Congrats to this great author-illustrator team and thanks to Whitcoulls for doing such a great job selling our book.
Monday, December 16, 2013
I Need a New Bum! continues its bestselling run
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Libro International signs Italian and Chinese agency deals
Following the recent Frankfurt Book Fair and ongoing marketing
in Europe and Asia, I’m pleased to announce we have signed agency agreements
for Libro International books in Italy and China.
In Italy we have appointed the respected Milan-based agency
Agenzia Servizi Editoriali to represent all of our children’s titles and
selected non-fiction rights for the Italian language. ASE works with both
Italian and international publishers to promote quality books in a range of
languages; in addition to selling our rights, we’ll also be working with ASE
for select rights acquisitions from publishers in Italy.
Meanwhile in China we’ve agreed a fixed-term deal with
Chengdu Rightol Agency for representation of eight books in the Chinese market.
This established agency based in Chengdu will seek Chinese rights deals for
children’s titles along with a couple of standout books from the past year, New Zealand Tattoo and Favourite Māori Legends.
Through these collaborations we hope to have some of our
authors appearing in Italian and Chinese editions before too long.
Peter Dowling
Publisher
Libro International
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Māori Maps at the National Library
Māori Maps is one of the innovative organisations featured in an exhibition that opened yesterday at the National Library of NZ /Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa. If you're in Wellington check out the Leading Edge exhibition -http://natlib.govt.nz/visiting/wellington/leadingedge
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Ngā Kupu Ora honours Pā Henare Tate
Thank you to Massey University for hosting a memorable
ceremony last Thursday to celebrate the winners of the Ngā Kupu Ora Aotearoa
Māori Book Awards.
An audience of over 180 people attended the evening in Te
Raukura Wharewaka on Wellington’s waterfront, honouring five authors in the
categories of biography, fiction, non-fiction, Māori language and the special
award.
I was proud to be there as part of the group to tautoko Pā
Henare Tate, who accepted the Non-Fiction/Te Kōrero Pono awards for his He Puna Iti i te Ao Mārama: A Little Spring
in the World of Light.
The judges described Pā’s work as “a compelling and
passionate description of the role that tikanga and kaupapa play in the
construction of a Māori Christian theological framework.”
Other winners included esteemed fiction writer Witi Ihimaera
for White Lies, and Bradford Haami for his work Ka
Mau te Wehi.
Massey has taken an important initiative with these awards,
now in their fifth year, and which aim to foster Māori literary excellence,
authorship and scholarship.
 |
| Pā Henare Tate with supporters; Sister Magdalen Sheahan (centre) was a key editor on the book. |
 |
| Staff members of Massey University/Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa in full flight |
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Dawn McMillan in store with Holy Socks
Dawn McMillan is appearing bookstores in Auckland and Waikato this month to promote her new book Holy Socks, illustrated by Philip Webb. Here is Dawn introducing the story of Holy Socks the cat to some keen young readers at The Resource Room, Point Chevalier, last Saturday.
Monday, November 4, 2013
RIP Vapi Kupenga
- Hear Selwyn Muru's memories of this rangatira of Ngāti Porou
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Holy Socks is here!
Holy
Socks
Dawn McMillan & Philip Webb
Christmas classic
from the author of 2012 best-seller I
need a new Bum!
‘One Christmas Eve, some years ago, a ginger kitten wandered along a
street on the far side of town. He was hungry, and cold and wet.’
.
Bertie McGinty finds the kitten and
christens him Holy Socks. Soon the pair is inseparable. Even after Bertie’s
death, Holy Socks sticks by his master and takes up home in the church near his
grave.
Captivated by Holy Socks as she sits in
church, young Christie calls out, ‘Can I keep the cat?’ Father John, by way of
answer, tells everyone the story of Holy Socks.
This heart-warming tale from Thames-based
Dawn McMillan, with beautiful illustrations by Wellington artist Philip Webb, is
set to be an instant Christmas classic.
Dawn is available for interviews and will be appearing
in the following bookshops:
2 November – Bookshop and Resource
Room, Pt. Chevalier, 10 a.m.
– Next Page
Please!, Takapuna, 2 p.m.
7 November – Kids Book Fair, Takapuna
23 November – Browns Bay Library, 10:30
a.m.
