Despite its modernity, Qatar's private publishing houses evaluate their success at the Doha International Book Fair

Imad Murad - Doha

Despite the short time period in which private Qatari publishing houses appeared, the CEO of Rosa Publishing House, Aisha Jassem Al-Kuwari, believed that these houses contributed to enriching the Arab Library with many books and presenting the names of new authors who will have a great imprint in the future.

During the thirtieth edition of the Doha International Book Fair - which concluded its activities on Saturday - Aisha Al-Kuwari was keen to attend inside the booth of the house with a large group of authors and writers of the house to supervise direct dialogue between the public and these young authors, considering that the discussions that take place daily between the public and its authors It is of great benefit to these young people and allows them to follow direct reactions to their intellectual production.

Al-Kuwari believes that public opinion polling on the intellectual product is not of great importance to the author only, but also to the publishing house, stressing that the Rosa House, which is the first private Qatari publishing house, sees participation in the exhibition as an opportunity to find out the results of a whole year of production and work in an effort to enrich the cultural scene in Qatar.

Rosa House participated in the Doha Book Fair with 115 titles, including 49 new publications in various fields of children's literature and adolescents, novels and short stories, as well as poetry, prose, articles, human development and studies, and took the most important pillars of the exhibition as the seat of its pavilion, which witnessed daily the signing of many Qatari authors of their publications Modern.

The senior official of the "Rosa" publishing house, in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net, adds that the house raises the slogan "Qatar writes ... Qatar reads" and strives to achieve the goal of this slogan not only during the days of the Doha Book Fair but throughout the year.

Heritage suite
Not far from the House of Rosa, the "Lusail House" suite, whose design was derived from the Qatari heritage, was the heritage complex that included a presentation of some Qatari manuscripts dating back to the era of the founder of the State of Qatar, Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani. Aldar participated in the exhibition with about 126 variants published by Qatari, Arab and foreign writers. It also displays and distributes many writers and Arab and foreign publishing houses.

Khaled Mubarak Al-Dulaimi, Managing Director of Al-Wasil, who took her name from the Qatari historical city known by the same name, believes that the house achieved in a short period a great presence in the largest Arab and international exhibitions and has become one of the most important Arab publishing institutions that bear the issues of Arab culture and its concerns and civilizational questions with its interest in the Arab writer, And its commitment to seek cultural mobility.

Al-Dulaimi adds that Lusail House has recently released a series of creations of senior Qatari and Arab writers, as it is based on its societal role in contributing to building a generation of intellectuals and provided all means of support for beginners with talent, and helped them achieve their ambition to publish their works, indicating that the great turnout On the pavilion of the home from visitors to the book exhibition indicates that the house has made great strides in reaching readers inside Qatar despite being only the second participation in the exhibition.

Knowledge platform
Al-Dulaimi considers, in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net, that the Doha Book Fair is a platform to spread knowledge and awareness, pointing out that each copy of the exhibition has its own character that distinguishes it, and that the thirtieth edition was distinguished by the emergence of the French character, given that France is the guest of honor of the exhibition on the occasion of the "Cultural Year Qatar - France" 2020 ".

As for Katara Publishing House, it participated in the exhibition with about 150 titles that included novels, poetry collections, critical and linguistic studies, biographies and translations, as well as many books on Qatari heritage, including maritime heritage, the show “Do Qatar”, folk crafts, and traditional Qatar ships, in addition to To many books dealing with Qatari history.

The pavilion also included a selection of Arabic novels that received the Katara Prize for Arabic Novel during the previous sessions of the award, whether winning the category of published novels or winning the category of unpublished novels, in addition to a number of books specialized in literary studies and criticism.

Among the emerging roles in the publishing world is the “Wedad” house, which participated this year in the exhibition, which is at the beginning of the publishing path, and presented a group of 35 publications, and the house provided a diverse cultural program, as well as the signatures of a number of books during the exhibition days.

The participation of the Qatar publishing houses comes within 335 publishing houses from 31 countries around the world, during the exhibition that concluded its activities at the Doha Convention Center yesterday, and included 797 pavilions over an area of ​​29 thousand square meters.