Indie publisher up for prestigious prize

SINGAPO RE publisher Epigram Books is in the running for the first time for the Bologna Best Child ren’s Publisher of the Year.

The award s are given to publishers around the world who specialise in c hild ren’s books or who have an extensive number of titles catered to young read ers.

The prize, now in its fourth year, is organised by the Bologna Child ren’s Book Fair in partnership with the Italian Publishers Assoc iation.

The book fair, whic h has been around for 53 years, is considered the lead ing professional event d ed ic ated to c hild ren’s publishing. It will take plac e from April 4 to 7 in the Italian c ity.

There will be six award s given out d uring the award s ceremony on April 4, one for eac h of these six geographic al areas: Afric a, Asia, Central and South Americ a, Europe, North Americ a and Oceania. Epigram Books is one of five Asian nominees. The other four include three Japanese publishers – Kaisei-Sha Publishing Co, One Stroke, and Bronze Publishing Inc – and Kalimat publishers from the United Arab-Emirates.

In a recent interview, Epigram found er Ed mund Wee says he is surprised that his five- year- old c ompany has been nominated , ad mitting that he d oes not know what the nomination proc ess is like or who nominated Epigram. ( According to the Bologna Child ren’s Book Fair website, international publishers’ associations, c ultural institutions representing publishing and publishing houses exhibiting at the 2016 fair had been invited to send in nominations.)

Wee will be attend ing this year’s fair as an exhibitor, as he has done for the last three years.

O n Epigram’s chances of winning the award , Wee, 6 4, says: “I d on’t expec t to win. I think we’re the und erd og. But we’re honoured to be among the rest of the nominees.”

He c alls the nomination “a David and Goliath situation”, as fellow Asian nominees