Sasha Alyson Brings Books to Laos
By Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 12/6/2007 8:20:00 AM
Many people who live in Laos—the landlocked southeast Asian country that borders Myanmar, China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand—have never seen a book. Children in most villages read nothing except 
textbooks (and often not even that), and few books are published in the Lao language. But Sasha Alyson, who founded the groundbreaking gay press Alyson Publications (now Alyson Books) in 1980, is trying to change all that. His publishing company/literary organization, Big Brother Mouse, published 30 Laotian children’s books in its first year (2006), and continues to publish new books while developing ways to get books into rural villages that never had them.
Alyson, who sold Alyson Publications in 1995 and started an outdoor travel company, Alyson Adventures, which he sold in 2002, first went to Laos in 2003. He made friends with local college students who were eager to practice their English and wanted to do something with their lives but, according to Alyson, “had no idea what the options were, no mentor, and certainly no funds.” Alyson also noticed he never saw a book in Laos, “only some recycled airplane reading from [and] for tourists.” He got the idea for a publishing program on that trip.
Big Brother Mouse published its first five books, all aimed at making reading fun for young children, in March 2006. It published the books in cooperation with Dokked, a publisher out of Laos’s capital, Vientiane, but soon got the licenses to publish books under its own name. Alyson serves as “volunteer advisor” to Big Brother Mouse, while Khamla Panyasouk, a Laotian born in 1983, is owner and publisher. Big Brother Mouse now has shops and offices in three Laotian cities: Vientiane, Luang Prabang and Luang Namtha. It prints its books in Vientiane; the usual print run is 6,000, which Alyson expects to last from two to three years. Big Brother Mouse currently has seven titles ready to submit for government approval, then printing, as soon as it finds sponsors. (Government approval is required for all books. Although the Ministry of Information and Culture sometimes requests changes, they have never denied approval.)
Big Brother Mouse books are written by a mixture of sources. Local young people, especially college students, have written traditional stories, and some other simple books like alphabet books, and Alyson has written some of the books. The house has translated some works in the public domain (Dr. Doolittle, Sherlock Holmes, The Wizard of Oz) and has received permission to translate and print a Lao edition of Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl.
In explaining Big Brother Mouse’s publishing model, Alyson pointed out that Laos doesn't have the same profit-nonprofit classifications as the U.S. “The best way to set up the program was as a business, with a local Lao owner, but recognizing that while we hope it will one day function as a business, in a country where the average annual income is about $400 USD, while the cost of printing books is not much less than elsewhere, it will be some years before that happens.” So for now, publishing and literacy are all part of the same effort. Alyson and his colleagues ask people to sponsor book parties and mini-libraries in villages across Laos. At the book parties, Big Brother Mouse staffers (usually aged 19 to 22) visit a village and discuss books with anywhere from 80 to 200 local children. They engage them in creative writing activities and give each child a book to bring home, which may eventually make its way into the village’s small library.
For the first year of Big Brother Mouse's existence, Alyson donated nearly all of the money for printing, largely with money from his sale of Alyson Publications. I think potential donors find it assuring that I've put my own money into the project," he said. The donations Big Brother Mouse solicits go toward purchasing books for villages, and paying part of the printing costs for books. Alyson said most donors are individuals who visited a Big Brother Mouse shop, met the staff and were impressed with the organization’s efforts. Alyson characterized the donors as “people who, like me, were struck by the absence of books.” He does not believe any donors, so far, are in publishing.
A donation of $200 or $250 can support a book party and mini-library, and $1,000 to $3,500 will pay for a new book. Visit bigbrothermouse.com/donate for more.
