With China as the featured country at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, Penguin and John Wiley used the occasion to announce new China initiatives.
Penguin, which opened an office in China in 2005, has announced the establishment of a new publishing program highlighting writing about and from China. Based in Hong Kong, the list will feature translations of Chinese-language works, as well as books originally written in English. As of 2010, Penguin China will publish five to eight books a year, fiction and non-fiction. General manager Jo Lusby commented: “This new English-language publishing programme from China is a great opportunity to develop and build new voices around the region. We believe Penguin is uniquely positioned in China to seek out the best writing, publishing works for the regional English market and beyond. Just as Penguin did in India 20 years ago, we hope to find the best local talent, and use this platform to bring new writers to international attention.”
Penguin has built a strong reputation for finding and developing new and contemporary Chinese writing, including Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong, which won the inaugural Man Asian Booker, I Love Dollars by Zhu Wen, English by Wang Gang, and Lust, Caution by Eileen Chang. The company has also sought to support Chinese writers and translators, starting the Chinese-English Literary Translation course (CELT), in partnership with China’s General Administration of Press and Publications, Arts Council England, and the Australian Council for the Arts. The workshop, now in its third year, aims to offer skills training and networking for early and mid-career literary translators of English and Chinese. Other initiatives include a consumer-facing website, in Chinese and English, and Penguin Feathers, an online book club.
The program's inaugural titles are The Civil Servant’s Notebook by Wang Xiaofang, described as "novel of politics, corruption, and intrigue from China’s preeminent writer of the genre, set in the inner circle of a crooked provincial government department and following the inner fight to become city Mayor"; A Peking Murder: Or Murder at Fox Tower by Paul French, set in 1936 in Peking, as Japanese troops are poised to invade the city; and Living Fossils: The Pandas of China's West by Dr. Zhang Zhihe and Dr. Sarah Bexell, who chronicle the panda’s fight for survival.
Meanwhile, Wiley announced today an agreement with Chinese science and technical publisher Chemical Industry Press to publish a co-branded Wiley-CIP Series Imprint. The partnership will result in a series of English-language advanced textbooks and reference books for post-graduates, researchers and practitioners. At the outset, the line will encompass engineering, materials science and chemistry, and may expand into other areas of science and medicine in the future.
Wiley editorial director of communications technology Mark Hammond said two electrical engineering titles have already been approved “in principle” for inclusion in the series, and are scheduled for publication in early 2010. The house plans on publishing between five and eight titles over the next two years, “with an eye to establishing the quality of the series; and to grow the published collection to 10 to 15 in its third year,” said Hammond.
Click here for more Frankfurt Book Fair 2009 coverage from PW and BookBrunch.