28 November – Books for Kids,
Hamilton, 10 a.m.
Release Date: 24 October
2013 | ISBN: 978-1-877514-59-3 |
RRP $19.99
Paperback, 230 x 215 mm, 32 pages colour
To arrange an interview with Dawn, images or a
review copy, contact:
Isabell
Zitzelsberger, Marketing Specialist
022
156 7470 or isabell@oratiamedia.com
Libro
International, a division of Oratia Media
www.librointernational.com | www.oratiamedia.com
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Pā Henare Tate receives Māori Book Award
With great pleasure we can announce that Pā Henare Tate’s He Puna Iti i te Ao Mārama, published by
Libro International last November, has won the Te Kōrero Pono/Non-fiction
category in the Ngā Kupu Ora Aotearoa Māori Book Awards.
The awards, administered by Massey University, will be
granted in a ceremony at Te Wharewaka o Poneke function centre in Wellington on
7 November.
Identified in five categories – biography, fiction,
non-fiction, te reo Māori and a special award – the winners were selected from books
published between August 2012 and July this year.
Chair of the three-member judging panel and Massey
University senior lecturer, Dr Spencer Lilley said the awards are held to
address the dearth of Māori literature for adults.
“The awards were created as a result of other major
book awards consistently failing to acknowledge Māori authors. The Awards also foster Māori literary excellence,
authorship and scholarship in te reo Māori,” he said.
Pā Henare’s work, which is subtitled A Little Spring in the World of Light, was described by the judges
as a compelling description of the role that Māori tikanga (protocols) and
kaupapa (methodologies) play in the construction of a
Māori Christian theological framework.
“This scholarly text joins other seminal works on tikanga
Māori by Barlow (Tikanga Whakaaro: key concepts in tikanga Māori) and Mead
(Tikanga Māori: living by Māori values),” the judges said.
Our hearty congratulations to Pā
Henare for this much deserved recognition.
Pā Henare Tate (Ngāti
Manawa, Te Rarawa) was formerly a lecturer at the Auckland
Catholic Institute of Theology, and the University of Auckland School of
Theology. A recognised specialist in Māori spirituality, he now lives lives in
Motuti, in northern Hokianga.
He Puna Iti i Te Ao Mārama: A Little Spring in the World of Light
Pā Henare Tate
978-1-877514-54-8
240 x 160 mm portrait, PB, 320 pp
$75
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Frankfurt Book Fair 2013: Sticking it out in changing times - Peter Dowling reports
Oratia Media was back for our
fourth successive year at the Frankfurt Book Fair, which concluded on the
weekend.
There were way fewer publishers
on the New Zealand collective stand than during our Guest of Honour year in
2012, but for the 14 of us who came back, the benefits of that programme were
tangible. We had a big open stand in a good location, well put together by the
Publishers Association of New Zealand team, and I really felt able to build on last
year’s profile.
 |
Our section on the New Zealand collective stand in Hall 8
|
Among my 50 or so meetings were a good number with German publishers, kicking off with a rousing session of beer and pretzels on the Tuesday evening at the BuchMarkt magazine stand. (See Herr Mayer’s column - http://www.buchmarkt.de/content/56406-der-messe-mayer-tag-1-von-6.htm) Relations with our German counterparts have never been healthier.
 |
|
The unofficial opening party
for the fair with German book trade magazine BuchMarkt
|
Overall visitor numbers at the fair were down some -2% on 2012, to just over 275,000, however. These are times of change and challenge for the global publishing industry, with big challenges in some of our key overseas markets like Italy.
That notwithstanding, the tone of our meetings was mostly positive, especially with US and Canadian publishers, who have already been through a lot of the digital changes that are now reshaping book markets in the rest of the world. There was good interest in our children’s and Māori authors.
Saturday brought a landmark for
us, signing a two-year distribution agreement for Libro International books in North
America with Virginia-based International Publishers Marketing. We’re looking
forward to working with Jane Graf and her team from April 2014.
 |
|
Libro International books on
display
|
I had a good few meetings with publishers from this year’s Guest of Honour, Brazil, starting with the wonderful Gisela Zincone of Gryphus Editora – we’ve agreed that our 2014 translation of Gryphus’ children’s classic Branquinho o Dognauta will be entitled Snowy the Doganaut. Some lovely illustrated kids’ books are coming out of Brazil.
