#FreeAllWords: International Text and Translation Fund of the European Writers‘ Council (EWC) gives a voice to authors from Belarus and Ukraine
Over 60 delegates from around the globe will attend the 14th International PLR Conference in Brussels from 12th to 14th of September 2023.
The conference will be hosted in the “House of European Authors” (Maison Européenne des Auteurs et des Autrices, MEDAA), also the home of EWC and EVA, two of the standing members of the PLR International Steering Committee. The Conference is supported by IFRRO, Stichting Leenrecht, and Reprobel.
After the welcome by the Belgian Minister for Culture and Media, Mrs. Bénédicte Linard, the renowned author Joanne Harris (“Chocolate”), President of EWC member The Society of Authors (UK), will present her version of an “ideal reading society” and what conditions are necessary to achieve it. The subsequent discussion panels on both days of the conference will focus on three main aspects: (1) the state of PLR in Europe and the world, (2) the legal frameworks that need to be improved or enforced, and (3) the triangle of the author-reader-library relationship and what future frameworks are needed to make these relationships sustainable, equitable and effective.
EWC President Miguel Ángel Serrano will give an overview of the current remuneration situation in Europe in a keynote speech on the first day of the conference.
The second day of the conference will be moderated by Nina George, Political Commissioner and EWC’s President of Honour.
About PLR International:
The Network of Authors’, Publishers’, Visual Artists’ and CMOs organisations exists since 1995 to encourage closer contacts between PLR systems across the world, but also provides a means to press for the introduction of PLR in countries where authors do not yet benefit from payments for the lending out of their books by public libraries. The EWC is since 2015 one of the standing members of the steering committee. The PLRI was founded by Jim Parker, Head of the UK’s Public Lending Right (PLR) office from 1991 to 2014.
To the updated program draft of the 14th PLR International Conference:
PLR_International.com/23/program
MEDAA, Rue du Prince Royal 85/87, 1050 Brussels
Please note: Registrations were closed on 1st of August.