On October 16, the Frankfurt Book Fair will host its second children’s publishing conference, on the theme of responsibility in children’s publishing. Lawrence Schimel, a children’s author and translator, is moderating the event. PW spoke with Schimel about the upcoming conference and the critical issues it aims to address.
What’s the focus of this year’s Frankfurt children’s conference?
It’s a conference looking at responsibility in children’s books from all different angles—from the creators themselves, the translators, but also looking at publishers and what responsibility publishers have to be publishing or not publishing certain voices.
How is the conference structured?
There’s a keynote by German YA superstar author Cornelia Funke, followed by several panels
covering sustainability, inclusivity, accessibility, and the responsibility of creators. All profits after expenses are being donated to Doctors Without Borders. It’s a commitment to creating a platform to discuss these topics, but it’s not a profit center for them.
Can you tell us a bit about what Funke will talk about?
Cornelia Funke had written something about how alarming the rise of nationalism and xenophobia is, and wondering whether she and other writers were writing the wrong stories. She’s going to talk about that and also discuss how it’s not just on the creators but also on the publishers to determine what stories they’re promoting.
As moderator, what key topics do you hope to address?
I think that a lot of publishing doesn’t like to take responsibility for the consequences of what it publishes, or in more cases perhaps, what it doesn’t publish. I’m going to put people to the task to talk about what they are doing right and doing wrong. I also hope to make the publishers, especially at the bigger conglomerates, talk about why things get published that probably shouldn’t have. All these topics are ones that I view as important to the health of the industry.
Can you elaborate on what you see as the responsibility of publishers?
So much depends on gatekeepers, which are often agents and publishers. Usually, there is little activity that is proactive insofar as going out there and finding new voices that speak to underserved communities. There are large demographics that aren’t having their own stories told or aren’t being catered to, and that’s a disservice to everyone.
How does this relate to issues of diversity in publishing?
Having in-house staff focused on diversity and inclusion is also very important to make sure that the books being found are worth doing. We saw this with queer books. They were very fashionable at one point and now they have fallen out of fashion, so where do we go from here, with this community of readers, for example? The truth is that a lot of these “diverse books” don’t get the same support that the “nondiverse” books get.
What message do you hope attendees take away from the conference?
One question is, just because you can publish something, does that mean you should publish it? And just because you can publish these books, do you not have a responsibility to look for alternatives that are more reflective of the society we live in—or the society that’s always been there but has by and large been either ignored or suppressed? ”
