The London Book Fair 2022 took place “for real” after two years of pandemic restrictions, from the 5th to the 7th of April at Olympia. Once again, we could all agree that nothing beats face-to-face meetings and conversations. Everybody was glad to be back to a certain normality and to recover publishing business speed (and mostly unmasked, which was a shock for many, despite having to show Covid Passports at the entrance).
Just before the fair, Eva von Hippel (left) pre-empted German translation rights for The Past Life of Dolphins, the new novel by Basque author Kirmen Uribe for Berlin Verlag (the novel has just been published in Basque, Catalan and Spanish recently and is already on the bestseller lists). And Susie Nicklin (right) acquired World English rights for Ennatu Domingo’s non-fiction debut Burnt Eucalyptus Wood. A Story of Origins and Identities and for Priya Hein’s debut novel Riambel, both to be published in Spring 2023 at The Indigo Press.
Valentine Gay (left) is the happy French publisher at Globe Éditions of Avni Doshi's acclaimed novel Burnt Sugar (Sucre amer in French), and Grazia Rusticalli (right) will be soon be publishing the Italian translation of JJ Bola’s novel The Selfless Act of Breathing at Frassinelli (already published in English by Atria in the US and Dialogue Press in the UK and film rights were sold to Hollywood for a feature film).
Random encounters in the corridors were fantastic. In the photos above: Adam Freudenheim, British publisher of Puskin Press and Nelleke Geel, Dutch publisher of Meridiaan, both publishers of Elena Medel’s debut and successful novel The Wonders (left); and Mexican Carmina Rufrancos and Carina Macías from Editorial Planeta, editors of Verónica E. Llaca and Jorge Zepeda, among other Pontas authors.
On top of the excitement of being back at Olympia and meeting so many publishers, scouts, producers and colleague agents, as well as three Pontas authors living in London, we were happy that Anna Soler-Pont’s was the winner of the London Book Fair Excellence Award for “Best Rights Professional”. The perfect way to mark this 30th year since she founded the Pontas Agency!