TWO M'SIANS NOMINATED FOR PRESTIGIOUS AWARD AT FRANKFURT BOOK FAIR

Maniik Mehta

FRANKFURT, 0ct 11 (Bernama)--Two Malaysians have been nominated for the prestigious 2011 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) of Sweden at the Frankfurt International Book Fair here.

They were Mohd. Yusuf bin Ismail, an author/illustrator and oral
storyteller, and Daphne Lee Mei Lin, a promoter of reading, and are up against
173 other nominees from around the world for the Swedish award which carries a
cash award of five million Swedish krones.

The fair in Frankfurt is regarded as the world’s biggest event for the
publishing industry. ALMA is the world’s largest prize for children’s and young
adult literature.

Linda Tan Lingard, director of Kuala Lumpur-based Yusof Gajah
Lingard Literary Agency and wife of Mohd Yusuf bin Ismail, who goes by his
pen name Yusof Gajah Lingard, was exalted at the nomination as was her husband.
They have a booth at the Malaysian pavilion.

This is the second time that a Malaysian has been nominated for ALMA, the
first time being in 2008 when Margaret H.L. Lim, a children’s story writer from
Kuching, was nominated although she did not get the coveted award
itself.

Linda Tan Lingard said her agency represents writers, illustrators and
publishers, mainly, from Malaysia.

She felt that this year’s book fair was much
better than the last year when the global economy was plagued by uncertainties
about economic uncertainties.

"We received a good number of enquiries from Spain, Italy and South Africa.
People are looking for good content when they look around for children’s
material. Our business was hardly affected by the recession,” she told Bernama.

Kreatif Kembara of Petaling Jaya is highlighting its Mathabacus.com, a novel
Japanese calculation system which the company’s managing director, Sheikh Feisal
Sheikh Mansor, said would stimulate the children’s brains and "does not let
complacency take over as traditional calculators do."

Mathabacus, according to Sheikh Feisal, is popular amongst Malaysian parents
who want their children to learn the system because it helps them to
mentally visualise the figures and keep their brains active.”

Kreatif Kembara, which already has a distributor in the USA and India,
secured a translation deal earlier last week for translating materials into
German and Russian.

Pelangi Publishing Group, which also has an office in London from
where the company is planning to expand into Europe, Africa and Arab
countries, is also a regular participant at their fair.

"I have been attending this fair since 1987. I personally believe that the
fair is shrinking in size. Also, this fair also shows the advent of the e-book
which is spreading from the United States to other parts of the world,” said
Samuel Sum, its executive chairman and group managing editor.

He hoped that more Malaysians would cultivate the reading habit like the
Thais, who had developed voracious appetite for reading of late.

Sabariah Abdullah, managing director of Kuala Lumpur-based Saba Islamic
Media, which publishes periodicals, books, DVDs, etc. on Islamic
themes, said that the fair "had been good for us", despite the slow economic
recovery in many world markets.

Meanwhile, Sabri Ab. Rahman, the senior trade commissioner at the Frankfurt
MATRADE office, said a total of RM4.117 million (US$1.32 million) worth of
business was transacted by Malaysian companies at the fair.

-- BERNAMA