1April 18 and 19, 2024
FILBo invites international scholarship holders who wish to visit the International Business Fair to establish long-term commercial relationships with their Colombian counterparts, with the aim of making Colombian publishing production known abroad. Fellows must be entrepreneurs with a track record and specialized knowledge of the Spanish-language rights market.
IIf you are interested in this program for FILBo 2025, please fill out the followingform.
Fellows selected for 2024
Carmen Pinilla
Aragó & Pinilla (Berlin/Barcelona)
Areas of interest: literature; nonfiction; graphic novels.
She is a literary scout. After receiving his doctorate in American Studies and German Literature from the University of Munich, he began his career in the publishing industry as a sub-agent. From 2000 onwards, she managed translation rights at the Carmen Balcells Literary Agency. In 2008 he co-founded Aragó & Pinilla, a literary scouting company based in Barcelona and Berlin that advises its clients -a dozen international publishers- on the translation, contracting and publication of books in their markets.
Carolina Orloff
Charco Press (Edinburgh, Scotland)
https://charcopress.com/
Areas of interest: literature; books for children and young people.
Writer, translator, and researcher of Latin American literature. In 2016, after obtaining her PhD in Latin American Literature from the University of Edinburgh, she created Charco Press where she serves as editorial director. It is the only publishing house in the English-speaking world dedicated to the publication of contemporary Latin American authors. For her work in publishing, Carolina was awarded Editor of the Year (2018) by the Saltire Society of Scotland. In 2023 he was part of the jury of the TA First Translation Prize of the Society of Authors of the United Kingdom, and of the prestigious Alfaguara Novel Prize.
Jacoba Casier
De Geus (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
https://www.singeluitgeverijen.nl/de-geus/
Areas of interest: literature; nonfiction.
She holds a degree in Romance Philology and European Studies. She began her career as a literary agent in Barcelona at the Guillermo Schavelzon agency. After returning to the Netherlands, she has worked as an acquisitions editor at Signatuur and, for several years now, at De Geus, where she has been translating fiction and non-fiction. De Geus was founded in 1983 with a clear progressive orientation and is one of the most important publishing houses in the Netherlands. It belongs to the Singel publishing group (Arbeiderspers and Nijgh & Van Ditmar).
James Tookey
Peirene (Bath, United Kingdom)
https://www.peirenepress.com/
Areas of interest: literature.
He is co-editor of Peirene Press and also works for the Orwell Foundation, managing the UK·s most prestigious awards for writing and political fiction. He assumed management of Peirene at the end of 2021. He holds a BA in Comparative Literature from the University of Kent and an MA in English Literature from the University of Geneva. Peirene is an award-winning independent publisher that translates into English and publishes 7-10 books a year, including titles from Brazil, Egypt, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and Thailand. They have published books from more than 25 countries and 20 different languages.
Nathan Matos
Editora Moinhos
https://editoramoinhos.com.br/
Areas of interest: literature; nonfiction; graphic novels.
Doctorate in Modern and Contemporary Literature from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). Nathan Malos has been working in literature for 20 years. With 11 years of experience in the publishing market, he was one of the founders of Editora Substânsia, where he remained for 5 years. In 2016 he founded Moinhos, from where he has published national and foreign works in the genres of poetry, short stories and novels, with a focus on Latin American works. He is also one of the editors of Moby Dick, a comic book publisher founded in 2022.
Rita Mattar
Editora Fósforo
https://www.peirenepress.com/
Areas of interest: literature; nonfiction; poetry.
Founding partner of the publishing house Fósforo. Studied law at the University of São Paulo (USP), with a postgraduate degree in psychoanalysis at the Catholic University Sedes Sapientiae and a master·s degree in comparative literature and literary theory from USP. Editor with more than 12 years of experience in the publishing industry. She worked as editor and rights manager for Companhia das Letras (Penguin Random House group); as editorial director of Três Estrelas Press and as head of development and acquisitions at film production company RT Features.
Sherif Ismail Bakr
Al Arabi Publishing and Distributing (Cairo, Egypt)
https://alarabipublishing.com.eg/
Areas of interest: literature; nonfiction.
Faculty of Economics and Political Science graduate with a major in Economics and a minor in Computer Science. Sherif Bakr has been working in the publishing sector since 1997 and has been a member of several committees and boards related to the cultural sector and the publishing industry in his country. Al Arabi Publishing and Distributing was founded in 1975, and over the past 13 years has launched a #Different_Books series with over 400 titles from 65 countries. Sherif Bakr has been a speaker and lecturer at numerous conferences and book fairs.
