Having the first ever Malta stand at the Frankfurt Book Fair is an important chapter in our literary history, says Fabrizio Mifsud Soler.
If you’re not that into books, the first thing that will cross your mind when someone mentions Frankfurt will be sausage, more sausage and, after that, still more sausage with maybe a side of sauerkraut and a dollop of mustard. If, on the other hand, you are into books, reading and literacy in general, then you probably already know all about the 171,790-square-metre Frankfurt Book Fair which, since 1949, has been hosting exhibitors from hundreds of countries around the globe.
This year, for the first time ever, Malta participated at the fair with its own stand, exhibiting some 200 of its own books by Maltese and Gozitan authors and not only. If your mind is still stuck on sausage, then that probably doesn’t add up to much, but if you’re thinking words, poems, novels and the like, then you know that having a Malta stand at the Frankfurt fair meant leaving a mark on the literary map of the world. To put it bluntly, now our printers, publishers and authors exist, beyond our shores – metaphorically speaking that is.
This year, visitors to the fair totalled 279,325. Admittedly not all of them stopped by the Malta stand. With over 7,500 other exhibitors no one can blame them, but many did stop and ask about one or more of the books on display, the state of literacy, our heritage and, of course, our beaches. The power of a sandy beach is never to be underestimated because, while some slurp ice cream cones, others prefer to read in between dips and therefore it all fits in together nicely.
The Maltese language also turned out to be a strong point for discussion on the stand. A number of visitors had no idea that in Malta people spoke their own language, let alone that it existed, or that books were written in it.
It’s not astonishing really, that the idea of having a unique language for an archipelago of roughly 400,000 inhabitants can sound a little odd to someone who shares a language with let’s say another 80 million people.
Perhaps this is where one would be willing to discuss the issue of translation. Books written in Maltese need not be limited to the population of Malta and Gozo and the diaspora in Canada, Australia or the UK.
For 2013, the Brazilian Ministry of Culture is providing around €160,000 in funding for the translation of Brazilian works into languages from all over the world. Although such a sum might be a little steep for Malta (also considering the Maltese population when compared to that of Brazil), the presence of a fund for translation should not be altogether implausible.
Although promoting Maltese authors and Maltese literature overseas is a necessity in its own right, promoting Malta beyond its sea and sun image is never a bad idea.
While tourists tend to fluctuate depending on the weather, the right Maltese book never does.
The Malta stand at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2010 was an initiative of the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts. For more information visit www.maltaculture.com.
• Mr Mifsud Soler is an arts executive – Visual Arts at the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts.