The Frankfurt Invitation Programme

Imagnary House is boutique South African publisher specialising in imaginative children's picture books, but also representing a range of other children's and YA literature. Their focus is to publish high-quality imaginative youth fiction and non-fiction that is non-didactic and celebrates story and character over message. Founded in 2016, Imagnary House has produced many popular titles, such as Hello, Trees, Bonbon and Blanket, Listen to Your Diddalum, Chalk Giraffe and What a Wonderful World This Can Be.
Finding homes across the world, many of our titles have been translated into several languages, including Spanish, German, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, French, Italian, Turkish, and more.

Editions Ganndal was founded in 1992. The catalogue of its publications includes textbooks, children's books and youth literature, general literature and publications in national languages. Up to this moment, they have published 478 titles.

The publishing house has developed an extensive network of South-South and North-South editorial collaborations and co-publications mainly with publishers in the French-speaking world (Africa, Europe and Canada).
Ganndal was the recipient of the Prize for the best African publisher of children's books-BOP 2017 awarded by the international children's book fair in Bologna (Italy).

Mamadou Aliou Sow is also the manager and promoter of the Conakry International Children's Book Fair.

AGO Media, based in Lomé, is a young independent company created by writers and illustrators for the production and distribution of comic books and animated films. More than a multimedia publishing house, AGO media is also a communication agency and a production and distribution company for books and films. AGO media wants to fill the gap of the lack of a publishing house specializing in the publication of children's books and comics in Africa.
Despite the small print runs, a special effort is made to have books within reach of all budgets. In order to publish only on account of the publisher, the company favors work commissioned by NGOs and international organizations.

Ouida Books, founded in 2016 in Lagos, Nigeria describes itself as “one of the newest kids on the block”.
Its objective is to cater to the needs of readers who enjoy high quality fiction by publishing authors like Nnedi Okorafor, Ayobami Adebayo, Odafe Atogun and Hadiza El-rufai. However, they also address readers who have a quirky taste in books. The imprints of Ouida Books are Ouida Books, Cognix, Tanja and Tivani.

Dar al Saqi is an independent publishing house based in Beirut. Founded in 1990, their books cover various subjects including children's and young adult for ages between 3 and 18. Saqi won many international awards such as “Etisalat Award for Children” and “The International Prize for Arabic Fiction”.
Many titles have been translated into other languages. Saqi is always present in the exhibitions and collaborate constantly with schools.

Aser Al-Kotob was founded in 2014 and, since then, has published around 300 original Arabic titles, as well as 70 translated titles.
The mission of the publishers started already years earlier when they began communicating with their readers via a Facebook group. Their aim is to facilitate the readers' journey and make it easier for them to be in contact with their favourite authors. By establishing the publishing house, they helped their readers in buying their preferred books and find them in every bookstore.

TUTI Books, based in Tehran, Iran, is solely dedicated to publishing high-quality content for children and young adults across the world. TUTI’s endeavors in this regard are backed by Iran’s rich history of culture and literature, which has always had a tremendous amount to offer. TUTI Books is a very active publishing house in Iran, but also on a global scale. Moreover, introducing world literature to Iranian children and young adults is a big part of TUTI’s mission.
TUTI is the Persian word for “Parrot”, a bird that is rooted deeply in Iranian literature and is known for uttering fascinating stories.

Afterhours Books is an independent publisher for art, culture, design, lifestyle, nature, and wisdom. Since 2010, they aim to enrich life and viewpoints with well-written, inspiring, sensually appealing premium books. The publishing house has produced and published more than 100 titles - including international award-winning books - .
They are exploring new ways of publishing by collaboration with communities of journalists, writers, photographers and marketers to come up with innovative ideas.

Fabula Publishing House started operating in Azerbaijan (Baku) in 2019. The main goal of the publishing house is to translate the best examples of world literature into Azerbaijani and to enhance readership in the country.
Some famous translated titles into Azerbaijani are “Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982” by Cho Nam-Joo, “Everything I Never Told You” by Celeste Ng, “O vendedor de passados” by José Eduardo Agualusa, “Cuore” by Edmondo De Amicis.

Difference Engine is an independent comics publisher based in Singapore. Founded in 2018, they are inspired by stories from Asia.
The publishing house is committed to offer diverse, well-written, and beautifully illustrated comics and graphic novels in print and digital that span all genres and age groups. They love to work with writers and illustrators, both new and experienced, to contribute to the growing Southeast Asian comics community.

