Children’s Literature in Russia: Publishers’ Perspectives

Abstract

Children’s Literature in Russia: Publishers’ Perspectives Olga Muravieva (bio), Angela Lebedeva (bio), and Anastasia Pimkina (bio) Translated by Tatiana Lukonina and Max Tompson In light of this special IBBY Congress issue that enlightens readers about Russian children’s literature, a series of questions has been posed to national publishers with regard to the growing market for children’s literature in Russia. The following conversation features: Vitaly Zyusko – the chief editor of the publishing house KompasGid Boris Kuznetsov – the director of the publishing house ROSMEN Olga Muravieva – Head of AST children’s department Sergey Tishkov – the head of the Mainstream editorial office of young adult literature (a division of AST) Irina Balakhonova – the editorial director of Samokat Publishing house Maria Melik-Pashayeva – cofounder and chief editor of Moscow publishing house of children’s literature Melik-Pashayev Elena Izmailova – the chief editor of CLEVER children’s book publishing house In your opinion, are trends in children’s literature publishing markedly different in Russia compared to other cultures? If so, how? Irina BALAKHONOVA: They are different just as Russian society is different from the West. We face a lot of taboos in conversations with children and have far more conservatism than in Western children’s book publishing. In Russia the words in a book are, as always, the center of attention; we’re a very word-centric country. “What’s there to read here?” is the most common question of even the most brilliant picturebooks and artists’ books in the largest bookstore on the Internet, Labyrinth. And people have a similar attitude toward illustrations; readers in Russia like very detailed, realistic, vivid illustrations. And, for example, the illustrations of the Russian avant-garde, which readers all over the world cherish and love, are practically unknown in Russia. [End Page 52] Maria MELIK-PASHAYEVA: Trends in Russia are different from foreign trends. Overseas the most popular kind of book for toddlers is a picture-book. In Russia, though, when they choose books for their children, parents often don’t understand picturebooks and prefer to see a lot of words. People in Russia don’t like overly contemporary drawing, unlike, say, in France. The Russian reader takes a more traditional view of illustrations. Boris KUZNETSOV: The direction in which children’s literary publishing is developing is, on the whole, similar to the one in Europe; the differences are connected above all with the slow process of updating the body of children’s literature and with the excessive influence of time-honored classics. Inert educational programs have supported these classics in their unchanging form for many years. Vitaly ZYUSKO: Based on our interactions with colleagues from foreign publishing houses, I get the impression that, all told, the situation is more or less the same worldwide: the number of books printed is commensurable, e-books are far from overtaking paper books in children’s and young adult literature, and people’s interest in audiobooks is growing steadily from year to year. If you take note of the specifics, however, I think they lie far outside the sphere of publishing as such. In Russia, children’s and young adult literature are held to very strict standards of what they should be, what they should contain, and so it’s often unthinkable to imagine the books for twelve-year-olds that are being published overseas being released in our country. Olga MURAVIEVA: Illustrated classics of domestic and foreign literature enjoy the same popularity as ever in Russia. Over the past few years in Russia, people have started showing interest in instructional and educational literature. And that, I think, is a notable phenomenon not only in Russia, but in the whole world. More and more often, the purchase of books is connected with education, and not with entertainment. In school, children read an equal amount of fiction and nonfiction books. Fantasy is the leading genre. Publications featuring augmented reality (AR) are gaining momentum despite the fact that publishing such books is several times more expensive than ordinary publishing. Sergey TISHKOV: Among youth, whom we primarily target, young adult literature is very popular, both in Russia and in other countries. We’re actively translating contemporary young adult literary fiction...