Next Page Foundation

Issue 48 - June 2008

2008-06-24T07:57:48Z

New books published

Vadim Toropov, Crimean Roma: Language and Folklore, in Romani and English (State University Publisher, Ivanovo - 2008), supported by the Grants Program of VORBA project

The book presents an unique research based on the oral histories and folklore of the Crimean Roma. Crimean Roma are an ethnolinguistic community leaving in the area of the Crimean peninsula since the 18 c. Today some 12,000 to 15,000 live in Russia and Ukraine. During the past century the Crimean Roma suffered persecution that brought them on the verge of extinction. In 1944 they were forcedly deported from their traditional place of residence and were never given permission to return. The book presents oral history narratives about these dramatic events collected by the author in the last couple of decades as well as original pieces of Roma folklore preserved by the community in Romani as an important fundament for maintaining the community identity.

The bi-lingual publication is targeted at the Romani communities in South Russia and Ukraine, where it will back up the teaching of Romani language and folklore as a school subject, but will also be of a significant value for activists, Romani scholars and historians.

J. Mark Davidson Schuster: Informing Cultural Policy: The Research and Information Infrastructure, translation into Polish by Marek Krol (Jagiellonian University Press, Krakow - 2007), supported by the Cultural Policy Translations project

Informing Cultural Policy is a book resulting from a study commissioned by the Pew Charitable Trusts for the purpose of examining other nations' models of a cultural policy research infrastructure that might be borrowed in the United States. The author J. Mark Davidson Schuster overviews the current trends and challenges in the filed of cultural policy by undertaking a comparative research in twenty-six organizations in France, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Canada, Germany, Hungary, and Croatia. His analysis goes deep into the various systems of collecting, interpreting, and disseminating cultural policy data. Schuster's scope of research includes priavte- and public-sector models, namely reserach divisions of government cultural funding agencies, national statistics agencies, independent nonprofit research institutes, government-designated university-based research centers, private consulting firms, cultural "observatories", noninstitutional networks, research programs, and publications. One of the basic claims of the study is that information infrastructure plays a leading role in the design of an effective cultural policy. Only through optimizing the function of the “connective tissue” (which means not only distributing information, but also verifying it) – insists the author – the gap between researchers, policymakers, and practitioners could be overcome.

The translation into Polish has been initiated within the Cultural Policy Translations Project, which is a joint initiative of Next Page Foundation and the Cultural Policy Education Group (CPEG) of the European Cultural Foundation. The project aims at supporting universities and academic institutions, dealing with cultural policy education in Central and Eastern Europe, to work on strengthening their curriculum potential to transfer know-how on cultural policy to a next generation of policy makers.

The book is going to be used as textbook at the Institute of Public Affairs of the Jagiellonian University, the oldest and most prestigious university in Poland, which actively participated in the process of translation and publication of the edition.

Issue 47 - May 2008

2008-05-31T19:37:01Z

A new collaborative project of Next Page launched

We are pleased to announce the launch of our new research project on language changes in the transition period, (half) jokingly entitled Why Do We Speak Like That. One of the common features of East European transition has been the incredibly quick transformation of what was the heavy ideological language of socialist times into a free democratic speech. But the opening-up of the former socialist societies also brought into the public language hundreds of previously unknown concepts and ideas, as well as the words for them. Translation (or adaptation) thus was vital in the 90s and indirectly played a role in the way people were thinking about the societies they live in. And doing so in their own languages. Thus the project's will document and research a significant process of cultural transfer via translation that took place over the last 17 years in three countries – Bulgaria, Serbia and Ukraine by focusing on certain key terms, mainly from the policy area, where the adaptation of new words and phrases is particularly visible.

At the end of the project we will have more than 15 individual research papers analyzing indexes and glossaries in printed publications, policy documents, political speeches, in-depth interviews and discourse analysis of printed media. We will also invite contributions by contemporary artists from the participant countries for their creative reflections on the issue of language change.

The project is a joint initiative of three organizations – Next Page - Sofia, Youth Humanities Centre at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy – Kyiv and the National Library of Serbia – Belgrade.

It has won financial support by the Erste Foundation at their first open call for proposals earlier this year.

We will keep the readers of Page Back posted on new developments after the project's launch.

Issue 46 - April 2008

2008-04-29T18:44:55Z

Arab Readership Survey discussed at the London Book Fair

This year's LBF had Arab countries at key guest of honor. Next Page was unable to attend so we cannot report on how it went.

