A REVIEW OF LONDON BOOK FAIR 2025
Theme: Defining the Future of Creative Content
The London Book Fair in 2022 was a good memory for me. I had served as a panel speaker and met cluster of people I am still in touch with. Having missed it over the last 2 years, I was glad to have flown into London early enough in March to participate. On Tuesday 11th March, it was a short journey on the London Underground to London Olympia.
Visitor at the London Olympia
Stop and search at the entrance was brief. Ushers at the foyer held out special LBF 2025 editions of The Bookseller magazine containing book and book people news, interviews, updates about LBF 2025. I had forgotten the sheer vastness of this place.I was almost alarmed by thepopulations of people and booths – little islets to booths the size of small fiefdoms occupying the apparently endless, buzzing expanse of the hall. I walked around, looking up, looking around for a signpost announcing the Media Centre. I finally found an information centre. Recognizing the futility of giving me directions – my glazed eyes - the gallant concierge showed me the way himself, walking with me along the bustling aisle, up atall bustling staircase and down another longaisle on the upper floor. I paused briefly to look at the magnificent scene below:the multitudes, all those booths, the people, the giant signboards: FRANCE, CANADA, SPRINGER.
Unlike the Main Stage directly beneath it, which is far too small serve as a main stage, the Media Centre is spacious. Comprised of 2 Media Workstations, 2 Volunteer Rooms, enough loos and a lounge which was welcoming with a few journalists at around 10 am when I arrived, already settled into sofas and arm chairs, quietly reading, working on laptops, enjoying a breakfast of coffee and pastries. In the centre of the room, a whiteboard advertised highlights of the day – the most important talks in the view of MIDAS PR- taking place in theatres located across the two halls.The lounge was overseen by 2 friendly receptionists one of whom, Madison, manually wrote out the events of Day 3 for me when I told her I had left my mobile phone at home.
Over those 3 days I enjoyed positive interactions with a diverse representation of media from across the world. I didn’t catch the name of the veteran journalist from Nasher News who had once worked with Publishing Perspectives; Mania Swed who has a PhD in Media and Journlism works at Metaverse Press based in Sharjah, UAE. Based in Amsterdam, Emma Verweij of EMVR Media, is both a journalist and brand strategist. On Day 3, I ran into Anni Domingo, Sierra Leonean actress and novelist. She was with Khadeejah Sesay, joint-editor of IC3, The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain and founder of Sable Lit Mag. My most rewarding meeting was with Olivia Snaije, a journalist and editor based in Paris.
An erstwhile commissioning editor at Saqi Books, and
co-editor of Keep Your Eye on the Wall:
Palestinian Landscapes, her work focuses on culture, the book industry
and the Middle East. At this year’s London Book Fair, Snaije
chaired the panel: Beyond the News: Accessing Writing
from Lebanon, Palestine and Syria organized by Alexandra Büchler of
Literature Across Frontiers.
Alexandra Büchler of Literature Across Frontiers
I didn’t spend enough time in the Centre to get an impression of the diversity of media practitioners accredited to provide coverage of the fair. What for example was the proportion of traditional media journalists to digital media journalists? As owner of Borders, a largely, though not exclusively, online platform, I was interested in new media journalists. Were we the exception at fair? In its registration of press from across the world, did LBF lean far more heavily toward legacy media – the major news outlets and industry magazines eg Publisher’s Weekly, The Bookseller - for its reportage?
On day 2, watching BookTok’s Tammi Clarke and Daphne Tonge of Illumicrate, serve as speakers on the panel titled Influence and Impact: Shaping the Future of Publishing, was the revelation.
Named within the 2020 Tiktok 100, Clarke has a following of over 1.4 million people across her book and beauty focused social channels. Tonge, a former book blogger, is publisher at Daphne Press and founder of Illumicrate, the UK’s first specialist book subscription box. In the Main Stage, a space reserved for the most important industry discussions, these young women spoke about the influence they wield in the virtual world. Viral was a recurring word as they talked about their online work publicizing books they love. That LBF organizers chose to hold panel this panel in the Main Stage is a clear acknowledgment that digital media has the power to fulfil the promise of the panel’s title: shape the future of publishing. Preferential treatment was given to legacy media in the form of reserved seats at key talks but this only demonstrates an enduring respect and recognition of their enduring influence. Now the industry is bringing blogs, podcasts and online pubs into the limelight, celebrating their ingenuity and power to reach diverse audiences online.
DEFINING THE FUTURE OF CREATIVE CONTENT
I had carefully planned my day around talks which would help unpack the theme of LBF 2025 – Defining the Future of Creative Content. I made it to some but not most of the talks I had scheduled. Why? Sometimes I didn’t notice a clash in my planning; most times there was no room at the inn.
