DThe good news first: in March there is no book fair in Leipzig, but there is a book fair. Now it has been confirmed what had become the hottest industry rumor of the spring season just beginning: There will be a kind of alternative book fair for independent publishers.
From March 18th to 20th, the initiators of the “book fair_popup” known, more than fifty publishers would now come to the cultural center Werk 2 in the south of Leipzig, including the Aufbau Verlage, CH Beck, Hanser, Jung und Jung, Kampa, Kanon, Klett-Cotta, Kunstmann, Matthes & Seitz, Voland & Quist, Schöffling , Suhrkamp, criminals and Wagenbach. After the sudden, repeated cancellation of the Leipzig Book Fair, the initiators, who include Leif Greinus from the publishing house Voland & Quist and Gunnar Cynybulk from the Kanon Verlag, say they “didn’t want to remain idle,” the authors need “the positive energy that Leipzig going out”. However, this initiative is intended as a one-off event and is not directed against the established fair nor against the publishers who have canceled their participation in the book fair.
An anti-fair of the indies?
It remains to be seen what real and immaterial dimensions this zeitgeisty title “book fair_popup” will have: that of a grassroots-like anti-fair with book tables? Or, as some do Commentator already sees gathering in the eastern sky, is an anarchist gesture of independence taking place like that of the “Alternative Book Fair” of 1990, where small East German publishers met their West German colleagues? Or is there a forced self-bunkering, because the broad mass of the reading public is more likely to find its way into the exhibition halls than into the indie-club-like Connewitz cultural center?
One thing is certain so far, the initiators emphasize: this fair is not directed against anyone, but serves the book. Even the Leipzig Trade Fair itself does not see the event as a competing product, but states on request that it is the “logical, logical consequence of the current development”, which simply shows that a presentation by the publishers in Leipzig in the spring “is sought and important is”; the event also emerged as an initiative from the idea of the Leipzig Book Fair.
Canceled for the third time: The regular Leipzig Book Fair
Source: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentralbild
With the invitation issued by Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth and Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer to the “talking about the future”, in which the German Book Trade Association, those responsible at the Leipzig Trade Fair and publishers’ representatives are to take part, politicians have also openly acknowledged the importance of the book fair, albeit in damage limitation mode after petitions had been started by various organizers and authors. Paradoxically, the cancellation of the fair due to the pandemic could have given the book industry a boost in terms of self-assurance and relevance. That’s the good news.
Since the sudden cancellation ten days ago, however, a strange rhetorical dance can be observed, against which the currently circulating interpretations such as “East/West split” and “conflict between small publishers and corporate publishers” seem like past trench warfare from the last century.
When trade fair director Oliver Zille canceled the trade fair, the stock exchange association sent a compliment that could have been described as poisonous if it hadn’t been written in a peculiar mixture of rhetorical patting and softened mindful language: He, Zille, “fought like a lion”. and “give everything”, you don’t want to be stuck in your own skin, you should show “sympathy” to the brave man and treat those who canceled their participation in the fair “with respect and recognition”, and in general those who “give the book a stage offer”, signed “very warmly and today sadly” by the head and general manager.
Oetinger Managing Director Thilo Schmid sounded similar, even when he formulated the opposite, namely that the Leipziger Messe simply missed revising its business model in two years of the pandemic. “As a publisher, we see ourselves today as enabling experiences and emotions,” wrote Schmid in the “Börsenblatt” and added to his double-e understanding: “We want to be approachable and should only finally blow up the ivory towers with the empty floors that are difficult to climb and interact at eye level”.
Karaoke critical of capitalism is not enough
Even if it is not entirely clear who is left over when the ivory towers are blown up, especially when they are empty, the demolition expert or the ivory – the Teflon-emphasized speech about the “closeness” of the book indicates an ambiguity: not about how to proceed with the book fair, but about what is actually meant by the “product book” in 2022 in general – and the publisher as its place of origin and distribution in particular. It is no longer enough to differentiate between large corporate publishing houses and independent small publishing houses, even if writers like Ingo Schulze are in the right mood for the expected karaoke critical of capitalism; The question that needs to be clarified is whether publishers and controllers may not now have increasingly different views of what a book worth publishing is.
In this respect, the “buchmesse_popup” is not just a temporary book fair, but perhaps a balancing act for a possible paradigm shift in the book industry as a whole.
This year, only the Leipzig Book Prize will be awarded at the usual location: in the glass hall of the exhibition center, without an audience. In fiction, Tomer Gardi, Emine Sevgi Özdamar and Katerina Poladjan are three authors who were not born in Germany, which may be considered progressive; emphasizing that seems a bit absurd, because the Jury herself – who was faced with the grotesque accusation last year of not looking at literature in a diverse enough way, but instead looking at it “too white” – stated about the chairwoman Insa Wilke: “The nominated literary works are characterized by their extraordinary linguistic art, which makes it possible to deal with their topics in the first place”. In any case, the emphasis on literature as an art of language instead of as a political commentary on the current situation or even as an “emotion enabler” gives reason to hope for the somewhat unclear future.
The nominees in the Fiction category
Source: Publishers/ Montage welt.de
The book prize nominees at a glance
Fiction:
Dietmar Dath: “Gentzen or: Clean up drunk. Calculus novel” (Matthes & Seitz)
Tomer Gardi: “A round thing” (Droschl)
Heike Geissler: “The Week” (Suhrkamp)
Emine Sevgi Ozdamar: “A space bounded by shadows” (Suhrkamp)
Katerina Poladjan: “Music of the future” (S. Fischer)
Non-fiction book / essay writing:
Horst Bredekamp: „Michelangelo“ (Wagenbach)
Hadija Haruna-Oelker: “The beauty of difference. Think differently together” (btb)
Christiane Hoffmann: “Everything we do not remember. On foot on my father’s escape route” (CH Beck)
Juliane Rebentisch: “The Controversy over Plurality. Disputes with Hannah Arendt” (Suhrkamp)
Oil Wolf: “Etymological gossip. Essays and Speeches” (kookbooks)
Translation:
Irmela Hijiya Kirschnereit, from the Japanese: “thorn extractor. The Fabulous Jizō of Sugamo” by Hiromi Itō (Matthes & Seitz)
Stefan Moster, from the Finnish “In the hall of Alastalo. A description from the archipelago” by Volter Kilpi (mare)
Andreas Tretnerfrom the Russian: “Wunderkind Erjan” by Hamid Ismailov (Friedenauer Presse)
Helga van Beuningenfrom the Dutch: “My little magnificent animal” by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld (Suhrkamp)
Anne Weber, translated from French: “Nevermore” by Cécile Wajsbrot (Wallstein)
The Leipzig Book Fair Prize, which is endowed with 60,000 euros, is traditionally awarded in three categories Leipzig Book Fair website streamed.