lb. Ever since it was made public that the Philippines will be Guest of Honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2025, Annette Hug’s world has been spinning even faster. It turns out that many in the German-speaking book scene hardly know anything about the Philippines, the Philippine book market or Filipino/a authors at all. Annette, therefore, has been responding to questions left and right. Many also hope that she, as a literary translator from Filipino to German, can mediate beyond just the language barrier.
At times, Annette tells me of the more difficult moments that naturally arise when organizing a monumental project like an international book fair. Some of the challanges are, in fact, related to topics that have been on our minds ever since we decided to work together. It’s not just about what’s hot in the Philippine book market right now (like the pasalubongs we would bring each other), we’ve also been wondering: how is it possible to establish and maintain a comprehensive overview of the literary scene in a country where so many languages exist side by side?
All this has inspired me to continue the project I initiated back in 2020: the podcast “Noi-P. d^h^y”. This time, all episodes will be dedicated to Philippine books and I look forward to talking with members of our community about the books currently on their bookshelves. You, dear readers, are more than welcome to listen in on my conversations with friends from studiyo filipino and from the group Noi-P., also known as the Swiss Chapter of the Network Halo-Halo.
Find the podcast page here (all episodes are in German or Swiss German).
