The Selangor International Book Fair (SIBF) is one of Malaysia’s largest and most vibrant annual book festivals, bringing together local and international publishers, authors, educators, and readers, while also serving as a growing regional hub for rights trading among publishers. Complementing this event, the National Book Award (Anugerah Buku Negara) is held yearly, organized by the Yayasan Pembangunan Buku Negara (National Book Development Foundation, YPBN). This is a prestigious Malaysian industry award that recognises excellence in publishing by honouring authors, publishers, editors, designers, and scholars, helping to elevate the quality of Malaysian books and promote a strong national reading and writing culture.
This year a bilingual (Hungarian-English) book won the award in the Best Translated Book category: Xantus and/es Borneo: A Hungarian naturalist in 19th century Sarawak, published by Sunway University Press. The editors / authors of the book, Associate Professor Dr Tamas Kiss (Sunway University), Associate Professor Dr Balazs Venkovits (University of Debrecen), and Mr Christopher Higgs (Goethe Perantis), explored the 1870 expedition of Janos Xantus who was collecting ethnography and natural history items for the Hungarian National Museum. Xantus’ texts have been translated for the first time into English, offering a unique perspective of Sarawak history from a time period with scarce surviving written records.
The book is a product of an ongoing collaboration between Sunway University, the leading private university in the ASEAN region, and the University of Debrecen.