Olympia London is under reconstruction which means that until 2027, the quality of the London Book Fair 2025 experience will be hampered by theatres (rooms) far too small to contain the pressing crowds who had paid to attend the program. It was difficult for pressmen in attendance to provide coverage of the many important sessions. My recommendation is that privileged seating should extend beyond LBF media partners and a row of chairs or at least half- a- row be reserved for other medias on a first come first serve basis.
Was I surprised to find the far-too-small theatres crammed with people taking up every available seat and a thick crowd standing at the back straining to hear the experts speak? No. To define the future of creative content is crucial at this pivotal moment in history. The publishing industry – and storytelling as whole – is at a transformative crossroads with a convergence of forces reshaping the way content is created and distributed and consumed. Ultimately, LBF 2025 achieved its goal: to initiate the focused conversations required to explore and determine where we are headed. The people seated, and the crowd standing at the back of theatres, straining to hear tech history being made or rather, explained, were tech history’s witnesses.
Alongside representatives of 5 pan-African book industry institutions, I help manage the UN SDG Book Club African Chapter. Another priority for me at the fair was sustainability: how the publishing industry was contributing to its advancement. A few sustainability talks were holding but I could fit in only 2-taking place on the same day, in the same neighbourhood – upper floor, Hall 1: Turning the Page: Publishing’s Role in Keeping the Focus on Sustainability and Climate Fiction: The Rapid Rise of Climate Storytelling.
Some of the questions I expected one or both talks to address:
? Is the publishing industry adopting ethical labour practices?
? Is it endeavouring to reduce if not erase its carbon footprints in global supply chains?
? Are digital books truly “greener”?
? How can the industry be both profitable and environmentally responsible?
The new Chief of UN Publications, Mary Glenn and Gvantsa Jobava, incoming President of the International Publishers Association, served as speakers on Day 3, 13th March, on the panel chaired by Porter Anderson,
Mary glenn, Gvantsa Jobava and Porter Anderson
Editor-in-Chief of Publishing Perspectives, in the Main Stage. Coughing and clearing his throat, he confessed to having talked himself hoarse at the fair, and then as chair proceeded to explain how the industry was addressing the global goals. From the 3 of them, a major takeaway was the 1,000 Actions, an initiative of the IPA and UN which aims to inspire and mobilize the publishing sector to take concrete steps towards achieving the SDGs. It is part of the broader UN campaign - 1 Million Actions for Our Common Future - which seeks to encourage various industries to contribute to a sustainable and equitable world. The goal of the 1000 Actions campaign is to document 1,000 individual actions from publishers and their employees. Actions can include initiatives within their organizations, community projects or broader efforts that align with the SDGs. Slides on the screen showcased contributions from individual institutions but the show was unclear, without analysis and categorization of the actions. And no, my questions were not addressed in any significant way.
As an independent action, Borders Literature for all Nations has initiated the African
Perspectives Series: essays from Africa’s publishing industry and Borders’ network of scholars. The essays centre the range of concerns around sustainable development from Africa’s unique vantage point. Recently, onto the SDG dashboard, on behalf of UN SDG Book Club Africa, we uploaded the press release of a read-a-thon carried out by children of our Ambassador Schools Program to mark World Read Aloud Day (February 5th). We hope to contribute more actions to the over 200 actions received so far which demonstrate the book industry’s commitment to sustainability and social responsibility. To learn more, click here:
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sdg-publishers-compact/
https://sdg.internationalpublishers.org/thousand-actions/
A divergence from sustainability but an interesting take-away, was the UN’s Mary Glenn observation that “multi-lateralism is being discredited in some quarters” and insisting that it should not be perceived as “sinister” as it means no more than “cooperation”, a word I have grown wary of given the-always-murky setting of international relations I find myself working in.
But the real drama came at the end of the session when, looking squarely “at the camera” the IPA President made a political statement in solidarity with Georgia’s literary and publishing sectors protesting democratic backsliding by the ruling Georgian Dream party. Jobava asserted that the Georgian booth installed at the London Book Fair 2025 did not represent the publishing industry of her country. It was, on the contrary, representative of the current Georgian government and “a real example of what autocracy looks like”.
