By Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp

Last month, it was Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the world’s leading trade fair for children’s books and media. Every year, for four days in spring, publishing industry professionals from across the globe come together to buy and sell rights, make connections, and find out what’s new in the children’s/YA publishing space. We caught up with a few publishers and translators to hear their impressions of the fair and tips for first-time attendees …

World Kid Lit: What brought you to Bologna and what did you hope to achieve at the book fair? 

Joy Bean: I’d never been to the Bologna fair and was excited to attend a book fair that is solely dedicated to children’s books. I came to the fair looking to meet new people, see others I haven’t seen in a while, and find some books that I might want to acquire. I accomplished all of that.

Catherine Xinxin Yu: Partly out of curiousity/FOMO, partly because I already live in Italy so it’s not much trouble to travel to Bologna.

Ruth Donnelly: Having finished my masters last year, I’m really just trying to get established as a translator of kid lit, and it wouldn’t have occurred to me to come to Bologna, but Camila Valenzuela León, a Chilean author whose book I translated for my final project, got in touch to say she would be there and would love to meet, and it seemed too good an opportunity to pass up. Apart from meeting her, my main aim was just to put myself out there, attempt to make some contacts and get an idea of what’s going on in the industry in terms of major trends, what sort of books are being translated, etc. 

I have no idea how successful it was for me, professionally. I’m not the best at pushing myself forward, so perhaps didn’t speak to as many people as I could have, but I did make some contacts and hand out some cards, and I feel like a few doors are at least slightly more open to me than they were previously… I certainly hope it has some positive impact, because I would love to have the excuse to go again next year!

World Kid Lit: What were a few highlights for you? What have you left the fair thinking about?

Catherine: I’m happy that BCBF featured an indigenous panel this year (apparently for the first time ever!). I also found the panel on South East Asian comics fascinating. The illustrator Anne Brouillard is a new discovery for me. I immediately fell in love with her dreamy style, her iconic black dog (which looks a bit like Moomin!) and her attention to the tiny joys in life. I haven’t seen her books in libraries and bookshops before. 

I really enjoyed meeting and chatting with other translators of course. It would be great to reach out to other translators and organise another get-together!

Francesca Novajra: Lots of good books in different languages, beautiful illustrations and layout. Fiction, but also nonfiction and silent books. And bilingual and multilingual books. Language biodiversity is vital to open kids’ mind to the world, especially in this dark age of migrations, wars and conflicts. 

I was pleased to hear about projects like Tales of EUKraine that has printed and distributed bilingual editions of children’s books for Ukrainian children relocated to European countries because of war. Books too are essential goods. 

We had an excellent panel discussion at the Translators Center on the important topic of AI: the AI revolution looms large among literary translators that are concerned about losing their work to or becoming post-editors for machines.

Did anything surprise you about the fair? Anything different/better/worse than you expected or hoped? 

Richa Jha: Thanks to a gradual internal shift in the way my mind defines ‘success’ at the fair, I found myself enjoying my time at Bologna differently this time. My focus shifted from the narrowness of a rights sale-specific outlook to soaking in the spirit of the fair by making sure I observed better, listened sharper, shared deeper. And thus ended up making more authentic connections and breathing in the fair’s essence in a far more complete way than during my earlier visits. I think more than any other form of external preparation for the fair, it is this internal one that every participant ought to work on foremost.

Ruth: I found the fair utterly overwhelming at first — having been to LBF last month I thought I had a good idea what to expect, but this was on another level. Once I’d worked out where everything was though, I loved it. Visually, it was amazing — so colourful and so much to look at, it almost seemed a shame children weren’t allowed in! And it actually felt much more relaxed and friendly than London, which cemented my belief that kid lit is the world I want to be in. 

World Kid Lit: What tips would you give others in your profession if they came to Bologna next year? 

Joy Bean: I have a few tips for anyone who hasn’t been to the fair before. Firstly, book meetings far in advance because it seems that everyone’s calendars fill up quickly, and make sure to note which hall the meetings are in and give yourself time to travel between the halls because they are not small. 

Give yourself time to walk through each of the halls and see what everyone has to offer. There are so many books to see and lots of artwork to browse through. Finally, if taking the bus to the fair, make sure to buy a ticket and validate it when you get on — the authorities have no sympathy for those who don’t know the rules of the Bologna public transportation system and it can be quite costly if you don’t know the rules.

Catherine: Maybe pack your lunch if you want to skip the queues (most supermarkets sell very decent packed lunches)? If you have time and want to explore this region before/after the fair, Rimini and Pesaro on the Adriatic coast are really nice and just about an hour away (direct train). The city of Ravenna is also fascinating with a handful of Byzantine sites with spectacular mosaics (also about an hour away by direct train).

Francesca: Suggestions? Come to the BCBF Translators’ Center and meet colleagues from all countries, hear their stories, share yours! BCBF Translators’ Center is our lighthouse. On a more official note, CEATL (European Council of Literary Translators’ Associations) has been collaborating with BCBF since 2020 (Is There Something in the Air project), and signed a memorandum of agreement with BCBF in 2022. BCBF is part of the Steering Committee of the CEATL Strasbourg Conference on Literary Translation next 2-4 October 2024.

Ruth: My advice to anyone thinking of going for the first time would be to go for it… and once you get there be pushier than I was. The vast majority of people there were absolutely lovely once I got chatting to them, and even if they weren’t able to directly help, they could nearly always give me a contact for someone who might. And at the very least, it’s a great way to get a feel for the industry. Also, give yourself a day or so at the end to explore Bologna — it’s beautiful!

About the interviewees

Catherine Xinxin Yu is a literary translator working with English, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Italian. She is interested in literature from Taiwan and Hong Kong, especially works that explore ecology, gender, indigeneity, and diaspora. Her translations are published in Asymptote Journal and The Oxonian Review and are forthcoming in La Piccioletta Barca and This Is Southeast Asia.

Francesca Novajra is a literary translator from English, French and Portuguese into Italian. In 2017, she received the FIT Astrid Lindgren Prize. She has been a CEATL delegate for the Italian association AITI since 2013 and was elected president of CEATL in 2023. She lives in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, a border region in the north-east of Italy.  

Joy Bean has worked in the publishing industry for more than 25 years and has seen the book world from many perspectives. During her editorial career, she has worked on a wide range of children’s books—everything from mass market books featuring licensed characters, nonfiction books aimed at the school and library market, to trade books (picture books, chapter books, & middle grade and YA novels). She is extremely happy to now be working on books in translation at Arctis Books, bringing voices from around the world to readers in the U.S. 

Richa Jha writes fiction for children and social observations for adults. She is the founder and publisher of Pickle Yolk Books, and a passionate believer in the power of picture books. While her stories are for children, she hopes that adults read them too. Books written and published by her have won awards and recognition across Indian and international platforms. She hopes she never gets disillusioned by the magic she sees in picture books. (Read our interview with Richa here.)

Ruth Donnelly is an emerging literary translator with a special interest in Chilean children’s and YA literature. Having worked as a copywriter for most of her adult life, in 2021 she decided to revisit her Hispanic Studies degree and marry her two passions, literature and the Spanish language, by embarking on a new career in literary translation. She graduated with distinction from an MA in translation studies in 2023, and now spends her time sourcing and translating exciting new writing from Latin America.