Earlier this month, the Publishers Association of New Zealand (PANZ) / Te Rau o Tākupu has announced its withdrawal from the prestigious Guest of Honour role at the 2027 Bologna Children’s Book Fair in Italy. Peter Dowling and Julia Marshall, co-leaders of PANZ’s Bologna Guest of Honour Steering Group, provide further insight into that decision with an article released in The Sapling.

The Publishers Association of New Zealand (PANZ)/Te Rau o Tākupu recently announced its decision to withdraw from its commitment to be Guest of Honour (GOH) at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in Italy in 2027, following its inability to secure committed support from government agencies and other potential funders.

PANZ President Graeme Cosslett stated that the decision was made because ‘we continue to receive clear messages that the New Zealand government … is reducing their spend’ and that ‘any international [arts] development must be laser focused—and sadly this focus does not extend to any events in Europe.’

The reason given for the lack of government support was its current focus on cultural opportunities which support trade, economic and diplomatic outcomes in India and Southeast Asia.

Cosslett says PANZ ‘well knows the importance and value of growing international relationships, and furthering global business opportunities.’

But without government support, and with the association’s limited resources, a GOH programme is not feasible—and the job of fundraising via the private sector and other agencies untenable.

‘This withdrawal is more than a missed business opportunity, it’s a loss of cultural presence. It denies our writers, illustrators, and publishers the chance to build global connections, especially in indigenous and bilingual storytelling. Without investment, we risk silencing New Zealand’s voice on the world stage,’ says Cosslett.

The benefits of being a country Guest of Honour are manyfold. Economically, attending book fairs is a long game. Fairs provide the opportunity for publishers to build lasting relationships with similar publishers internationally, for the ultimate purpose of selling rights and doing business, and to build international markets for New Zealand’s authors, illustrators and creative content.

The Bologna GOH programme would have provided a one-off chance to showcase the work of children’s book creatives overall on a central international stage …

The Bologna GOH programme would have provided a one-off chance to showcase the work of children’s book creatives overall on a central international stage—not only books and educational content, but also the adjacent sectors of film, animation, comics and gaming.

PANZ sought $350,000 over two years from the government’s Cultural Diplomacy International Programme. Had that cornerstone funding been secured, PANZ planned to seek private sponsorship and to provide in-kind support at a level at least equal to the government’s position.

International promotion of literature lags

The geographical focus of the government’s international cultural funding counted against an event in Europe—despite the Bologna Children’s Book Fair being recognised as the world’s greatest gathering of children’s literature, including leading publishers from South and Southeast Asia.

The 2025 edition of the fair attracted over 33,000 professional visitors from 95 countries, and 1,577 exhibitors. Being Guest of Honour at this event in March/April each year is a sought-after opportunity.

For New Zealand illustrators and authors, the Bologna Book Fair would have provided opportunities for rare in-person exposure to the world’s best publishers. The Bologna Book Fair is the only international fair where illustrators are prominent, including the country of honour Illustrators’ Exhibition at the entrance to the fair and supported by a variety of events at the fair and in the historic centre of Bologna.

The fair gives publishers access to international distribution, rights deals, agent agreements, knowledge of competitors and non-competing content and trends from non-English countries. It opens the eyes and ears of local publishers to what is happening in the rest of the world.

PANZ has organised a stand at the fair since 2018 as part of its contract for international literature promotion with Creative New Zealand.

That has led to a series of Publisher of the Year, Oceania awards for exhibiting publishers, including Huia in 2024, Beatnik Publishing in 2022, Oratia Media in 2021 One Tree House in 2018 and Gecko Press in 2013, the award’s inaugural year. This year the accolade was given to Pasifika children’s book publishing company, Mila’s Books.

Following the successful Guest of Honour programme at the Taipei International Book Exhibition in 2015, PANZ expanded to showcase our authors and illustrators not only at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Taipei and Bologna, but also at the Guadalajara International Book Fair, the world’s largest fair for Spanish-language publishing.

