Publishing the World

There are people you meet and just get on with instantly, and for me Brittany Hazelwood was one of those people. She works for the German Book Office in New York, where she and the equally lovely Riky Stock share their burning passion for German literature with the Americans. Anyway, Brittany's has about a hundred horsepower of get-up-and-go and has co-founded a publishing network for international literature. They've called it Publishing the World (presumably so they can recycle that Tears for Fears song Everybody Wants to Rule/Run the World for the third time as their anthem) and you can read their piece about it in today's Publishing Perspectives. I love the idea of all those idealistic junior publishing people getting together to poison each others' minds with talk of translation over drinks. There'll be a mutiny! I'm looking forward to watching them order the Lieutenant Blighs of the publishing world into the ship's launch and sail their ship onward to devote their lives to living in harmony with all those literary Tahitian beauties.

Most importantly for me, not being a young publishing person in New York on the lookout for enticing foreign titles, they also have a shiny new blog. Weekly round-ups, reports on their book club, what books are on what tables at what New York bookshops, and kittens in blankets.