Msp og Georgia
Climate Fiction: The Rapid Rise of Climate Storytelling held in the Focus Theatre in Hall 1 on Day 3 of the fair. It focused almost exclusively on the Climate Fiction Prize - a glorious initiative which has already seen longlisted books snapped up by renowned streaming platforms for screen adaptations. Projected on the screen was the longlist which includes Nigerian author, Chioma Okereke. Lucy Stone, founder of Climate Spring, works with leading screen industry and climate experts and seeks, through the organization to harness the power of film and TV to shift how society perceives and responds to the climate crisis. In a recent LinkedIn post, she announced the shortlist: The Ministry of Time - Kaliane Bradley (Sceptre, Hodder)
And So I Roar - Abi Daré (Sceptre, Hodder)
Briefly, Very Beautiful -Roz Dineen (Bloomsbury Publishing)
Orbital – Samantha Harvey (Jonathan Cape, Penguin Random House)
2 Nigerians, Chioma Okereke and Abi Dare, have been recognized as heavy-hitters in this high profile selection of the best climate fiction. This is gratifying on two fronts: national pride is one and the other, Africa's peculiar position within the Anthropocene. Tackling climate change and equally, tackling advocacy around it through compelling storytelling, is crucial.
Let me quote from Chichi Aniagolu's essay, Energy Transition & African Narratives: " (While recognizing that) humanity needs to drastically cut carbon emissions before damage to the earth becomes irreversible ... the importance of reducing carbon emissions) must not be made a priority for Africa because Africa's contribution to carbon emissions is about 4% - with average emissions per person at only 0.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, compared to the global average of 4.8 tonnes...However, that Africa is contributing very little to climate change, does not mean that climate change does not Affect Africa or that Africa doesn't have to do anything about climate change. On the contrary, the continent is experiencing the consequences of climate change. Crops are failing, weather is changing, water is drying up and so forth. Indeed, nowhere on the planet is feeling climate change’s effect more than in Africa. Our narratives going forward, therefore, must not only focus on the challenges but the opportunities this moment presents for Africa as a continent. We must highlight Africa's contribution to the climate stability of the world. We must change the story of Africa being only a victim of climate change requiring help, to an Africa that is also a climate action and mitigation champion!" (Energy Transition & African Narratives by Chichi Aniagolu. Development Agenda. Quarter 4. 2024)
Bringing sustainability into child education through various activities including engagement with great literature, is a major part of the work I do. I look forward to reading And So I Roar by Abi Daré and Water Baby by Chioma Okereke, with an open mind, while examining the way they leverage their prowess to tell compelling tales. What sort of approaches (if any) will they adopt towards climate justice in Africa? Will their fiction build any kind of case for Africa and its peculiar position within the Anthropocene?
A book fair is the ideal place to generate knowledge needed for shaping policies and strategies that will ensure AI serves the creative industries rather than undermine them and several talks were staged that addressed the rise of AI-driven tools. Wanting to have a clearer overview of the opportunities AI brings as well as the challenges it poses –for example, copyright, authorship, ethical storytelling - I tried hard to get into a few of the talks on offer on Day 1, Tuesday 11th March.
AI and Copyright: Policy Development in the UK and the US held in the Main Stage, was impossible to get into. Once again, it featured Porter Anderson of Publishing Perspectives as chair and as speakers, Maria Pallante of the Association of American Publishers and Dan Conway of UK’s Publishers Assocation. I queued to attend, Publishing Jobs of the Future in the Focus Theatre which notably featured Nadim Sadek, founder and CEO of Shimmr AI. The firm aims to revolutionize book advertising by utilizing artificial intelligence to create automated, cost-effective campaigns that enhance discoverability and sales for authors and publishers. I queued in vain: bouncers at the doors were grim, almost scary: no room at the inn.
Nadim Sadek, founder and CEO of Shimmr AI
In the Tech Theatre, it was a relief to find room to sit squashed on the floor in the cramped aisle between someone’s chair and the wall.
At 11.15 am on Day 1, this session was titled “Navigating the Technology Landscape of Publishing: Fine-Tuning or Future-Proofing”.
Ashok Giri, CEO of PageMajik Inc, had me almost gasping as he spoke with board room confidence about his platform’s capacities to conserve time, liberate productivity, minimize error, track manuscript progress and involve authors at virtually every stage in the life of their book through its live dashboard. PageMajik’s capacities for information management, cover design, interior design; itsvast spectrum of editorial supports including synopses, character analyses, version control, maintenance of design integrity, evokedthose machines with unbounded capacities found in science fiction.I left the room in no doubt about the revolution underway to overthrow publishing processes as we know them.An irresistible revolution which in Giri’s words should “work for us” and not against us, so why am I scared?
Responding to the increasingly urgent requirement of a comprehensive introduction to the universe of AI with its challenges and opportunities, a raft of AI focused talks was on offer at LBF 2025: the ones I was unable to attend and the ones I was fortunate to attend which included an Innovation talk at 4pm on the last day, Thursday 13th March. The slick businessman who delivered the presentation in the Tech Theatre lauded the capacities of Klopotek’s Print-On-Demand resources which “cut waste, cut costs, protect the environment”.