Our own panel, dedicated to Arab readership and co-organized by the British Council took place on the last day of the fair. We invited several people to reflect critically upon the result of the survey on readership in 9 Arab countries that Next Page undertook in 2006-2007, and also to share views on how the study's results could or could not be of use in their professional practice as publishers, educators and policy makers. Gregor Meiering, currently OSI representative for the MENA region in Amman, who designed the very idea of the survey, gave an excellent presentation of the report. The discussion was then continued by James Wile of the International Reading Association and Ramy Hadeeb of Kotobarabia – Cairo who were able to contextualize, and offer their own insights from the perspectives of readership and publishing. Their contributions to the debate were based on their earlier commentaries on the survey that are available in full-text here.

While unfortunately there were not as many people who attended the seminars on this last day of the fair, everyone who did attend was extremely engaged with the topic and queued to speak to the panel afterwards. On the occasion of the fair, we published all updated data from the surveys (in both English and Arabic) on a CD that is available from Next Page by request as well as on our web-site.

East - East exchange in cultural periodicals

The electronic magazine Potyah 76 has dedicated an issue to Balkan literature, supported by the East Translates East program of Next Page Foundation, which can be found on www.potyah76.org.ua. Potyah 76 is an online Ukrainian magazine publishing contemporary literature and criticism from Central and Eastern Europe with a regular news bulletin. The name originates from a daily train formerly linking the city of Gdansk at the Polish Baltic Sea cost and the Bulgarian city of Varna at the Black Sea, passing through the Ukrainian Lviv, Stanislav (Ivano-Frankivsk), Kolomyja and Chernivtsi. That is why the website is constructed like a train with carriages, loaded by “prose”, “poetry”, “interviews”, etc, and an engine, introducing the people in lead - Yuriy Andrukhovych (editor-in-chief), Oleksandr Boychenko (contributing editor), Tetyana Oliynyk (project coordinator).

The Balkan issue is inspired by the idea that contemporary literature written in Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian, or Macedonian is underrepresented in Ukrainian, in spite of the common historical and language background. It features texts of Alek Popov, Zoran Feric, Lamija Begagic, Mihajlo Pantic, Renato Baretic, Ante Tomic, Ljubica Arsic, Mileta Prodanovic, Nenad Velickovic, Venko Andonovski, Goran Petrovic and others, and some of the translators involved are Ostap Slyvynsky, Yuriy Vynnychuk, Alla Tatarenko, Nataliya Bilyk, Oksana Okhrim-Brezvyn.

The “Balkan Express” was promoted at the Lviv Publishers' Forum, the biggest book-fair in Ukraine – with the help of a printed almanac, which is usually published once a year, comprising of “the best of“ the online version. Great interest provoked the authors readings of Goran Petrovic, Zvonko Karanovic, Zoran Feric, Renato Baretic, Mihajlo Pantic, Sava Damjanov. The “Balkan Express” also traveled to Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivci, and is going to visit Kyiv now in the spring.

The electronic issue of Genero , prepared together with the Macedonian “Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender, and Culture”, and supported by the East Translates East program for translations in cultural periodicals of Next Page Foundation, can be found on www.zenskestudie.edu.yu. It contains translations from South-Eastern European languages into Serbian of previously published articles by Bobi Badarevski, Elizabeta Seleva, Eva Bahovec, Masa Ogrizek, Milco Mancevski, Katerina Kolozova, Zarko Trajanovski. This cooperation represents one of the first attempts to establish an exchange of texts between two key journals for gender and philosophy in the region.

New books published

Zene u Hrvatskoj. Zenska i kulturna povjest (Women in Croatia/ Female and Cultural History), ed. by Andrea Feldman, translation from Croatian into Hungarian by Tilda Fehér, (Balassi, Budapest - 2008), supported by the Women Issues Translation Project

Originally, this is a pioneering collection, which gathers several generations of Croatian historians, writing about women's history in Croatia. The13 interdisciplinary essays, included in the book, create an overview of the gendered cultural history of the country. For the Hungarian publication however, the editor Andrea Feldman selected 8 of the chapters, and rewrote the introduction, thus embedding the historical narrative into a new and broader context. Undoubtedly, the Hungarian readers would be the perfect audience for such a book, considering that women's history is already a well-established discipline in Hungarian universities.

Investigative Journalism by Hugo de Burgh – available online in Serbian

Maria Velichkova — 2008-04-11T07:02:40Z

The Serbian translation of Investigative Journalism. Context and Practice by Hugo de Burgh has also appeared on the Internet – as a start 30% of each chapter has been uploaded on the Belgrade's Media Center's website. The full-text printed version by Clio Publishers came out in 2007 and the readers can find it in libraries and bookshops around the country.