Art1st, based in India, was founded in 2009 with the goal of advocating visual art education as a core discipline in public and private schools, museum education, and community-based settings.
Art1st publishes books on Indian modern and contemporary artists to build cultural knowledge for children. In its Art Exploration series, Art1st is collaborating with Kiran Nadar Museum of Art. The books in this series includes “Somnath Hore: Wounds”, “Raza's Bindu” and “Ambadas' Dancing Brush”. The books have won several Indian and international awards.

Cataplum Libros, founded in 2016, is a small independent publishing house based in Colombia and distributed in many countries in Latin America.
The publishing line is focused on picture books and illustrated books for children and bases on topics such as collective memory and Latin American roots. They have published 25 titles and some of them, like El zorro Chuleta, have been translated into French and Korean language.

Alboroto Ediciones is a Mexican publishing house for young adults and children. They were founded in 2018 as a teamwork proposal. Thus, all the creatives are a fundamental part of the enterprise. The books are meant to disrupt through images to provoke a reaction.
The books talk about several topics, yet they are focused on a social context: dictatorship, exile, disappearances, social integration, disabilities, among others, but always from an aesthetic and poetic point of view. They publish every year from 12 to 15 original titles. Rights have been sold to: USA, France, Italy, Japan, Korea, Spain and Latin America. So far, the publishing house has bought rights from Portugal, Italy, and France.

Limonero is an independent Argentine imprint dedicated, committed—even hellbent—on publishing and disseminating illustrated books. Founded in 2014 by Lulu Kirschenbaum and Manuel Rud, Limonero publishes works that are imaginative and innovative both visually and textually. The drive behind Limonero has always been to build a catalogue of titles that the publishers consider indispensable to readers little and large, to bring the illustrated book to readers of all ages.
Among other awards and mentions, Limonero received the BOP Prize, the award for Best Latin American Publisher, at the 2019 Bologna Children’s Book Fair.

ÔZé Editora, founded in 2011 in São Paulo, Brazil, focuses on titles in the children's book segment. The publisher mostly publishes Brazilian authors and illustrators and has more than 40 titles in its catalogue.
In recent years, Ôzé Editora has been recognized through awards, having won in 2019 the most prestigious Brazilian award, the Jabuti, in the Children's Book category, with the title "The Yellow Grandmother" and in 2021 with the title "Sagatrissuinorana", also winner of the in the Book of the Year category. The title "The Yellow Grandmother" was also awarded the White Ravens Prize, from the International Youth Library in Munich.

Ediciones Loynaz was founded on July 1991 in Pinar del Rio, Cuba. The publishing house focusses on a wide range of titles from different segments such as children’s literature, poetry, historical literature and fiction.
Among the most outstanding titles published by Ediciones Loynaz are the complete literary works of Dulce Maria Loynaz, Cervantes Prize winner, as well as others from well-known Cuban writers.

LEGS EDITION is an independent literary publishing house founded in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in 2012. The objective of the publishing house is to support and promote authors and to make the Haitian book market more dynamic. Specializing in the reissue of classic literary texts, it focuses on a wide range of titled in segments such as children’s books, contemporary authors, fiction, and essays. They also publish a literary journal to increase reflection on literature.
LEGS EDITION believes that books can change people, humanize, save, help to be better and have a better vision about life and give the key to the world as a better place to live.

Prozart Media, founded 2015 in Skopje, is focused on a wide range of titles in segments such as fiction, YA and children literature. It has also translated some famous titles into Macedonian language, such as books by most famous writers from Balkan – Danilo Kis, Slavenka Drakulic, Miljenko Jergovic, Svetislav Basara.
Prozart media is the organizer of the International Literature Festival PRO-ZA Balkan and of the Skopje fellowship program.

Vovkulaka Publishing House was founded in 2017. The main direction is the publication of graphic novels by Ukrainian authors, as well as European and American titles. The main direction is the publication of fantastic, mystical, fairy-tale and fantasy stories for an adult audience.
However, at the same time we are developing the direction of children's comics, including educational. Among the famous works we have translated are such series as "Hellboy", "The Witcher", "Metabarons" and "From Hell".