to: the Javits Center. You can walk to the Javits from Penn Station and Times Square, where multiple subways rumble through, but it's a long trek. For crosstown service, hop on the M34 bus on 34th Street, which stops on 11th Avenue, right outside the Javits. Be prepared with a MetroCard or exact change (in coins). Of course, the other option is always a cab, which is a New York experience in itself, and perfect for sharing with new-found friends. Cost and savings: Here's the dichotomy of New York: if you live here, it's the most expensive city in the country. But if you're visiting? It can be one of the cheapest. It all comes down to strategy. Location dictates price. A burger in TriBeCa might be $16, but at some crusty diner in Queens? $7. Hotels take the biggest bite out of one's budget, but that has been changing with the rise in pod-style hotels, where rooms are small, but so are the prices (at least for New York). Among these are the Dutch chain CitizenM, which opened last month in Times Square, with rooms starting at $199; the Pod hotels, with outposts on 51st Street and 39th Street; Yotel, near Times Square; and Aloft Hotels in Brooklyn and Harlem. Packing: Sex and the City could have easily been called Shoes and the City. And though the show was laughed off by many New Yorkers for its improbabilities (How could Carrie live in an apartment like that on a writer's salary?), there was one thing it got right: the daily fashion parade down the streets of New York City. But no need to panic: New York is all about cultivating your own look. Pick up a unique piece from the thrift store--whether a piece of statement jewelry or pocket square--and you're good to go. New York City is an eminently walkable city and it will feel as if you've clocked miles at the Javits before the end of your first day, so make sure that whatever shoes you bring are comfy and sturdy--they don't call these the mean streets for nothing. Where to go: Book Expo America provides lots of resources for organizing your time during the day, but what to see and do after hours? Ticking off the big sights on your itinerary is easy: just use the skyline as your guide. You can target the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Center and so on, at a glance. But it's also well worth taking advantage of the Javits location and your proximity to the far (very far) west side, which features a surprising array of outdoor activities. It can be hard to see it through the enormous bulk of the Javits, but yes, there is a river on the other side. Stride along the leafy banks of nearby Hudson River Park, which affords views of the entire length of Manhattan, down to Lady Liberty--its tip. If, after a long day under the fluorescent lights of the Javits, you're looking for a shorter stroll, catch the last rays of sun on the High Line, a park built on a former elevated rail line and accessed just south of the train yards, on 30th Street and 10th Avenue--it goes as far down as 14th Street. Where freight trains once rumbled along tracks, landscaped parkland now stretches, with walking paths, shaded benches and natural flora, from pussy willows to grey birches. A bonus: the park offers lots of free activities, including tours with the High Line gardeners by day and stargazing by night, as well as food and drink vendors. Returning Home: Nothing seems stranger when planning your trip than taking a moment to consider your return. Your first move in the re-entry game plan: dispatch all those galleys. FedEx offers shipping services direct from the show, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and until 8 p.m. on Saturday. Next, stay in touch with the people you meet and share your experiences on social media. Search and tag on Twitter using #BEA14 to stay current during the show. And, finally, start planning your next trip. Nothing cures the post-BEA blues better than dreaming about your next big adventure. Looking for more New York City travel ideas? Get a free Pocket Rough Guide to New York City to help you make the most of your trip.