Investigative Journalism is the sixth online publication of the translations supported by Next Page within the Media and Journalism Translation Project, a program aiming to assist media professionals and journalism training efforts in Southeastern Europe and launched in cooperation with the OSI Media Program and the South East European Network for Professionalization of Media (SEENPM).

Investigative Journalism by Hugo de Burgh - available online in Romanian

Maria Velichkova — 2008-04-10T10:00:28Z

Next Page is pleased to announce that the Romanian translation of Hugo de Burgh's book Investigative Journalism. Context and Practice can now be read on the Internet on the Center for Independent Journalism's website.

The printed version by Limes came out in 2006 and the readers can still find it in libraries and bookshops around the country. At the same time, the book is now even more accessible - just one click away from students in journalism, media experts and other interested audiences.

The Romanian version of Investigative Journalism is the seventh online publication of the translations supported by Next Page within the Media and Journalism Translation Project, a program aiming to assist media professionals and journalism training efforts in Southeastern Europe and launched in cooperation with the OSI Media Program and the South East European Network for Professionalization of Media (SEENPM).

Issue 45 - March 2008

2008-03-28T10:14:55Z

Next Page at Abu Dhabi Book Fair

Abu Dhabi Book Fair is becoming more international each year. This year the fair was held from 10th to 16th March and its lively program of events was wisely divided into "professional" days and days open for the wide public. The wide public at this very fair was mainly comprising of crowds of excited schoolchildren taking advantage of the book purchasing coupons provided to them by the authorities.

Much to Next Page's delight, the opening conference was dedicated to the challenges of publishing translations into and from Arabic, with participation of prominent European publishers, agents and translators and their Arab colleagues. Much to Next Page's disappointment, though, the lively discussions revealed - among other things - the discrepancy between the business environment in Europe and the Arab world that often leads to misunderstandings and mutual suspicions when rights - and publishing deals are concerned.

Later on, during the fair itself the organizers provided excellent conditions for networking and matchmaking between Arab and international participants. As part of Next Page's wider agenda for promoting translations into Arabic, we provided materials on translations' support schemes kindly hosted by the Literature across Frontiers stand at the fair. Next Page director Yana Genova spoke at a panel on translations in Arabic as well as at various networking events across the fair.

The program was not short on events and ceremonies. Among some of the noteworthy ones this year were the announcement of Baha Taher as the winner of the first International Prize for Arabic Fiction (given by the Emirates Foundation together with the London-based Booker Prize Foundation) as well as the award ceremony for the Sheikh Zayed Book Awards that are given annually in several categories.

Next Page was at the fair thanks to the kind invitation of Kitab - the new joint venture of Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage and Frankfurt Book Fair which organizes the fair. While not everybody goes to Abu Dhabi (yet) the way everybody goes to Frankfurt, the first step has definitely been made.

New books published

Alija Krasnići, E Erdzanosko Suno (The Dream of Erdzan), published in Romani by Rromane pustika (Subotica, 2007), supported by the Grants program of the VORBA project

Alija Krasnići is an author that does not need to be presented to those interested in Romani literature and culture. Born and grown up in a traditional family of Gurbet Roma, he got his education in Pristina and started writing short stories describing the life of Roma in mahalas (communities). With his unique talent to masterfully present Roma everyday life, Krasnići got European-wide recognition and a number of renown international prices for Roma literature.

This is not the first children book of Alija Krasnići, but it differs significantly from the others by the character of the narrated story and the illustrations that accompany it. While typical for the other children books of Krasnići is the dynamic feeling that they are just picked from the life or are describing something what the author has observed, E Erdzanosko Suno leads us in a wonderful fantastic world of a seven-year-old boy living with his brothers and grandma in a distant dusty mahala. In his dreams Erdzan meets animals in places and continents which he only has heard of in school or saw on TV, and the story is so impressive that the we see how the will to know the world opens fabulous possibilities for every eager child.

The book is being presented by the author on meetings with Romani children in schools all over Vojvodina where Romani language is part of the curriculum

Asli Erdogan, The City in Crimson Cloak, translation into Arabic by Bakr Sidqi (Cadmus Press, Damascus 2008), supported by the South - South Translation Grants Program

If you enjoy reading and sinking into “literary cities” – as Joyce's Dublin, Kafka's Prague, or Jean Rhys's Paris from Good Morning Midnight – go for Rio de Janeiro, narrated and experienced in the second novel, written by one of the most celebrated Turkish female writers Asli Erdogan. Originally published in Turkey in 1998, and acclaimed by the Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk, as well by the literary critics, The City in Crimson Cloak has been already translated in French, Norwegian, and English. The novel tells a story about a single day of the protagonist Özgür, which turns out to be the last day of her life. This dark surreal walk through the underclass sin-city Rio, but also through the hell's circles of heat, hunger, thirst, and alienation, finds its projection in the novel-within-the novel, written by the main character Özgür. A masterful and fascinating text, about how – through literature – one reconciles with life, postpones death, and in the end deserves it.

