Professional Day Podcasts

Friday, March 31, 2023, at Lieu Unique in Nantes, a professional day entitled Editing for Youth in Times of Standardization and Withdrawal; the Joyful Audacity of Interculturalism! brought together publishers from all over the world, librarians, artists, and representatives of associations around the following questions:

Why and how to promote children’s openness to cultural diversity through illustrated books?

How to resist the standardization of tastes, stories, images, in a globalized world?
How to drive innovative cooperation between “small” creative publishing houses?
Throughout the day, musician Jak Belghit spoke on guitar about the countries crossed by the eye of the world. Discover or listen again to the various interventions of this day online!

Opening

What is the Eye of the World?

Interventions by Kitty Crowther, patron of the festival,
Eli Commins, director of Lieu Unique,
Christine Morault, publisher of MeMo editions and president of the Eye of the World,
René Phalippou, deputy regional director of cultural affairs for the Pays de la Loire

The eye of the world in figures and in practice!

Libraries adopt publishing houses? Behind the scenes of the project revealed!

Lise Martin, coordinator of the Eye of the World,
Christelle Capo-Chichi, book mediator

Albums wide open to the world

How to open young readers to other cultures?
How is the intercultural dimension manifested in the albums of the publishing houses of the Eye of the World? And how does it resonate with local children? Three dialogues between publishers from elsewhere and local librarians.

Eric Dusabimana, Bakame (Rwanda), and Hélène Grandhomme, head of the documentary collection, Tissé Métisse association,

Gita Wolf, Tara Books (India), and Frédérique Coquelet, head of the youth sector of the municipal libraries of Angers,

Lee Ho Baek, Jaimimage (South Korea), and Marion Chaigne, head of the Heritage department of the Municipal Library of Nantes,

Moderation: Christelle Capo-Chichi, teacher, trainer and book mediator

Katsumi Komagata, The Three Bears and Smallworld

How Katsumi Komagata, spiritual heir of Bruno Munari, Leo Lionni or Tana Hoban, meets the artistic nebula of the Trois Ourses association that defends and distributes artistic books for children, and joins the group of independent houses from different continents Smallworld, to deploy a universal language that does not erase the cultural specificities of each.

Élisabeth Lortic, librarian, Les Trois Ourses, Smallworld,

Moderation: Cristina Correro, teacher of Spanish and children’s literature for the universities of Nantes, Barcelona and Glasgow

Resisting standardization

Licenses, series, books reduced to the rank of simple derivative products…
How to stand out, assert your singularity in a globalized and increasingly standardized publishing environment?

Kitty Crowther, illustrator, Godmother of the Eye of the World
Deanna Belluti, head of events and exhibitions at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair
Nathalie Donikian literary director of the Montreuil Children’s Book and Press Fair
Peggy Espinosa, Petra ediciones (Mexico),
Arianna Squilloni, A buen paso (Spain),
Isabel Minhos Martins, Planeta Tangerina (Portugal),
Svein Størksen, Magikon (Norway),

Moderation: Cristina Correro, teacher of Spanish and children’s literature for the universities of Nantes, Barcelona and Glasgow

New cooperations: playing with borders

How to think of new forms of cooperation between independent houses? Online or on the ground, how to make ourselves visible, collectively? Avenues for reflection to drive new forms of partnership, on a European and international scale.

Paolo Canton, Topipittori (Italy),
Tereza Horváthová, Baobab (Czech Republic),
Magdalena Kłos-Podsiadło, Wytwórnia (Poland),
Christine Morault, MeMo editions (France),
Sam McCullen, dPICTUS platform (England),
Ilaria Tontardini, Hamelin association (Italy),

Moderation: Amandine Glévarec, journalist