Noticias
Publishing Perspectives: At Frankfurt, Isabel on Sharing Colombian Stories
Rising in international visibility, Colombian books are making their mark in the world with the help of Isabel Cristina Giraldo, a Spanish publishing specialist, bookshop owner, and Frankfurt Book Fair regular.
This year at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Colombia’s ambassador to Germany, Yadir Salazar Mejia, alongside diplomats from Mexico and the Philippines, attended the opening of Colombia’s Frankfurt collective stand. In her speech, Mejia spoke about the growing landscape of Colombian authors—a topic Giraldo has been passionate about for years.
Before moving to Spain to open her bookshop, El Retiro De Las Letras, Giraldo worked with the Colombia Book Chamber to encourage local publishers to expand their network in an effort to get Colombian stories translated into other languages.
Fairs like Frankfurt can be intimidating for smaller publishers, explained Giraldo. Despite this, over the past couple of years, Giraldo has seen these same publications make progress.
“It’s important to help these publishers get in contact with different agents, [and] different publishers that are interested in their books, to buy their rights for translation or buy their rights for distribution,” Giraldo explained.
“They also come here and meet with distributors that get their books to Spain or to Mexico because they share the same language. So there’s a lot of opportunities here.”
While the percentage of books in translation published in the United States is very low, Giraldo notes that the Colombian publishing industry primarily publishes translated works—a system she hopes will change soon.
While Spain is still the dominant market for publishing Spanish books, Giraldo now uses her bookstore to bring Colombian books to readers across Europe and Latin America.
“So I’m seeing how [people] look for a book and see my bookstore online, and they’re buying books from a publishing house from Colombia,” she added.
Organizations like Reading Colombia, assist in initiatives like this, Giraldo adds. Its fellowship program offers financial support for publishers who are interested in translating Colombian literary works into other languages.
From her experience, stories about the country’s Amazon region and women are becoming even more popular, amongst consumers.
This is why Giraldo works tirelessly to ensure Colombian authors, like Jose Eustasio Rivera, and Eliana Hernandez are being placed in the hands of readers all over the world.