I sat beside Nigerian lawyer and writer, Femi Ojumu, listening to a repetition of mantras generated by the digital revolution, for example, “Print-On-Demand is the future of publishing”, “AI doesn’t take over, it liberates you”, “The future is working smarter, not harder”.
In a recent LinkedIn post, Shimmr AI publicized the AI Summit holding on 1st April 2025 under the auspices of the Jacks Thomas led BolognaBookPlus. Curated by Shimmr, the summit will radically expand the scope of discussions on offer at LBF 2025 and includes but is not limited to topics such as:
The Brand Advantage: Using AI to Find Your Edge in a Content-Rich World ,
AI Discovery: Capturing Readers' Attention in a Competitive Landscape
And of course there’s the keynote, Living, and Thriving, in the World of AI, to be delivered by AI’s great champion, entrepreneur, author, Shimmr founder, Nadim Sadek. Yet another session will explain how to make money from “LLMs”. That had me – tech illiterate - reaching for Meta AI which provided this definition:
“LLMs stands for Large Language Models. They are a type of artificial intelligence (AI) designed to process and generate human-like language. LLMs are trained on massive amounts of text data, allowing them to learn patterns, relationships, and context, and to produce coherent and natural-sounding text.” A Call to Action: Making AI Education Accessible
Edward Nawotka (Publisher’s Weekly) will moderate the Summit’s Town Hall which promises to be vigorous but it has to be asked: how many people will get to benefit from these important talks? How many people will be reached? Clear cogent information from the masters, addressing AI from every relevant angle, needs to be made available to the widest possible audience of stakeholders. Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard (TNPS) writes with that blistering English wit but his concerns are justified:
“With LBF25 in the rear-view mirror, the stand-out feature of the LBF reportage is how many great events were not even accessible to those who paid to be there, let alone the rest of the world. Maybe one day someone in this high tech world will invent live streaming and recordings and a video channel.”
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At 10.30 am on Day 2, 12th March, Dan Houser’s gait as he walked into the packed Main Stage alongside Elle Osili-Wood –host of the high profile interview, was unassuming enough to be remarkable. Here was the man whose Rockstar Games franchise, Grand Theft Auto, had, in 2018, generated approximately USD 9.4 billion in revenue. I took in his appearance: 5ft 8 or 9 inches no more. Nice face, salt of the earth, inescapably Anglo-Saxon despite travelling far and wide - metaphorically also - in pursuit of astounding success as a creator, world-builder, master storyteller.
And there, seated beside him was the slender, remarkably tall, Elle Osili-Wood. Of British and Nigerian heritage, Osili-Wood is a respected book reviewer for Radio 4, and has been honoured as a BAFTA Breakthrough in Television. Earlier this year, on the ITV Oscars show hosted by Jonathan Ross, her commentary was memorably solid and calm alongside veteran actor Jason Isaacs, and celebrated literary journalist, Mariella Frostrup. The conversation with Dan Houser, saw her not only propel the segments along masterfully, she demonstrated a knowledge of video-gaming that left me feeling behind-the-times. A quick search online told me that she had hosted the UK Esports Awards and that she currently hosts the BAFTAs video game content. In contrast with her Millennial gaming savvy, my only knowledge about the sport is its power to hold gamers totally captive. As a child, my son was addicted to video games and as an adult pursuing a Master’s degree in the Creative and Cultural Industries, he plays Dungeons and Dragons, the video game version, every week.
Launching into the session, “Storytelling and World Building from Video Games to Audio
Fiction to Novels”, she referred to Houser as the “Bob Dylan of video games” “Bob Dylan?”, Immediately, I texted my son. This is what he said about video gaming and about Dan Houser’s world-building:
“As someone who grew up playing games and has had his appreciation for narratives shaped by games, what has always struck me is how much being able to live an experience elevates it. Every medium has its differences and different strengths, but the fact that video games allow us to live in a character, to be them over a significant amount of time and see them grow and change is an experience without parallel. If someone who doesn’t play video games were to ask me who has made the games that allow characters to live their fullest lives, I’d say Rockstar Games. The Red Dead and Grand Theft Auto games are so successful and critically acclaimed because the player gets to move the hands and make the choices of a character they’d otherwise watch or read. And those narratives would be great if they were experienced only in those formats as an onlooker. But to live them, drive them forward, through the good and bad, is what has always made them seem exceptional to me. I feel that anyone with an appreciation for stories would feel the same way” (Damilare Williams-Shires – Entertainment Journalist, Gamer, Filmmaker)
Like the session with Ashok Giri, Dan Houser’s Main Stage interview titled, “Storytelling and World Building from Video Games to Audio Fiction to Novels” had me marvelling at the wild, ambitious possibilities technology has bequeathed to creatives.His conversation with Elle Osili-Wood was a showcase of his abilities as a compelling and witty speaker – “without an undergirding thesis, science fiction is space opera”. Their conversation moved with momentum from the contemporary pre-eminence of storytelling via video games, to the evolution of his latest creation, A Better Paradise Vol.1: An Aftermath, through Houser’s writing processes and the realness of the worlds he builds.
