The Frankfurt Invitation Programme

Afram Publications was founded in 1974, based on the idea by the writer and cultural activist, Mrs. Efua T. Sutherland of establishing an indigenous publishing house in Ghana. Afram Publication is specialized in publishing materials for pre-school and basic education in Ghana. The special focus is the development of local authorship especially in children’s books. The publication segments include children literature, folklore, literary fiction, poetry, drama, textbooks, local language translations and others.

Modjaji Books is a small, independent, feminist publishing company, that started in 2007 in Cape Town. The name Modjaji refers to the Rain Queen in the north: South Africa is dry, and rain is important. Modjaji publishes southern African women writers, mainly novels, short stories, memoirs, narrative non-fiction, and poetry. The publishing house fills a gap by providing a platform for serious ground-breaking writing by new and established women writers with brave voices. In the sixteen years of existence, they have published nearly 200 titles. Modjaji is member of the International Alliance of Independent Publishers in 2014. The connections and solidarity have sustained Modjaji, especially during the pandemic years.

The publishing company from Lagos, Nigeria, was founded in 2012 by Azafi Omoluabi and Richard Ali. Their objective was to publish books by first-time authors, to sell books to the Nigerian reading audience, and to promote the freedom of the imagination and the free press.
Parrésia started out intending to give a voice to writers who have never been heard on the Nigerian publishing scene.
In 2016, Parrésia won the NLNG Prize for Literature, its first award with Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s “Season of Crimson Blossoms”.
In 2017, Parrésia Publishers was described by The New York Times as one of “a handful of influential new publishing houses” in Africa in the last decade.
Parrésia publishes its fiction, and creative non-fiction works under three imprints: Regium is our traditional publishing imprint, Origami Books, for all genres of writing for clients interested in self-publishing or vanity publishing, and Ọmọde Mẹta, is our traditional publishing and self-publishing imprint, which will publish Children’s Books and Young Adult fiction.

Amalion is a Dakar-based independent multilingual scholarly publisher established in 2009 with the mission to disseminate innovative knowledge on Africa to strengthen the understanding of humanity. Amalion provides a platform for authors to express new, alternative, and daring perspectives and views on people, places, and issues shaping our world through monographs, non-fiction and literary writings for scholars, students, and general readers with an interest in the humanities and the social sciences on Africa.

Founded in 2012 by Bebel Abreu, Bebel Books is an independent publishing house that publishes illustration, comics, printmaking, calligraphy, photography, and other graphic expressions. The publishing house has published more than 80 titles from Brazil and abroad and strives to occupy the narrative space with constructive and critical content. BbB has participated in fairs in Brazil, Mexico, and the UK, and at Fiesta Gráfica, a Latin American graphic arts exhibition in Paris. Seeking to contribute to contemporary discussions, BbB launches “The seven lives of Jouralbo the cat”, an optimistic children's book by iconic artist Allan Sieber, and prepares an anthology with 11 invited women cartoonists about toxic masculine behavior: “Boy Dodói”.

Libros de la Araucaria S.A. was founded in December 2003 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Its editions, curation of content and meticulous design of covers and interiors make booksellers and readers take note of each new release or reprinting. The publications belong to a wide range of genres such as Literature, Anthropology, Philosophy, Social Sciences, Politics and Study on Religions, not ruling out the possibility of exploring others. Libros de la Araucaria S.A. is a member of the Argentine Publishers Association and the Alliance of Independent Publishers.

Editorial El Cuervo is an independent publisher, founded in La Paz, Bolivia, with 90 titles published in its catalogue, focused on narrative, non-fiction, essays, poetry, and illustrated books for children and adults. El Cuervo has featured prominent Bolivian and foreign authors and has made translations from German, French, Portuguese, and Maltese that it distributes in part of Latin America and Spain. Together with other Latin American publishers, the publishing house collaborates with “América Independiente”, a non-fiction award. El Cuervo has won design and editorial production awards in Bolivia and abroad.

The Chilean publishing house was founded in 2010. La Pollera began by rescuing works by classic authors of Chilean literature, whose books were difficult to access. From that, the publishing house began to build a catalog that includes narrative, essay, and chronicle of contemporary and classic authors, and, afterwards, to explore the work with foreign authors, both in contemporary Latin American narrative and in the translation of some universal classic authors. La Pollera has also linked up with the academic world, forming a line of science and humanities communication books and non-fiction that allows to reflect on the present from different disciplines. Now, with more than 90 published titles, the publishing house wants to continue finding new readers and to contribute to bibliodiversity.

Cohete Cómics is a graphic novel imprint from Colombia founded in 2016. It celebrates comics as a groundbreaking and disruptive art form. The publishing house has published 18 titles by creators from Colombia, México, Perú, Argentina, USA, and France. Four of those are translations: three from English and one from French. Their interests are an author-centered fiction and documentary and autobiographical comics. Cohete is the co-sponsor with the Institute of Arts of Bogotá (IDARTES) of the Graphic Narrative Award - Ciudad de Bogotá.

Elefanta Editorial is a publishing house founded in 2011 in Mexico City. Elefanta publishes fiction, non-fiction, poetry, illustrated books and sometimes photobooks. The publishing house works with books from distinct origins: new Mexican voices in, diverse creations from the world, and believes in ideas and its circulation. Elefanta alludes to the Elephanta's wind, which with its entry closes the monsoon and gives fertility to the territory it flies over. The winds are constant but subtle, they have linked the world, they did it when they connected the continents by powering the sails of the adventurers who explored them: that is the spirit of Elefanta.

YZness is a dynamic startup publishing house that blossomed in the heart of Beirut, Lebanon in 2019. As a creative cooperative, YZness passionately champion artistic freedom and self-expression, offering innovative books and life-learning tools for children aged 3+ to 9+, celebrating the beauty of neurodiversity. Specializing in high-quality children's books, YZness fosters creativity and sustainability through contemporary art and literature. Their diverse range includes artistic books, picture books, and fiction, currently available in English and soon expanding to French and Arabic. YZness strives to revitalize the Lebanese community's cultural life and facilitate self-growth, aiming to bring joy and empower young readers through insightful knowledge and self-learning tools. YZness, The House of Wisdom, is dedicated to children, inspired by children.

Naqesh was founded in Rojava, Syria in 2019. Naqesh (Nexş/Neqş/نقش), is a common word between the Kurdish and Arabic languages, and one of its meanings is engraving. Humans have started writing and expressing their opinions and perceptions through inscriptions. For Naqesh translations from various languages into Kurdish and Arabic have a great importance, because a translation can be an important gateway to convergence between cultures, especially in times of wars and divergence between people, especially in the Middle East. Based on the idea that there should exist translations between Kurdish and Arabic, the publishing house is translating, for example, the works of the Iraqi writer Bachtyar Ali, because its content can open new horizons to readers from abroad. The publishing house has exclusive rights to translate some books into Kurdish and Arabic, e.g. "The Daughter of Kobani" by Gayle Tzmach Lemmon and "Ataturk in The Nazi Imagination" by Stefan Ihrig.

Flites Editions is a publishing house based in Medea, near Algiers – Algeria. It was founded in 2007 by Daoud FLITES, and publishes books in three languages, Arabic, English and French. The publishing house is committed to providing high-quality books to the Algerian market by collaborating with some of the biggest publishing companies all over the world, and also by cooperating with very experienced professional editors and illustrators. Flites is planning to publish books in other languages like German and Spanish in the near future.

Newmag company was established in 2007. For more than 10 years it has been publishing a magazine with the same name. In March 2018, the company decided to cease the publication of the magazine and change its path focusing on book publishing. Newmag positioned itself as a publishing house focused on publishing non-fiction & fiction literature with very active promotion of their books. Within 5 years, Newmag has become one of the 3 largest and influential publishing houses in Armenia. In 2021, Newmag decided to hold a big book festival to encourage and promote reading. Newmag Summer Fest 2021 became the first big event organized by the team which was attended by 3000 people. In the same year, Newmag Reader's Prize was announced, which aimed to promote reading books. The winner of the prize receives all of Newmag's newly published books till the end of that year.

NDSP was founded in 2003 and publishes poetry, fiction, non-fiction, picture books and translated books. In twenty years, they have published more than four hundred books. NDSP’s right to publish was suspended by The Board of Censors in 2012, due to publishing of a fiction novel based on political background. Nevertheless, the new government in the same year shut down The Board of Censors and NDSP’s was granted again with the right to publish. NDSP is one of few publishing companies in Myanmar that purchases copyright materials from international writers for the purpose of translation. NDSP was one of the finalists of Freedom to Publish award by IPA in 2014. NDSP launched the Imprint Yoke Pya that focusses on Comics and Picture Books. In 2023, NDSP plans to expand into the audio book business and digital book publishing in Myanmar.

Iranban is a multi‑award‑winning, independent children’s book publishing company based in Teheran, Iran, with more than 500 titles published. Their objective is to provide children and young adults with best quality books. They began publishing child-focused books in 2000 with the aim of creating books that encourage children to read for pleasure and entertainment, as well as reaching awareness and knowledge. Iranban publishes high-quality, commercial fiction and non-fiction books for children and young adults. The publishing house emphasizes in creating well-designed books and gives a lot of thought to the covers and the type and weight of the paper.
Iranban has translated many books that have been successful around the world, and they have a strong understanding of global markets. They cooperate with Penguin Random House, Bloomsbury, S. Fischer Verlag, Arena Verlag, Bonnier Media and Simon & Schuster.

Komiket Inc. is a non-profit organization in the Philippines that started organizing comic art markets since 2015, then published comic anthologies in 2017 to promote independent comic creators to the general public. During the pandemic, Komiket opened an online bookstore to make local comics available nationwide, and pivoted to publishing more graphic novel titles, such as the Official Selection of the Philippine International Comics Festival (PICOF) to grow readership for independent comics. Following an indie film festival format, the selected PICOF titles are developed in a Creator’s Lab, and launched in time for the online festival, which connected local readers to creators, publishers, and comics festivals from around the world.
Komiket already has some important awards such like National Children’s Book Awards (2022), Filipino Reader’s Choice Award (2022), or the National Book Award for Best Graphic Novel (2022 and 2023).