Issue 44 - February 2008

2008-02-27T10:47:35Z

New publications

Raymond Detrez, Kosovo: The Postponed Independence, translation from Dutch into Bulgarian by Raymond Detrez and Kralitsa Mab publishers (Sofia, 2008), supported by the Translating Current Debates program

The book offers new perspective towards key political and historical processes in a country, which is almost next door to Bulgaria. Prof. Raymond Detrez is an academic and an expert on the Balkans that is capable of offering an independent view-point on the region. Analyzing Serbian and Albanian myths about Kosovo he refuses to engage himself with one or the other side of the conflict. The Bulgarian edition of the book includes some new chapters on the latest developments in the region and is published just few days after the announcement of the country's independence and - contrary to most media reactions - provides the much needed critical and historical depth in discussing this controversial issue.

Investigative Journalism by Hugo de Burgh – already available online in Serbian

The Serbian translation of Investigative Journalism. Context and Practice by Hugo de Burgh has also appeared on the Internet this month – as a start 30% of each chapter has been uploaded on the Belgrade's Media Center's website. The full-text printed version by Clio Publishers came out in 2007 and the readers can find it in libraries and bookshops around the country.

Investigative Journalism is the sixth online publication of the translations supported by Next Page within the Media and Journalism Translation Project, a program aiming to assist media professionals and journalism training efforts in Southeastern Europe and launched in cooperation with the OSI Media Program and the South East European Network for Professionalization of Media (SEENPM).

East - East exchange in cultural periodicals

The 4th 2007 issue of Fakel magazine (Bulgaria), supported by the East Translates East program for translations in cultural periodicals, has just come out. Fakel is a quarterly literary and political magazine, which has already been published for almost three decades. The new issue features Vassiliy Aksionov's novel Moskva-kva-kva, Danila Privalov's play in two parts Wonderful Faraway (sad utopia) and over 10 other translations of recently published interviews and literary texts, contemplating on the dilemmas of today's world.

Three issues of the Slovenian Apokalipsa magazine, supported by the East Translates East program for translations in cultural periodicals, dedicated to special philosophical and feminist topics, have also been published within the past months. The magazine has been coming out since 1994 and the editors proudly say that reading Apokalipsa is reading between tradition and innovation as it carefully connects the feelings and reflections of the younger generation with the spiritual base of the passing millennium and the challenges to come, concerning both literature and philosophy.

The magazine is part of the international project Review within Review, using the existing infrastructure of 15 literary and cultural periodicals in 12 countries in Central and Eastern Europe to present contemporary literature, essays and other works of art from the region without the mediation of “big” languages.

Issue 43 - January 2008

2008-01-30T22:00:00Z

Investigative Journalism by Hugo de Burgh – now online in Bulgarian

Next Page Foundation is pleased to announce that the full-text Bulgarian translation of Investigative Journalism. Context and Practice by Hugo de Burgh can now be read on the Internet on the Media Development Center's website.

The printed version by Apostrofi publishers came out in 2006 and the readers can still find it in libraries and bookshops around the country. At the same time, the book is now even more accessible - just one click away from students in journalism, media experts and other interested audiences.

Investigative Journalism is the fifth online publication of the translations supported by Next Page within the Media and Journalism Translation Project, a program aiming to assist media professionals and journalism training efforts in Southeastern Europe and launched in cooperation with the OSI Media Program and the South East European Network for Professionalization of Media (SEENPM).

Marija Aleksandrović, Veronika Mitro (editors), Paćivali, sem vaj naj, in Romani (Roma Link, Novi Sad 2008), supported by the Grants Program of VORBA project

The publication presents unique anthropological material on the perseption of the virginity among young Roma. It is a result of a field research conducted in Vojvodina in 2002-2004 by Roma who graduated Romology Studies at Novi Sad University. Results of the study are provocatively entitled Paćivali, sem vaj naj that literary means “am I honest or not” and in the context of Roma culture actually refers to the question of virginity. The book aims to explore how popular in fact is the “virginity cult” among the Christian Roma communities in Vojvodina, how it is interpreted and to which extend the Roma youth of both sexes is willing to change it.