Houser: “It starts with the characters and then I attend to the world (they inhabit) …What is the personality of the world? What is the personality of the main protagonists? The combination is an interesting story. Are the characters in an interesting conflict with themselves and the world they inhabit?”
What changes when a story becomes interactive?
Houser: You have to break the story apart and let the players discover stuff?
What do you read? What are your influences?
Houser: The Picture of Dorian Gray. Lonesome Dove. The follow-up.
Let’s talk about AI. You said it would shape our future.
Houser: We were prescient…We hope our stories have a unique angle. Our work is made by human beings so we hope the human touch comes through
Interesting windows opened onto his cinematic approaches which intersect with “novelistic structures”. How does he knew which parts should be allocated which one of the various platforms he employs: graphic novels, audio novels, video games and now novels?
Houser: Novels help to get into people’s heads and psychology… Using prose to tell a very visual story is unique and works well.
Bob Dylan enjoys a reputation as a master storyteller and countercultural icon. From the session, and from my son, I learned that these qualities align with Dan Houser’s approach to game writing and world-building in what was once Rockstar Games and is now, Absurd Ventures, a platform which in its creator’s words, “presents a transmedia universe”.
“We are in an era of great human transformation”, Houser told the audience. “It’s like the agricultural and industrial revolution”.
Through Absurd Ventures, he seeks to tell a story about the transition from the previous world to this one which humans have built.
Dylan’s lyrics are deeply poetic, socially aware and often rebellious, so too I have learned, are Houser’s narratives in Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. “He is absolutely lauded as a transgressive creator” declared Osili-Wood.
If at first I was very curious about the choice of Bob Dylan as Houser’s avatar, thanks to Osili-Wood at the steering wheel, I understood a great deal more about the parallel by the end of the conversation.
To learn more about Dan Houser’s work from the horse’s mouth, read his pre-event interview with Ed Nawotka of Publishers Weekly here:
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/international/london-book-
fair/article/97302-london-book-fair-2025-q-a-with-dan-houser-video-game-creator-turnedauthor.html
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Universal Storytelling: How to Tell Your Story Across Multiple Platforms . I was unable to attend this talk which held on the last day of the fair and was an interactive session facilitated by Emma Topping, academic and founder of Viv Loves Film. It was a good thing I had attended, The Future of Book Licensing and Distribution the day before and which surely addressed some of the same issues.
Licensing and distribution is an essential component in the quest to understand how to commercialize books. I listened closely to José Manuel Anta and Mark Searle
in conversation with Porter Anderson of Publishing Perspectives. “What keeps you up at night? What worries you? , asked Anderson.
José Manuel Anta expressed concern about his young daughters’ addiction to the screen despite living around books while Mark Searle’s argued that more girls are reading for fun than boys and that it is incumbent on publishers to make books fun. “When we do that, we show that the market is there”. Anderson pointed out that Hachette’s David Shelley has started the program Raising Readers to address the issue.
The paradox is glaring: as they increasingly seek to transform their books into the range of available formats dominated by the screen: video games, digital books, streaming platforms, the power of books to function as an antidote to the tyranny of the screen has been drastically reduced by the very publishers who lament the demise of reading for fun.
Now, graphic novels and audio books offer the only sanctuaries away from screen with audio books numbers rising exponentially. But I challenge people who have been blessed by a great read to contest the unique power print books hold for tactile intellectual and emotional engagement. “We don’t normally see licensing and distribution discussed together” observed Porter Anderson. True, but isn’t it wise to lay emphasis on the potential of strong licensing deals to open new distribution channels? And to emphasize the potential of effective distribution to create more licensing opportunities?
José Manuel Anta (Managing Director of the Spanish Federation of Publishers Guilds&
Founder, Readmagine) and Mark Searle (Managing Director of DK) in conversation with Porter Anderson, explored how to keep long-form storytelling financially viable and how to keep storytelling relevant and “authentic” when IP is transformed into different products: screen adaptations, audio books or other languages.
Praising BookTok for promoting books and activating the fanbase, Mark Searle cautioned about alienating the “fandom” and the need to carefully curate innovation and novelty. I was intrigued by the emphasis on “authenticity” until a colleague pointed out that the need to reach the right audiences, avoid unauthorized copies and misrepresentation of the work.
Figure : Mark Searle
Key take-aways from the discussion include:
“Every book is a business”
“Titles are a pathway to the consumer”
“AI will help books find readers!”