There wasn’t quite the buzz expected around Brazil, due in part to their stand’s location deep in Hall 5.1, and also the boycott by major authors including Paulo Coelho. No doubting, though, that this is a growing market and one we’re going to continue to develop.
 |
Brazil was this year’s guest of honour at Frankfurt
|
And as the public flooded in on the Saturday and Sunday, it was time to beat a weary retreat for a last few drinks at the Frankfurter Hof – leaving the Messe to the colourfully attired German cosplay teens. Auf wiedersehn till 2014!
 |
|
Come the weekend and the
cosplay kids were out in force around the fair
|
Peter Dowling manages
independent publisher Oratia Media (www.oratiamedia.com) and is publisher of its books programme,
Libro International (www.librointernational.com)
Monday, September 23, 2013
Dawn McMillan and Ross Kinnaird star in Whitcoulls Top 50
I Need a New Bum ranks 18th in the top 50 children's books sold at Whitcoulls
Monday, September 16, 2013
Libro International buys rights to Brazilian children’s classic
English edition of Branquinho, O Dognauta to be published in 2014.
Libro International will publish the
first English edition of Branquinho, O Dognauta, a classic of Brazilian
children’s literature, in mid-2014.
Independent publisher Gryphus Editora
of Rio de Janeiro agreed the rights deal this August with Oratia Media, the
publisher of Libro International books.
Diego d’Alberqueque’s story tells of an amazing
white dog who comes to Earth in a flying saucer. This alien canine has ears
where he should have eyes, and eyes in the back of his head – but he wins the
love of a young boy. Here the adventure begins …
First published in 1982, Branquinho, O Dognauta
has remained in print and sold tens of thousands of copies in Brazil. Gryphus
publisher Gisela Zincone issued the sixth edition in 2011, with illustrations
by Felipe Vellozo.
“Diego wrote this book when he was eight,” Zincone
said. “Almost 30 years after, the book remains fresh and contemporary. It tells
a beautiful story about accepting differences while it makes us think about the
impact of science and technology in our lives.”
The book will be on the New Zealand stand at the
Frankfurt Book Fair from 9–13 October.
“Last year New Zealand was country of honour at
Frankfurt, this year’s it’s Brazil’s turn,” commented Peter Dowling of Oratia
Media.“We’ll use this platform to promote Branquinho and develop more projects
between New Zealand and Brazilian authors and publishers.”
Dowling, who speaks Brazilian Portuguese, will
oversee the translation – with the confirmed English title to be revealed at
the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Branquinho, O Dognauta
Diego
D’Albuquerque, illustrated by Felipe Vellozo; translated by Peter Dowling
ISBN: 978-1-877514-62-3 NZ$16.99
/ 200 x 200 mm/ PB / 24 pp / colour
For further information, contact:
Isabell
Zitzelsberger 022 156 7470 isabell@oratiamedia.com
Libro
International, a division of Oratia Media
www.librointernational.com | www.oratiamedia.com
Thursday, August 29, 2013
WAKA TAUA OUT NOW
Waka
Taua: The Maori War Canoe
Jeff Evans
A Māori war canoe being paddled a full speed is
an awesome sight. Thanks to the renaissance in canoe building, more and more
traditional waka taua are on the waterways, and feature in major events like
the Queen’s Jubilee.
Waka Taua is a well-established
introduction to all aspects of the war canoe: its history, recent revival,
types and variants, phase of building, parts of the waka, crew responsibilities
and paddling techniques. With numerous historical and contemporary photographs
and drawings, this easy-to-read book is the perfect reference for these amazing
craft.
This valuable book is now back in print and available from Libro
International.
Praise for the first edition of Waka
Taua:
‘What
a valuable and timely book, there being something of a rebirth in canoe
building at present’
–
Northern Advocate
‘It
is Evans’ passion for his subject that makes this book special’ – Weekend Herald
The author: Jeff Evans is a well-known writer and photographer, who is an authority on Maori
canoes. Jeff is also the author of Polynesian Navigation and the Discovery
of New Zealand, Nga Waka o Nehera: The first voyaging canoes and Maori
Weapons in Pre-European New Zealand, and editor of Elsdon Best’s Notes
on the Art of War. Jeff lives in Te Atatu, Auckland with his family.
