PANZ is delighted to welcome Maria Leonardi as manager of the PANZ stand at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, which runs from 22 to 25 March. Maria is organising the NZ stand and also coordinating meetings to present books from the exhibiting publishers.

Well-known in the international publishing world, Maria was until recently the editorial and rights director of nottetempo — a leading independent publisher based in Rome and Milan. Maria specialised in buying and selling international literary titles, building on her Masters in Publishing studies at the University of Urbino, where she specialised in translation rights. Maria’s father was a Kiwi, she holds New Zealand citizenship, has made several visits here, and speaks great English in addition to her native Italian.

While no exhibitors can travel from New Zealand this year, having Maria on the ground in Bologna will make a big difference to the NZ presence at the premiere global fair for children’s trade books.

In further exciting news, two of our members have been nominated for the BOP – Bologna Prize Best Children’s Publisher of the Year – congratulations to Beatnik and Huia. If you are registered for the fair and would like to vote you can do that here.

And we are also looking forward to presenting books at the China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair which was rescheduled from November last year to 21 – 24 March. Working with the New Zealand Consulate-General in Shanghai we have a lively social media plan that we’ll be rolling out to support our members’ presence. The Shanghai participants are; Black Chook Books, Duck Creek Press, Frances Plumpton Literary Agency, Gecko Press, Huia Publishers, OneTree House, Oratia Media and Upstart Press.

We’d like to acknowledge the funding that we receive from Creative New Zealand who continue to support our presence internationally.