Last week, I wrote to Mazen Kerbaj, an artist and musician living in Beirut, asking if I could reprint the drawings he has been posting to his blog since the start of the current Israel/Lebanon conflict. I wanted to produce a book to raise awareness of the realities of the war for ordinary people, with all profits going to charities that provide humanitarian aid: food, medicine, stuff that people actually need.

He replied that he does not want any charge to be made for his work at this time, or for the foreseeable period of the conflict, after which (and we all hope that’s not long), he will reassess his options. However, he did give permission for his drawings and music to be used for flyers, posters and any other material, providing no alterations are made and the address of his blog is given. So:

http://www.mazenkerblog.blogspot.com/

Please, go and visit his site, read his stories, and post links and his images if you can.

There’s one final post we have to make about the Book Fair, which was all a long time ago now, and that’s to mention the amazing Laugh it Off from South Africa. Justin Nurse from Laugh it Off dropped by our stand (after hearing about us from Michelle of Oshun) to tell us all about himself.

Justin makes stunningly good, Adbusters-style anti-ads, detourning the presentations of South African and international companies to great effect - the above example uses Avis car hire to satirise SA’s continued reliance on underpaid black labour to support white affluence, while others poke fun and a little more in the direction of both big business (Johnny Walker takes a tumble in the ‘Keep Drinking’ ads) and youth apathy (Mtv and ‘eMpty’s Stoner of the Year’ award). He also publishes a regular zine with mini-campaigns, such as the anti-fashion ‘Fascionism! For Successful Cloning’ based on the Diesel campaigns, and a selection of poetry and other books.

In 2002, he fought a hard fight with SAB Miller, the massive South African conglomerate which owns Castle Lager and brews a host of international beers in SA, over a T-Shirt Laugh it Off produced based on the Carling Black Label logo. “White Guilt: Black Labour” didn’t go down too well with the suits, and it went all the way to the High Court before Justin won the right to satirise (read the full story in press clippings [pdf]). Naomi Klein, of No Logo fame, commented that the SAB case was the most important yet regarding the rights of corporation ownership versus the right to individual freedom of expression.

Laugh it Off is, in Justin’s estimation, pretty much the only outfit of its kind in SA (and, therefore, by extension, Africa). That is, in a media culture still relatively unquestioning when it comes to brand consumption, the only outfit opposing globalisation with the tactics that have arguably made the most impact elsewhere: good ideas and headline-grabbing stunts, well executed. As one of the commentators on the SAB feud noted, when the G8 came to Durban a few years back, an event that, on other occasions, prompted thousands and thousands to take to the streets in Seattle and elsewhere, a mere 200 turned out to protest - yet Africa is the place most affected and most likely to be affected, one way or the other, by the G8’s global policies. If Laugh it Off can do something to stir up some action, it’ll have a huge effect on a still-young nation.

Justin was at the Book Fair in search of European distribution for his work, most of it international and just as recognisable over here as south of the Equator - and European sales would, we’re sure, provide a huge boost to the business, which Justin descibes as “a social organisation run on business lines”. Serpent’s Tail, among others, turned him down, but if there’s anyone else out there who’d be interested in putting out some excellent quality political satire that’s damn funny with it, let him know.

One of the unexpected highlights of last week’s London Book Fair (and believe us, any highlights are unexpected) was the British Council’s International Young Publisher of the Year Award. The Award has been running for three years now, and is intended to “celebrate the entrepreneurial and leadership ability of a young person (aged between 25 and 35), working in the publishing sector in their own country.”

Ten countries are selected each year, and are represented by a finalist each, who get a ten-day trip to the UK to meet a wide variety of people in the UK book trade, including Bloomsbury CEO Nigel ‘Google Ate My Hamster’ Newton and Canongate bigwig Jamie “I own Scotland” Byng. They then each pitch a book from their respective countries which is currently unpublished in their UK to a select crowd of knackered publishers and wannabe authors at the LBF, and the YP judged most promising goes home with a £7,500 cheque and the promise of a stand at next year’s book fair. (The competition is judged, incidentally, by an independent panel which this year including Gautam Malkani, who STML is rather regretting backing in the great hype race of 2006 - Londonstani ain’t worth it people. Sorry.)

At the pitch session STML attended, the finalists hailed from South Africa, Mexico, Colombia, Lebanon and Thailand. Flippant as we may be, STML found the YP’s presentations both inspiring and slightly frightening (”They’re younger than us!” “Only physically”). There was also a palpable yearning in the audience to be involved in the exciting breaking of new ground that the finalists spoke of, a far cry from the conservative, over-saturated and stagnant book world represented in the rest of the building.

Michelle Matthews, at only 27, is the Publishing Manager of Oshun Books, an imprint of the grand Struik Publishers. Michelle developed and launched the imprint herself in 2004 and has since published a range of books by and for South African women, the first publisher to do so in SA. Check out the 180° collection for what’s hot in South African writing right now.

The multitalented (and, if we may be so crude, rather hot) Alejandro Cruz is the Editor and Director of Hoja por Hoja (Page by Page), the only Mexican publication devoted to current publishing issues. Their fascinating English-language edition produced especially for the LBS contained essays such as “Blooms of a Different Song: Novelties, Brilliance and Lies in Mexican Poetry” and “Pro Wrestlers and Strippers: Books on Art and Photography in Mexico.” Not since 3am at the Razz Club, Barcelona, Summer 2001, has STML been so annoyed we don’t speak Spanish. Alejandro was pitching Hipotermia (Hypothermia) by Álvaro Enrique, a novel in 20 short stories wherein the writer and the writing feature variously “as a man, a father, a voice, a plot, as a horizon, a scheme, a reality.” Published in Spanish by Anagrama-Colofón and recently acquired by Gallimard for the French, English rights should not be (but probably are) far behind. If anyone knows a good translator who’ll work for proofs, please get in touch.

Other pitchers included Carlos Castillo, Literature Editor of Colombia’s increasingly fiction-publishing Editorial Norma, Pharekaew Kaewka, representing Baan Lae Suan Books, the place to go if you want the skinny on Thai interior design, Qasim Al Belushi of Oman heritage press, the Beit Al Zubar Foundation, and the eventual winner, Joanna El Mir, the passionate Creative Director of Lebanese children’s publisher Samir Editeur.

Used to a UK industry in which young and independent publishers are routinely ignored, marginalised and underpaid (OK, we’ll stop now), it was refreshing to see such a group listened to, lauded and rewarded. That the event was entirely set up and run by the British Council, to which organisation all the finalists were clearly extremely grateful, can only serve to bolster the UK’s reputation overseas. This is in stark contrast to the home industry’s habitual blindness to nearly everything that happens outside the boundaries of the Englsih language, but perhaps someone will be brave enough to take one of these publishers up on their offer…