That entails much voluntary work by PANZ councillors and members, particularly as the budget for international literary promotion has declined steadily in real terms, while promotional costs have spiralled.

New Zealand’s creative sector, which spotlights so much of what is good about our country, is now lagging behind other countries of similar size and ambition.

A document prepared in support of the Bologna proposal compared the investment that countries of a similar size devote to the translation of their literature.

This revealed that compared to New Zealand, per capita translation funding is 7 times higher in South Korea, 14 times in Ireland, 18 times in Latvia and 40 times in Norway.

Many of the countries surveyed have government agencies dedicated to promoting their books internationally, recognising the soft power that this creates.

Norway, a country of almost the same population as New Zealand, is organising its Guest of Honour programme for Bologna next year through Norla, its well-resourced promotional agency—and is using the occasion to enhance child literacy and the culture of books at home.

New Zealand’s creative sector, which spotlights so much of what is good about our country, is now lagging behind other countries of similar size and ambition.

‘Our programme sought to learn from the Norwegian approach to stimulate sagging literacy levels here. Information-sharing with the successful programmes of Catalonia in 2017 and Slovenia this year had similarly given us realistic expectations and new ideas,’ says Peter Dowling, co-leader of the GOH steering group.

International markets for authors and illustrators

The impetus for accepting an invitation to be GOH at Bologna Book Fair emerged at a PANZ Retreat in 2019, where delegates voiced concerns that the export gains following the Frankfurt 2012 and Taipei 2015 programmes were diluting.

Fundamentally, the New Zealand book market is small (roughly equivalent to the city of Frankfurt) and is dominated by imported titles, which make up about three-quarters of sales each year.

To grow our book exports, and give our creatives the chance to access millions of new readers worldwide, active promotional efforts are needed.

Setting its sights high, in 2023 PANZ accepted the invitation to be Bologna Guest of Honour, to inject energy into the export sector, develop publisher capability in export markets, and boost the international profiles of New Zealand illustrators and writers for children.

The number of publishers able to attend the Frankfurt and Bologna fairs has dropped year on year, especially since Covid in 2020–22.

To grow our book exports, and give our creatives the chance to access millions of new readers worldwide, active promotional efforts are needed.

In 2023 New Zealand publishing export sales were $14.2 million, down 12 percent on 2022.

The Bologna GOH steering group, led by PANZ past president Peter Dowling, Oratia Books and Catriona Ferguson PANZ Director until 2023, included Julia Marshall, PANZ past president and founder of Gecko Press children’s books (co-leader from 2024); Jude Chambers, Seedpod Studios; Juliet Dreaver, Dreaver Productions; Eboni Waitere, Huia Publishers; Katherine Shanks, PANZ; and Graeme Cosslett, PANZ President and Chief Executive NZCER. All contributed generous voluntary hours.

Throughout 2024 the group worked to advance the GOH programme, focusing on government and book sector relations, engaging with the Ministry for Culture and Heritage and agencies in the Cultural Diplomacy International Programme including Te Puni Kōkiri, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, Education New Zealand and NZ Story, as well as the Hon. Paul Goldsmith, Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage.

Support for the programme came from organisations and individuals across the literary sector, including the New Zealand Society of Authors, the Coalition for Books, Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand, Te Waka Taki Kōrero—Māori Literature Trust, Read NZ Te Pou Muramura, the National Library, the Storylines Children’s Literature Charitable Trust and the Dunedin City of Literature.

PANZ applied to the Cultural Diplomacy International Programme (CDIP) in October 2024; the application was declined in February 2025.

Elena Pasoli, director of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, accepted the withdrawal with regret.

‘The reasons behind this decision—rooted in broader political and economic considerations—are often difficult to accept, particularly when they affect cultural initiatives that are so meaningful and far-reaching.’

The Bologna Fair management was especially interested in New Zealand’s work with indigenous and bilingual publishing and translation.

From here, PANZ must look to maintain its existing international efforts, which have resulted in dozens of translations and rights sales of New Zealand books.

Realistically, at current funding levels, that will consist only of the ongoing translation fund, and small stands at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October and Bologna next year.