The book contains selected inteviews in the form of life stories as well as analysis of the results of 576 questionnaires. The published material reveals that the requirement for a virgin bride is a steady cultural phenomenon among the young Roma. But - youngsters argue - the reasons do not lie in the traditional belief that virginity brings wealth and happiness for the community (while the opposite would bring misfortune), but in the respect of a centuries long tradition that is important for the families and the community as a whole.

According to its editors, the book is targeted at all Roma communities in the region, but would be of special interest to the growing number of Roma women activists with a strong influence on their communities. Following a wide dissemination plan, Roma Link will promote and distribute the book via 20 local and national media (including websites) within the region and through a network of over 50 organizations. Targeted promotions will be organized in 10 locations in Serbia with sizable Roma population.

Aleksandar Pavkovic, The Fragmentation of Yugoslavia: Nationalism and War in the Balkans, translаtion from English into Armenian by Zangak-97 Publishers (Yerevan 2007), supported by the East Translates East program

Zangak-97 Publishers from Armenia have chosen to translate this study of the ideological genealogy of Yugoslavia as they find certain parallels can be drawn with their country's post-USSR situation. Though the author follows the whole process of construing the Yugoslav state since 1918, he focuses on the disintegration of the federation after the series of civil wars, provoked by the claims of Croats, Serbs, Kosovo Albanians, and Bosnian Muslims. Pavkovic also discusses the role of the EU and NATO in the armed and diplomatic intimidation of the Serb leaders. The author thoroughly analyses the development and the role of national ideologies in the country's break-up, providing a comprehensive account of political, social, cultural, economic and other factors involved. The publishers believe the book will be of great interest for political experts and the wider audiences.

Online issue of the Macedonian Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender, and Culture, supported by the East Translates East program of Next Page Foundation

This translation into Macedonian of seven articles by authors from the Southeastern Europe represents the first attempt to establish an exchange of texts between two of the key journals for gender and philosophy in the region – the Macedonian Identities, and the Serbian Genero. The online issue contains Macedonian translations of previously published articles by Marina Grzinic, Peter Klepec, Zarana Papic, Suzana Marjancic, Jovan Cekic, Novica Milic and Polona Mesec. A mirror publication is expected to come out in Genero.

Investigative Journalism by Hugo de Burgh - in Bulgarian

Maria Velichkova — 2008-01-24T09:13:14Z

Next Page is pleased to announce that the full-text Bulgarian translation of Hugo de Burgh's book Investigative Journalism. Context and Practice can now be read on the Internet on the Media Development Center's website: www.mediacenterbg.org.

The printed version by Apostrofi came out in 2006 and the readers can still find it in libraries and bookshops around the country. At the same time, the book is now even more accessible - just one click away from students in journalism, media experts and other interested audiences.

Investigative Journalism is the fifth online publication of the translations supported by Next Page within the Media and Journalism Translation Project, a program aiming to assist media professionals and journalism training efforts in Southeastern Europe and launched in cooperation with the OSI Media Program and the South East European Network for Professionalization of Media (SEENPM).

Issue 42 - December 2007

2007-12-21T14:04:39Z

We wish you a wonderful festive season – relaxing holidays, entertaining company, gorgeous presents and… satisfaction with the next pages of the New Year!

New books published

Claus Leggewie, Die Globalisierung und ihre Gegner, translation into Bulgarian by Silvia Valkova, edited by Stilyan Iotov (Agata-A Publishers, Sofia 2007), supported by the German Language Translation Project, funded by GTZ and Next Page

In his book Globalization and Its Critics the political scientist Claus Leggewie divides those who are opposed to globalization into five groups – leftists and radical leftists; the academic left; reformers from the business world, who employ social democratic approach; critics grounded in religion; right wing opponents, who promote the values of the nation state. Though heterogenic, the anti-globalization movement – according to Leggewie – is not problematic as a formation, because it can better fulfill various tasks, and attract and unite different audiences. The author claims that the criticism of Greenpeace, trade unions, churches, etc. becomes a mainstream today, as the globalization issue was in the 1990-s.

Milena Dragisevic-Sesic and Branimir Stojkovic, Kultura - Menadžment, animacija, marketing, translation into Georgian by Levan Khetaguri (International Bureau Caucausian Cultural Relations, Tbilisi 2007), supported by the East Translates East program

The book of Milena Dragicevic-Sesic and Branimir Stojkovic, which has already five editions in Serbian, and is translated into more than seven languages, is one of the most successful practical guides on cultural management. The authors go deeply into the strategies of cultural policy, which provide the connection between artists, cultural institutions and audiences. The illustrations and the analysis are focused on the problems of cultural management in those European countries, which have passed through political and economic transition. The Georgian translation and publication of the book was promoted at the International Culture Fair “Caucasus 2007” in Tbilisi.