Jelenkor Kiadó director Gábor Csordás will be presented the Dositelj Obardovic Prize on Tuesday, the second day of the fair.
The annual prize, established in 2007, is awarded to publishers that raise the profile of contemporary Serbian authors abroad.
Csordás expressed his happiness at the acknowledgement, but said he regretted that no Hungarian publisher would be present at the fair, which is contemporary Serbian literature's biggest promotional event. Publishers from 24 countries, in addition to Serbia, are participating at the fair, among them ones from Japan, Brazil, Austria, Spain, Israel, Greece, Croatia, Montenegro and Bulgaria. Altogether 800 publishers will show on more than 31,000 square metres at the fair.
Jelenkor Kiadó was established in 1993 to bring works by authors in neighbouring countries, including Serbia, to Hungarian readers, said Csordás.
Among the Serbian books Jelenkor Kiadó has published in Hungarian translation are ones by Dragan Velikic and Radoslav Petkovic. Jelenkor Kiadó published Velikic's Dante Square in Hungarian in 2001, and it recently brought Petkovic's The Man Who Lived in a Dream to Hungarian readers. The literary journal Jelenkor regularly carries Petovic's writings on aesthetics and there are plans to publish the pieces in a single volume.
Jelenkor Kiadó has also published authors who are part of the Hungarian minority in Vojvodina, Serbia. It recently published the Kossuth Prize-winning author László Végel's Memoirs of a Pimp, which came out in Vojvodina in 1967, and it has brought out the second edition of Ottó Tolnai's Wilhelm Songs, or A Rural Orpheus.
Greece was the guest of honour at the 54th Belgrade International Book Fair.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI) / Photo: pecsinapilap