Porter Anderson’s question: “Is it possible to use data well enough to find pathways into a customer’s mindset?”
This question was addressed by Emma Quick of Simon & Schuster on another Main Stage panel Influence and Impact: Shaping the Future of Publishing during which Quick discussed the publishing industry’s increasing acknowledgement of social media as a direct line to readers and social media’s ability to provide useful data to shape marketing campaigns. She spoke about the eagerness of publishers to work with creators to spark and drive conversations around books.
When Porter Anderson asked, “How much of a predictor do you feel you have to be?”, Searle talked about DK’s emphasis on the interpretation of data: the firm looks for macro trends to understand what is happening at the consumer level. There is for example a rising interest in folklore and horror which is the fastest growing movie genre right now. José Manuel Anta encouraged small and medium sized tech firms to partner with small publishers which also require data gathering expertise, adding that a goal of Readmagine which he founded, is to find new pathways to consumers.
Collaboration, longevity and depth of partnership
defined the discussion about the future of book licensing and distribution.
Today, publishers, distributors and retailers are working together more closely
rather than operating in separate silos. It’s an era of new business models and
new opportunities for the whole industry, an era which is a witness to
publishers exploring subscription models - like Netflix - for books, a project
Tammi Wonge has successfully launched with Illumicrate. Increasingly publishers
are partnering with a streaming platform to turn a book into an interactive digital
experience or they will work directly with educators to create learning
resources based on books. The entire industry is looking for fresh ways to
connect books with readers and to expand beyond old distribution methods and
revenue streams.
Refusing to miss the panel, Beyond the News: Writing from Syria, Lebanon and Palestine, I arrived very early at its venue, the Literary Translation Centre, and sat confidently in a queue of my own making. Enjoying a cup of tea, I sighted Middle-East expert and journalist, Olivia Snaije, chair of the panel. She introduced me to her friends , Burhan Sonmez, President of PEN International
Burhan Sonmez and Samantha Schnee
and Samantha Schnee, Secretary of PEN America’s board of trustees and founding editor of Words Without Borders.
Their lively conversation was about Mahmoud Muna, also known as the “The bookseller of Jerusalem”. Since his hosts, English Pen, had expected him to participate virtually on the panel: Publishing in Times of Conflict, Muna’s physical presence at the fair would be a notable moment at the literary salon .
Israeli police had raided Muna’s educational
bookshop based in East Jerusalem for the second time, with dozens of books
confiscated and his older brother who managed the shop arrested, then released.
In February 2025, during the first raid, police confiscated 250 books on the
Israeli-Palestine conflict and detained both Mahmoud Muna and his older
brother, Ahmad, on charges of “violating public order”. Now, at the London Book Fair, the friends’
joy was contagious. Sonmez explained that Pen International and its friends had
moved heaven and earth to fly him to London to participate.
I did not attend the PEN literary salon so missed hearing Muna speak about the shocking events he endured upon his arrest. His freedom to speak on that panel - in person - testifies to the importance of PEN’s work to protect freedom of expression, a fundamental human right with implications for democracy, creativity and human dignity. Muna’s ordeal testifies to the challenges faced by writers and booksellers who speak truth to power while working in extremely difficult settings, or in settings where there is oppression, in this case the Israel Palestine conflict.
Mahmoud Muna’s victory compensated for the irony of my day: I was not only unable to take notes during the Writing from Syria, Lebanon and Palestine panel. My cape and notepad - left on a front-row seat to reserve it - had been dumped somewhere to make room for someone else. It was a struggle to hear pretty much all of what the program blurb promised would be a valuable session about translated works (memoir, novels, poetry), that would help me learn more about,“…the region many used to call the Levant (and which) has lived challenging times and none as challenging as during the past year.” (LBF 2025 Show Agenda).
Africa can comfortably accommodate the US, China, India and most of Europe combined. The entirety of South America could also fit into Africa with room to spare. Greenland is 14 times smaller than Africa despite wild exaggerations about its size. The vastness of the continent makes the contrast with the panel title, Small Is Beautiful, intriguing. In her welcome address, panel chair, Stephanie Kitchen, Executive Director of African Books Collective (ABC), explained that the title was a recognition of the “cottage industry” aspect of much of African publishing and a nod to the title of E.F Schumacher’s famous book which emphasized an “economics as if people matter”. By framing the talk in this way, the curators were recognizing that many independent African publishers are family businesses or very small academic programs.
