Who publishes Belarusian books abroad?
Another Belarusian publishing house – “Zmitser Kolas” – announced the suspension of its activities. In addition, reports have appeared in the media that book publisher Zmiter Kolas is in the KGB, a possible reason detention – the book by historian Ales Smolenchuk “Called” I’m busy. Polish-Belarusian migration 1939-1941 documents from the Belarusian archives” about the life of Western Belarus after the advent of Soviet power. On January 12, the Belarusian court recognized the book as “extremist materials”. This is not the first case of publishers being chased.”, “Limarius” and others. At the same time, more and more books in the Belarusian language are published abroad. DW – about who publishes them.
Editor in forced emigration
The European branch of the Belarusian publishing house “Yanushkevich” has been working in Warsaw for several months. In May last year, police officers attended the opening of the Knigaўka bookstore in Minsk: they confiscated 200 books, detained Andrei Yanushkevich and Anastasia Karnatskaya, an employee of the publishing house. They spent almost a month behind bars.
Now Andrei Yanushkevich is opening a publishing house in forced exile. To help him, the Council of Culture of Belarus (Council of Culture of Belarus) launched the project “Magistrat “Knigauka”, which brings together donors who are willing to support the publisher’s development for a certain period of time. Now there are more than 300 people.
Thanks to them, in February, a Belarusian translation of Ernest Hemingway’s novel “The Sun Also Rises” was published in Poland. In the near future, according to Andrei Yanushkevich, it will be possible to read The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald in Belarusian. In addition, two fantasy books by Belarusian authors will be released soon.
“If we consider the issues of preparing a book for printing, then, in principle, nothing has changed here – basically it happens remotely. As for printing books, we also work with foreign printing houses from Belarus. Poland has a large selection and reasonable prices”, says the publisher – The main problem is that the team is confused: everyone who worked with me remained in Belarus. Now I am looking for a replacement for them. We are planning to publish books under the brands “Yanushkevich” and ” Knigaka”. Maybe in the future we’ll consider some separate brand for children’s literature.”
Despite the fact that Andrei Yanushkevich still has a license to distribute books in Belarus, he does not plan to send his new editions there: the transfer of books to Belarus on some individual order,” the publisher admits.
Belarusians will have access to the electronic version of books, although, according to Yanushkevich, there is not a big demand for electronic books in Belarus.
Did Skaryna inspire Belarusians in London?
“We are not a Belarusian publishing house that has left Belarus or, if the situation changes, will move to Belarus. Our publishing house was born in Belarusian emigration and feeds on its ideas. Our task is to fill the gaps that Belarusian publishing houses may not be able to fill , tackling topics that might be too risky for others,” says Igor Ivanov, founder and head of publishing house Skaryna, about his mission.
It appeared in 2022 with the participation of the Library and Museum of Belarus under the name of Francysk Skaryna in London.
The first book of the publishing house was the translation into Belarusian of “Tales from Beirut” by the Ukrainian writer and scientist Agatangel Krymsky (1871 – 1942), and in the last two months three books of Belarusian poetry have been published here: Ales Dubrovsky -Sorochenkov, Dmitry Rubin and Artur Komarovsky.
In addition, according to Ivanov, the rights to publish a Belarusian translation of the book “On Tyranny” by the American historian Timothy Snyder were obtained, negotiations are being concluded on the book “The Deaf Republic” by the Ukrainian-American poet Ilya Kaminsky, which was successful in the West.
Another project is an anthology about the life of gay Belarusians and the gay community in Belarus. “We announced a collection of works at the end of last year. In two months we collected a rather interesting book: there will be poetry, fiction and documentary prose. There have never been such publications in Belarusian,” the interlocutor notes.
“Belarusian publishing houses abroad are united by common problems”
Publishing house Viasna has been operating in the Czech Republic since 2018. It was created by spouses Vesna Vashko and Sergey Shupa. “My wife is a businesswoman, I am a translator. When I prepared a translation into Belarusian of the novel by Moishe Kulbak (a Jewish prose writer who was shot in the BSSR in 1937 – Ed.) “Monday”, we went to independent publishing houses in Belarus with the manuscript for a long time, and then we decided that we could publish it ourselves in the Czech Republic, then bring it to Belarus and distribute it there ”, recalls Sergei Shupa .
For subsequent editions – due to difficulties with the sale of foreign books in state bookstores – “Viasna” began to cooperate with the publishing house Andrei Yanushkevich. Together they released several other translations by Kullback and other authors, as well as books by Algerd Bakharevich and Yulia Timofeeva.
“Then 2020 came, the situation in Belarus changed, there is an open attack on everything Belarusian, including independent publishing houses. Some publishing houses ceased to exist, some moved abroad. We helped our friend Andrei Yanushkevich until he formalized their activities in Poland”, Shupa says: “We have about 15 books published and there are plans for the next ones. Belarusian publishers abroad are united by common problems: how to sell books so that they reach readers, how to find a new Belarusian readership, and how to deliver books to Belarus. As we look for answers.”
Source: DW
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