Singapore, Mar 25 (PTI) Kitaab International Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based literature platform which largely shares Indian-origin content, has entered into a cultural exchange partnership with Canadian publisher Guernica Editions to enhance their outreach globally.
Guernica Editions will publish and distribute Kitaab’s annual anthology, The Best Asian Short Stories 2022, in North America.
In return, Kitaab will publishing and distribute “This Will Only Take a Minute”, an anthology of Canadian flash fiction, in Singapore, Kitaab’s founder and editor Zafar Anjum, 46, said on Friday.
“We are very pleased that such a literary exchange is taking place between two publishers from the two major continents, Asia and North America. This bridge-building through literature among Asian and other cultures is very much part of Kitaab’s mission,” he said.
Anjum, an Indian citizen and permanent resident of Singapore, who started Kitaab in 2005, expects readership boost, especially drawing the interest of over 1 million Indians living in Canada.
“Our Asian short stories also include India-oriented tales and fables which we hope would draw the Indian diaspora interests,” he said.
The anthology has stories from over 10 nationalities across Asia.
“What better way to build a cross-cultural bridge between our respective continents than through the pages of our best short fiction? With a mission to publish literature that dares to cross boundaries, we couldn’t be more pleased with our collaboration with Kitaab International,” said Anna van Valkenburg, associate publisher at Guernica Editions, on forming a partnership with the Asian publisher.
The exchange arrangement resulted from the Singapore-Canada virtual trade mission, organised by Singapore Book Publishers Association and Livres Canada Books, in December 2021.
Founded in 1978 and based in Hamilton, Ontario, Guernica Editions is an award winning independent publisher with a keen eye for literature that dares to cross boundaries — ‘No Borders. No Limits’.