Given the relationship between the UK and the Commonwealth, Anglophone countries of Africa, I felt it was regrettable that only one session dedicated to Africa publishing should exist on the rich LBF 2025 program. But perhaps it is for the African publishers to initiate these requests. That this panel took place; we must thank Angus Philips, Editor-in-Chief of Logos (Brill) who conceived it as a complement to the eponymously titled special edition of the periodical. https://brill.com/view/journals/logo/35/2-3/article-p5_1.xml
Taking place on the final day, 13th March, the panel looked and felt like an anomaly. That it had been included by the London Book Fair appeared to be no more than a nod to evident demographic shifts in global publishing. Shifts facilitated in no small measure by the digital revolution in communications. The entire event looked like the global industry slowly acknowledging the inching rise of Africa as a relevant hub of publishing activity.
At 10.15 am it was perhaps too early for many but the empty seats in the Olympia Theatre were a contrast with the crammed fair’s halls we had grown to expect. I was happy to see fellow Nigerians in the audience: Dare Oluwatuyi is Chairman of the Nigeria International Book Fair Trust and President of the Booksellers Assocation of Nigeria. Segun Martins Fajemisin who kindly took the photographs supporting this section of my article, is founder and CIO at Infomediaworks, a publishing and information management company based in London.
Figure : Dare Oluwatuyi, Gbadega Adedapo, Mrs Olatoun Gabi-Williams and co
I sat for most of the session’s duration but had to leave early to catch Turning the Page:
Publishing’s Role in Keeping the Focus on Sustainability.
Goretti Kyomuhendo is the founder of African Writers Trust which seeks to bring together and coordinate African writers in the Diaspora and writers on the continent. She is also CEO at MirembE Literary Agency, an outfit also involved in publishing. She began her speech lauding the vibrancy of the publishing landscape, mentioning Rwanda’s Huza Press and Nigeria’s Narrative Landscape Press as examples of the new dynamism. An enumeration of obstacles to progress followed, the main ones being economic constraints and distributional barriers. With such infrastructural poverty, she said, the work of indie publishers can seem punishing.
Mary Jay has worked on two important Africa focused book prizes: The Caine Prize for African Writing aims to recognize and celebrate outstanding short stories by African writers published in English, and to promote African literature globally. Established in 1979, the NOMA Award for Publishing in Africa ran a stellar campaign for 29 years. Until it ceased operations in 2009, the prize recognized outstanding African writers and scholars published in Africa. I was unable to listen to Jay’s presentation but panel chair, Stephanie Kitchen, shared her notes in which Jay draws attention to the global recognition of African literature, referencing the generational changes on the landscape wrought by the digital age. She points to audio-books sector and self-publishing as “a newer challenge for African Books Collective (ABC)” of which she is a founding director.
The usual suspects come up in Jay’s notes: the need to overcome distributional barriers, difficulty in achieving financial sustainability, asking rhetorically if in that context “small is beautiful”.
To learn more about African publishing, the real hope and the hurdles left to scale, read my review of the Africa Rising conference held in Nairobi in 2019 and hosted by the
International Publisher’s Association: https://bordersliteratureonline.net/eventdetails/IPANairobi-Seminar
put economic bottlenecks on the backburner. An Italy-trained ethno-mathematician, writer and scholar, he returned to Somaliland with a purpose: to participate in the healing of his motherland. Declared an independent nation in 1991, after a brutal 4 year conflict, Somaliland is still reeling from wounds inflicted by the ongoing Somali Civil War.
Jama’s approach to the arts and culture agenda is human, people-centered. He asserts that arts and culture are crucial tools for rebuilding post-conflict nations and that to take the arts out of nation building, is to take the human out of it.
To advance his cause, Jama has established the Red Sea Cultural Foundation, (Ponte Invisibile), which delivers various programs including: publishing and specializing in the translation of literary and scholarly works into indigenous Somali languages; documenting and preserving Somali cultural heritage, including oral traditions and historical archives; fostering cultural exchange and collaboration between Somali and international artists, writers, and intellectuals. In 2008, he founded the world-renowned Hargeysa International Book Fair.
Let me quote Stephanie Kitchen: “It is often the contributions of exceptional individuals that make the difference”
Jama Musse Jama is one of those individuals and a shining exponent of the “reverse migrant” foregrounded in an article titled, Africa’s Defining Decade: Embracing the Return of the Diaspora by JP Følsgaard Bak. To the Danish industrialist:
“…the first wave of returning Africans holds immense potential – not just as skilled professionals, but as investors and builders of the future. If empowered, they can drive the development of essential infrastructure, creating jobs and reinforcing Africa’s reputation as a land of opportunity” (The Habari Network)
Reverse migration. Listening to Jama speak fluent Italian to Italian speakers just before the session, floodlights what to me is an inspiring challenge to traditional notions of citizenship. The way he moves between his native Somaliland and his almost-native Italy, reminds us that for many Africans, citizenship is increasingly dynamic, less tied to a specific-nation state. He embodies an important truth about 21st century African identities: increasingly fluid and complex, with growing populations in our cities embracing plural identities, be it across ethnic groups, across national, regional or global borders.
