WorldKidLit’s Helen Wang talked with Claudia Soeffner of the International Youth Library Foundation in Munich about the “White Ravens Festival,” which brings together authors and illustrators from around the world:

What is the White Ravens Festival?

Claudia Soeffner: The White Ravens Festival for International Children’s and Young Adult Literature is a biennial festival initiated and organised by the International Youth Library (IYL) in Munich ijb.de. Over the course of six days, authors (and occasionally illustrators) from all over the world read from their books, offer workshops and other interactive events, and discuss their lives and works. Blutenburg Castle in Munich, which is the seat of the IYL, serves as the main festival location, and in addition, the festival authors also travel across Bavaria (southern Germany) to perform at schools, libraries, and other locations there. The next White Ravens Festival is going to take place in July 2020.

There’s a White Ravens Festival and a White Ravens list of selected books?What’s the significance of “White Ravens”?

CS: The White Ravens Festival and the White Ravens list share the same name and both originate at the IYL, yet they are two separate projects. “White Ravens” is a term known since antiquity to mean something unusual or rare. It has been used at the IYL for decades to signify extraordinary and innovative books for children and adolescents. The White Ravens Festival showcases children’s and young adult literature thus conceived.

The library’s annual catalogue entitled The White Ravens. A Selection of International Children’s and Youth Literature is a recommendation list published every fall just prior to the Frankfurt Book Fair and features 200 books from around the world published within the previous year.

How do you go about organising the festival? How do you choose which authors, translators and illustrators to invite?

CS: The Festival’s focus is as much on renowned and acclaimed authors as it is on new literary discoveries, and its German and international programme aims to build bridges between cultures. Therefore, every two years, 12 to 15 authors from different countries are invited to participate in the White Ravens Festival. The IYL team always strives to achieve a balance of well-known books that have already been translated into German and works that are as yet unfamiliar to readers in Germany.

Some of the events are conducted in the original languages (mostly German, English, French, Spanish, or Italian, as these are the languages most commonly taught in German schools). The other readings are bilingual events, with the authors reading from their books in their mother tongue and a German professional speaker reading the German translation. Each of the authors is accompanied by an IYL team member who moderates the event and translates questions and answers if necessary.

How do you choose the White Ravens books? Where can we find the White Ravens lists?

CS: The IYL team of language specialists examines all the books that the library receives through donations by publishers, literary agencies, authors, illustrators, and the like during the course of one year. From these 6,000 to 10,000 books, the specialists select the ones that they perceive to be outstanding and of high quality in terms of language, content, and artistry – books that are imaginative, inspiring, or provocative, set new trends, or tackle challenging topics. The White Ravens 2018 list, which will be launched at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October, comprises books in 38 languages from 59 countries.

The books on the “White Ravens” lists are entered into an online database that can be accessed on the IYL website: http://whiteravens.ijb.de/list. The print lists are also available to be ordered from the IYL website: https://www.ijb.de/en/publications.html

Could you share some highlights of the White Ravens Festival in 2018?

CS: In total, the White Ravens Festival 2018 consisted of about 100 different events. There were so many highlights that it is hard to mention just one. Here are a few: