伦纳德•马库斯加盟群星出版社，出任特约编辑
发布时间：2020-08-20来源：出版人周刊作者：
新经典文化的美国子公司群星出版社（Astra Publishing House）聘请儿童文学领域专家伦纳德•马库斯先生（Leonard S. Marcus）担任特约编辑，以开拓该社，尤其是该社旗下子品牌mineditionUS的绘本选题。群星的书以英语、中文、法语、西班牙语、德语等多个语种在世界各地出版，该社希望通过马库斯的加盟，扩大其在国际童书领域的影响力，并在美国市场展现自己的特色。群星出版社已和企鹅兰登书屋达成伙伴关系，由企鹅兰登发行mineditionUS的图书，以获得更广泛的市场认知。
Astra Publishing House, the new company backed by Beijing-based Thinkingdom Media Group, has hired children’s literature expert Leonard S. Marcus as editor-at-large to help develop Astra’s children’s list, particularly picture books published under its mineditionUS imprint. With this move, the company, which publishes books in English, Chinese, French, Spanish, and German, hopes to both expand its reach into the international children’s book market and build up its presence in the U.S. Further extending its reach, Astra has partnered with Penguin Random House to distribute mineditionUS titles.
7月初，马库斯先生接受了这一新职务。他住在纽约的布鲁克林，以远程办公的方式为这家国际化出版公司工作。除了美国，群星出版社与设在中国内地和香港、瑞士、法国和德国的团队协同合作。
Marcus, who assumed his new responsibilities in early July, is working remotely from Brooklyn, where he lives, for the global publisher. Besides the U.S., Astra Publishing House has personnel working from mainland China, Hong Kong, Switzerland, France, and Germany.
群星出版社首席运营官本•史兰克（Ben Schrank）表示：“作为著名的历史学家、作家、评论家、策展人和公共教育家，伦纳德•马库斯带来了他在国际童书领域无出其右的知识和经验，这与群星出版社独特的全球视野相得益彰，也将帮助我们实现为每个孩子创造世界级图书的承诺。”
In a release, Astra Publishing House COO Ben Schrank stated, “As a renowned historian, author, critic, exhibition curator, and public educator, Leonard Marcus brings an unparalleled range of international children’s book knowledge and experience, which will further enhance Astra Publishing House’s unique global perspective and commitment to creating world-class books for every child.”
伦纳德•马库斯
mineditionUS的主编玛利亚•鲁索（Maria Russo）女士于今年5月加入群星，她向《出版人周刊》表示：“伦纳德是童书世界不折不扣的元老。他极其博学，又风趣，有冒险精神，总是准备着迎接新的挑战。我们在阅读中志趣相投，情感共通，对很多问题保持着同样的好奇。”
mineditionUS editorial director Maria Russo, who joined the company in May, told PW, “Leonard is practically an institution in the children’s book world. He’s incredibly erudite, but he’s also funny, adventurous, and always up for a new challenge. We laugh, we share a sensibility, we ask the same kinds of questions.”
马库斯目前与鲁索和minedition的创始人迈克尔•诺伊格鲍尔（Michael Neugebauer）紧密合作，从世界各地采选、编辑绘本。马库斯表示他已经协助mineditionUS引进了两部绘本的版权，一部来自西班牙，另一部来自哥伦比亚。他说：“我是通过一位西语世界的好友了解到这两部作品的。”除此以外，他没有透露这两部作品的更多信息。
Marcus is working with Russo and minedition founder Michael Neugebauer, who is based in Hong Kong, to acquire and edit picture books from around the world, and said he has already facilitated mineditionUS’s acquisition of two picture books. Marcus declined to provide more information, other than to note that one had been published originally in Spain and the other in Colombia. “I became aware of them through a good friend in the Spanish-language world,” he said.
马库斯还负责在美国、中国和其他地方组织推广绘本的公共项目，牵头开展与童书有关的各种特色项目。他承诺，之后“一个月左右”就会公布他加盟群星出版社后主持的第一个此类项目。马库斯说：“这个项目将吸引世界各地的童书作家。”
Marcus has also been tasked with hosting public programs promoting picture books in the U.S., China, and elsewhere, spearheading special projects revolving around children’s books. He promises that an announcement will be made in “a month or so” about his first such venture under Astra’s auspices. “It involves writers for children around the world,” Marcus said.
玛利亚•鲁索
尽管马库斯已创作30多本书，策划了大量儿童文学相关展览，在博洛尼亚和上海童书展发表过演讲，在出版界很有名气，但他还是头一次真正在出版行业工作。他告诉《出版人周刊》，这是一件他已然考虑过“一些时日”的事情。马库斯解释说，由于经常接触世界各地的出版人，他“总能听说”一些在其他国家出版的、且他认为也能在美国本土引起共鸣的书籍；他也结识了不少他认为适合美国读者阅读的国际作家和插画家。马库斯与鲁索相识多年，鲁索成为mineditionUS的主编后，两人讨论了马库斯与群星出版社合作的可能性，然后“一切都水到渠成”。
While Marcus, who has written more than 30 books, curated numerous exhibitions on children’s literature, and spoken at the Bologna and Shanghai children’s book fairs, is well known in publishing circles, this is the first time he has actually worked in the industry. It’s something that he had considered “for some time,” he told PW, explaining that due to his network of professional contacts around the world, he was “always hearing about” books published abroad that he thought would resonate stateside, and meeting international authors and illustrators whose work he considered appropriate for U.S. readers. After Russo, whom he has known for years, assumed the position of editorial director, the two discussed the possibilities for him with Astra, and “it just fell into place.”
“我非常欣赏（群星出版社）书目所展现出的国际性，”马库斯说，“出版业确实处在商业和文化之间的十字路口。在群星，我们巧妙地处理了这两者的关系；我们是在经营一项生意，也肩负对文化的责任。”
“I really love the international focus of [Astra’s] list,” Marcus said, “Publishing is really the crossroads between commerce and culture. At Astra, we’re playing it out in a beautiful way. There’s the commerce side, but there’s also the culture.”
鲁索说，mineditionUS旨在出版能引起美国孩子共鸣的国际作家、插画师的纸板书和绘本，以及美国作家和艺术家创作的能吸引全球读者的作品。她认为马库斯的专业知识和国内外人脉是实现这一使命的关键因素。
Russo said she considers Marcus’s expertise and contacts, both in the U.S. and abroad to be essential components in fulfilling mineditionUS’s mission of publishing board and picture books by international authors and illustrators that will resonate with children in the U.S., as well as books by U.S. authors and artists that will appeal on a global level.
“我们希望让美国孩子看到更多来自世界各地的图书，帮助他们成为世界公民，”她说，“我们也希望为minedition吸引更多的美国创作人才。我们寻觅的作家和艺术家，其作品既能在美国畅销，也具备吸引其他国家读者的巨大潜力。”
“We want to put more international books in the hands of American children to help them become global citizens,” she said. “We also want to bring American talent into the minedition model. We want to find authors and illustrators who we can publish well here and also have great potential for audiences abroad.”
mineditionUS不断发展
mineditionUS Moves Forward
加入群星三个多月，鲁索的首要任务是找到推广minedition老书的最好方式，让这些早先可能并未受到美国市场关注的图书“更多地被美国孩子看到”。她举例说，日本设计师米津佑介（Yusuke Yonezu）已经创作了十几部纸板书，“他是个天才，他的书在全球卖出了数百万册，但在美国影响不大。”mineditionUS即将在10月出版米津佑介最新的纸板书作品《分享》（Sharing）。“他的视觉风格非常干净、明亮，”鲁索说，“他将分享（这个概念）演绎得十分精彩。”
On the job for little more than three months, Russo’s first order of business has been strategizing on how best to promote the books on minedition’s backlist that may not have gained traction in the U.S. previously, with the goal of “[getting] more of these books into the hands of American children.” For instance, she said, Yusuke Yonezu, a Japanese graphic designer who has created about a dozen board books, “is a genius whose books have sold millions of copies around the world but haven’t caught on in the U.S.” mineditionUS is publishing Yonezu’s latest board book, Sharing, in October. “His visual style is so clean, so bright,” Russo said, “He makes [the concept of] sharing seem so amazing.”
鲁索还希望在美国市场推出意大利艺术家朱里安诺•费里（Giuliano Ferri）于2016年出版的《一块砖的力量》（Brick by Brick）及其纸板书新作《化装舞会》（Masquerade Party，预计10月上市）。她说：“我们希望每个学龄前的孩子都能拥有这本纸板书（《一块砖的力量》），它告诉我们应该共同搭建桥梁而非墙壁。费里的纸板书比其他常见的纸板书更胜一筹。”
Russo also hopes to promote Giuliano Ferri’s Brick by Brick, a 2016 release, along with the Italian artist’s newest board book, Masquerade Party (Oct.), explaining, “We want every preschooler to have this board book about working together to build bridges instead of walls. His board books are a cut above typical board books.”
mineditionUS在鲁索加入群星前已计划发布13本秋季新书。鲁索策划的第一本书《国王的金胡子》（The King’s Golden Beard），将于明年1月发行。这本书是由比利时艺术家克拉斯•菲尔普朗克（Klaas Verplancke）创作的，描绘了“一个自行其是、无视科学的专制暴君”。鲁索称其是“很棒的朗读素材”，“画面生动”并且“诙谐”。
There will be 13 frontlist releases on mineditionUS’s fall list, which was scheduled before Russo came on board. In January, Russo’s first acquisition will be released: The King’s Golden Beard by Belgian artist Klaas Verplancke, about “a tyrannical ruler who is ego-driven and ignores science.” Russo describes it as a “good read-aloud” that is also “graphically exciting” and “visually witty.”
虽然纽约现代艺术博物馆在2016年出版了菲尔普朗克的非虚构绘本《玛格丽特的苹果》（Magritte's Apple），但鲁索将《国王的金胡子》视为菲尔普朗克在美国出版的“故事处女作”。这本由mineditionUS推出的图书，也会标示鲁索出品；其后mineditionUS的新书将均以mineditionUS/Maria Russo Books的名义推出。除了《国王的金胡子》，2021年的春季新书还包括绘本《小穿山甲》（Pangolina），这本书由迈克尔•诺伊格鲍尔策划，珍•古道尔（Jane Goodall）撰写故事，中国插画家马岱姝绘制插图。穿山甲濒临灭绝，最近曾被误传为新型冠状病毒的宿主。
While the Museum of Modern Art published Verplancke’s nonfiction picture book, Magritte’s Apple, in 2016, Russo regards The King’s Golden Beard as Verplancke’s “American storytelling debut.” The book will also introduce Russo’s imprint within the mineditionUS imprint; it and subsequent mineditionUS books will be released as mineditionUS/Maria Russo Books. Besides The King’s Golden Beard, the spring 2021 list will include a picture book acquired by Neugebauer, Pangolina, written by Jane Goodall and illustrated by Chinese artist Daishu Ma, about pangolins, an endangered species of anteaters recently demonized as carriers of the new coronavirus.
鲁索说，2021年春季书单里的五本书“真的代表了很多我想要通过mineditionUS实现的事情”。在儿童文学领域，尤其是有关环境和其他全球性问题的图书里，“某些跨文化议题需要敏感而细致的处理”。尽管未提供具体信息，鲁索透露，一些“在新冠病毒流行的背景下引发共鸣”的书籍将被囊括在未来的书单中。她与同事诺伊格鲍尔和马库斯正在确定2022年春、秋季的新书目录，预计这两个出版旺季会各发布9-10本新书。
The five books on the spring 2021 list, Russo said, “really represent a lot that I want to be doing” at mineditionUS. “Certain things across cultures call out for sensitive treatment” in children’s literature, particularly books on the environment and other issues of global concern. While not providing specifics, Russo disclosed that books “that resonate in the context of the pandemic” will be included on future lists. She and her colleagues, Neugebauer and Marcus, currently are working on acquisitions for the spring fall 2022, anticipating nine or 10 frontlist releases during each of those seasons.
在立足当下、展望mineditionUS的未来时，鲁索特别指出，群星出版社在出版欧亚作家和艺术家的童书作品方面已经做得很好。而在为美国市场引进和出版图书时，鲁索希望能拓展至传统欧亚市场之外——比如发掘南美、伊朗和非洲的作品。
Reflecting upon the present, as well as the future of mineditionUS, Russo noted that Astra already “has Europe and Asia well covered” in terms of publishing children’s books by authors and artists residing on those two continents. She hopes to move beyond Europe and Asia in acquiring and publishing books for the U.S. market—places like South America, Iran, and Africa.
“我们正在逐步建立与创作者的联系，不断寻找好的项目。”她说，“伊朗有着强盛的童书传统。许多（伊朗艺术家）在困难的条件下创作。我们希望能尽快将伊朗作家/插画家的作品加进mineditionUS的书单。”
“We’re slowly building on our connections and looking for good projects,” she said. “There’s a strong tradition of children’s books in Iran. Many [Iranian creatives] work under difficult conditions. We’re looking to add an Iranian author-illustrator on our list very soon.”
