Project support
Livres des deux rives
Book
Issue of the Sommet des deux rives, financed by the Fonds Équipe France of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, the Livres des deux rives program is steered by the Institut français.
Its first phase (2021-2023) involved Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. In 2024, Livres des deux rives launches its second phase and opens up to Lebanon and Egypt.
This project aims to support dialogue between civil societies on the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean through cooperative actions based around books.
The project was launched at a time when the health crisis linked to the COVID-19 pandemic had brought mobility to a halt, and at the time of the 10th anniversary of the Arab Spring: more than ever, books today constitute a tool for intercultural dialogue, sustainable exchange and strengthening of ties between civil societies on the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean.
At the heart of a politically and editorially fragmented "Arab world", the upheavals that have occurred over the past ten years are affecting the publishing sector, and translation flows, already fragile and uneven in both directions, need to be strengthened.
Writing residencies Livres des deux rives
The program
Funded by the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Livres des deux rives has the following main objectives:
- To contribute, through networking and partnership, to dialogue between civil societies on the southern and northern shores of the Mediterranean and to free, shared cultural expression;
- To help strengthen the book sector as a cultural and creative industry in the western Mediterranean.
Stemming from a wide-ranging consultation of players on both the North and South shores, the project's actions, implemented in a partnership and multilateral logic, are structured around three axes:
- translation translation, on the one hand, with the ambition of supporting translation flows between French and Arabic and fostering the professionalization of translators;
- publishing, on the other, with the desire to support exchanges and joint projects between players in the countries concerned but also to enable better promotion of authors and facilitate the circulation of works.
- mediation, finally, with the vocation of fostering better mutual knowledge of the players, productions and sectoral cultures as a whole.
A cross-cutting component, around youth, accompanies these two axes and aims to strengthen the structuring of youth publishing on the southern shore, to foster editorial exchanges between the two shores in this editorial field and to support, through dedicated actions, dialogue between young people in the civil societies of the countries concerned.
Translation axis
The Translation axis deploys literary translation training workshops, both to raise awareness of translation issues and to professionalize young translators in the countries involved.
The Translation axis actions have been implemented by the ATLAS-CITL association and the Karkadé agency.
The 2nd phase of the project continues these ambitions, deploying these actions also in Lebanon and Egypt, focusing on the following editorial fields: literature, comics, children's literature.
Publishing
The Publishing axis includes professional meetings, author and publisher tours, the production of professional resources, as well as an aid fund for publishers, in order to support the structuring of book sectors, the professionalization of publishers and to encourage publications in target countries and editorial exchanges from one side of the Mediterranean to the other.
During the 1st phase, the fonds d'aide aux éditeurs supported 25 publishing projects.
Continuing with the 1st phase, new times for exchanges and professional meetings are planned between 2024 and 2026, including a new edition of the fellowship of publishers from the Arab world conducted with the Bief.
Mediation
The various consultations carried out have brought to light the many clichés weighing on both sides of editorial exchanges and the geographical, cultural and political realities of the book sectors in each of the countries concerned. The Awareness-raising and Mediation axis intends to foster better mutual knowledge of the players, productions and sectoral cultures as a whole.
Through the various actions planned and without ignoring the systemic difficulties, Livres des deux rives thus intends to initiate some levers to foster more sustainable and qualitative editorial and cultural exchanges between players.
Among the main actions initiated between 2021 and 2023, the co-production of a podcast with Villa Gillet, Écoutes croisées and participation in the Forum des mondes méditerranéens in 2022.
The second phase intends to continue this momentum, around new features including the establishment of a literary criticism training workshop run in partnership with Villa Gillet, the co-production of a podcast with the Institut du monde arabe and the setting up of writing residencies in collaboration with the Cité internationale de la langue française - Villers-Cotterêts.
This cartography lists the players in the book world identified in the first phase of the Livres des deux rives project.
Network space
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