ISBN: 978-1-877514-40-1 | RRP $34.99
Paperback, 250 x 185 mm, 76 pages with illustrations
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Te Ara exhibition opens in Vancouver
Oratia launches new trilingual book featuring Musqueam alongside Māori and English
The
exhibition Te Ara: Māori Pathways of Leadership, opens today in
Vancouver, Canada, in the final stage of its world tour before returning to New
Zealand in February 2014.
Featuring photographs by Krzysztof Pfeiffer taken over a five-year
period, and curated by Paul Tapsell and Merata Kawharu, Te Ara is a visual
survey of leadership in the Māori
world – past, present and future. It premiered in Poland in 2010 and has since shown
at major museums in the UK and Germany.
The exhibition is being hosted by the Musqueam Indian Band, the First
Peoples of the Vancouver area, and is showing at the Musqueam Gallery in the
British Columbian capital.
Accompanying the opening was the launch of the third
edition of the exhibition book. Te Ara
features photographs from the exhibition with extended text by Paul Tapsell
reviewing
leadership
and challenges for Māori today.
The book is believed to be the first featuring both
Canadian and New Zealand indigenous languages, with a landmark Musqueam
translation – one of very few texts in the language – alongside Te Reo Māori and English. Copies
are available in Canada and New Zealand.
"Our conversation is indigenous to
indigenous with the Musqueam, but it is a story to which everyone is invited to
come along and listen in," said Tapsell, who is visiting Vancouver.
Te
Ara: Māori Pathways of Leadership will be at the
Musqueam Gallery, 4000 Musqueam Avenue, Vancouver, until 28 February 2014.
Professor
Paul Tapsell and Associate Professor Merata Kawharu teach in the Māori Studies department at the University of Otago, Dunedin; Krzysztof Pfeiffer
is an internationally recognised photographer based in Auckland who has contributed
to more than 35 books.
Te Ara: Māori Pathways of Leadership
Release Date: 9 August 2013 | ISBN:
978-1-877514-60-9 | RRP $21.99
Paperback, 210 x 297 mm landscape, 32 pages, colour
To arrange an interview, images, extracts or a
review copy, contact:
Peter
Dowling 027 614 8993 peter@oratiamedia.com
Libro
International, a division of Oratia Media
www.librointernational.com | www.oratiamedia.com
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Māori Maps shortlisted for World Summit Awards
Te Potiki National
Trust has welcomed its nomination as a finalist in the World Summit Awards for
the Māori Maps website, www.maorimaps.com.
Communications and Information Technology
Minister Amy Adams yesterday congratulated Te Potiki National Trust and the
seven other New Zealand organisations that have made the finals in the global
World Summit Awards for creativity and innovation in ICT.
“It is great to see New Zealand projects of this
calibre being recognised on the world stage. It is particularly important that
we celebrate and encourage the high level of innovation and creativity that we
have in this country,” Ms Adams said.
Te Potiki National
Trust Chairperson Paora Tapsell said this recognition was reward for the hard
work of its largely voluntary team.
Over the past five
years, Māori Maps has created a digital database of marae locations, photographs
and information to assist Māori
descendants, as well as visitors, in connecting with the more than 750
ancestral marae in New Zealand.
“This unexpected
honour will help to promote our message about how unique our marae are in the
world, and how important they are for the identity and well-being of present
and future generations of Māori.”
He thanked the Trust’s volunteers and supporters
for their faith in the project.
Key backing for Māori Maps has come from The Tindall Foundation, the
University of Otago, the University of Auckland, the Foundation for Research,
Science and Technology, and several community trusts.
The www.maorimaps.com
website, based on Google Maps, lets users navigate by a range of filters to
locate marae – and now lists about 98% of the ancestral marae around the
country.
The site is designed
and hosted by Auckland-based Zest Media, and managed by the Trust’s Online Producer,
Mike Hennessy.
Te Potiki National
Trust is now adding archival photos and taonga links to the site, and working
to complete translation of all content into Te Reo Māori.
Note: Oratia Media, publisher of Libro International books, is a supporter of Te Potiki National Trust and Peter acts as its kaihautu/chief executive.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
