Pavlína Juračková works as an editor and Foreign Rights Manager at Paseka Publishing House. At the invitation of the Cairo International Book Fair, she travelled to Cairo at the end of January, which made it possible for the Czech Centre Cairo to organize a productive working meeting with representatives of Egyptian publishing houses and translators of Czech literature into Arabic.
The discussion focused on opportunities for licensing cooperation, new translation projects, and long-term networking among publishing professionals from both countries. Special attention was also given to contemporary Czech literature and titles with strong international potential, including comics and graphic novels.
One concrete example of successful cooperation is the acclaimed debut novel I Wake Up in Shibuya by Japanologist Anna Cima, which was recently published in Arabic in a translation by Amr Shatury by Logha Publishing House. Pavlína Juračková also noted that cooperation with the publisher is developing promisingly, and that Egyptian readers may soon be able to look forward to further high-quality Czech literature in translation.
The meeting confirmed the growing interest in Czech literature in Egypt and opened space for further translations as well as long-term cooperation between the Czech and Egyptian publishing environments.