To learn more about Jama Musse Jama’s views and his work in Somaliland read my wideranging conversation with him here: https://bordersliteratureonline.net/globaldetail/jama_musse
Was it just me or did the party start for all of us as soon as we set foot in that buzzing convention centre at Olympia?
There were many felicities:
Figure : Ola Awonubi, author of A Nurses Tale
At the Women’s Prize session on the last day, running into UK-based Ola Awonubi, author of A Nurses Tale, (One More Chapter, Harper Collins). It was our first in-person encounter.
A departure from the romantic fiction which established her as a leading novelist, A Nurse’s
Tale, is historical fiction, telling the story of Adenrele Ademola, a World War II nurse from Nigeria, who served sacrificially both as a nurse and as a casualty of racism meted out by the very people she was trained to serve. A Nurse’s Tale helps preserve a legacy made more compelling by Princess Adenrele Ademola’s birth into one of Nigeria’s most significant royal families, the Ademolas of Egbaland.
Meeting Kenan Koçaturk, founder of Literatür, a leading publishing firm based in Istanbul and President of the Turkish Publishers Association. We enjoyed a humorous translatorassisted conversation at the Turning the Page session on the last day of the fair. Now, hearing about the crackdown on the publishing industry and censorship by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government, our hearts go out to the publishing industry in Türkiye.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Figure : Map Of Turkey
We are waiting with concern to see how far this crisis will go: the tightening grip on the media, the suppression of independent voices and dissenting opinions.
Turning the Page was the perfect opportunity to meet in person, Mary Glenn, the incoming Chief of UN Publications, a speaker at the session and to reconnect with colleagues I had not seen in a long while: Rachel Martin and Michiel Kolman (Elsevier/IPA), Jose Borghino, James Taylor and Olivier Borie (IPA) who very kindly took some of the photos supporting this closing section of my LBF 2025 review.
Shimmr AI folks hosted their annual party, where the now famous Shimmr cocktail flowed.
2025 Trailblazer award-winner, Searsha Sadek, and her brother, Sean Sadek, served drinks while their father, Nadim Sadek, shared memories with me about his happy childhood in Nigeria. Prashant Pathak (Giunti Editore) dropped in. I know him as the dynamic administrator of the social media group, Publishers Without Borders, conceived by Canadian publisher, Simon de Jocas, and the industry’s online sanctuary during the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown. PWB more than survived the pandemic. It is thriving and celebrating this year, its 5th year anniversary as an unrivalled online (and increasingly in-person-at- book fairs) resource for the global industry. Sadek introduced me to Germany’s Markus Dohle. A brief, friendly exchange followed during which Dohle channelled the focus of the result-oriented businessman whose reputation for overseeing the historic merger of Penguin and Random House - precedes him.
Organized by Emma House (Oreham Group), the British Council international mixer held at the fair’s Welcome Point in the evening of 12th March, was very well-attended. I was happy to see familiar faces from the literary world: Lizzie Attree (Safal-Cornell Kiswahili Prize for
African Literature), Juliet Mabey (Oneworld Publications), Bibi Bakare (Cassava Republic
Press), Margaret Busby (editor-at-large/Daughters of Africa), Dotun Eyinade (Roving
Heights Bookshops), Goretti Kyomuhendo (Author, Promises/Founder, African Writers Trust) and Mercy Ouma (eKitabu, Kenya)
And finally, I was able to meet in person, Angus Philips, the very personable CEO of the Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies and Editor-in-chief of Logos (Brill).
Angus Philips and Giles Clark Alexandra
In 2020 he accepted my essay-length memoir for publication in the periodical. My Africa Reads is a history about my literary journey out of a stifling eurocentrism to a liberating Africa and world consciousness.
Visit: https://brill.com/view/journals/logo/31/2/article-p7_7.xml?language=en
At 4.30pm on Day 3, at Stand 7C83 on the ground floor, Philips and Clark hosted an elegant drinks party. They were celebrating the 7th edition of their ground-breaking book, Inside Book Publishing described by someone in a LinkedIn thread as the “Holy Grail of publishing”. There, I met in person and finally, Janet Remmington, Global Portfolio Director at the Taylor & Francis Group, and a friend from social media. Remmington exudes a warmth that we seek in what was once perceived as the cool ivory tower of academia, a warmth that presents the whole pursuit of knowledge, or scholarship, as a very human sanctuary for souls open to learning and connection.
Minna Salami is a Scandinavian-Nigerian scholar whom it has been a privilege to encounter ...
