The Quiet Decline of Isfahan’s Publishing; From Historical Pioneering to Today’s Disruption
Isfahan, a city whose name has been intertwined with culture, art, and knowledge for centuries, stands today at a point that necessitates serious questions about the cycle of book production and publication. A city once known for its cultured booksellers, reputable printing and publishing centers, generations of influential writers, and the presence of impactful cultural institutions, now faces a reality where its literary and research realm, despite its authentic capacities, is less visible.
Studies show that the gradual decline of publishing in Isfahan is not merely a guild or economic issue but a multi-factorial, complex, and deeply rooted phenomenon situated at the intersection of cultural policymaking, the economics of art, the professional structure of publishing, writing styles, distribution agencies, and media.
During this period, Isfahan’s share of the country’s publishing cycle has gradually decreased, to the extent that a significant portion of writers, to be seen, are forced to move their works for publication to Tehran, and local publishers also face a combination of economic pressures, weak distribution, limitations of the review network, and changing patterns of cultural consumption.
Alongside these developments, the media has also experienced a serious gap in representing the literary currents of provincial cities; a gap whose consequence is the intensification of the “structural invisibility” of Isfahan’s works and writers. On the other hand, the lack of evolution in narrative writing in research works, the traditional nature of the writing environment, the inability to compete professionally with new trends, and the lack of an effective connecting link between writer, publisher, and audience have complicated the situation further.
Now, the main question is: In the culture-producing and historic city of Isfahan, why has the book cycle, from creation to publication and from publication to visibility, become so weak and unstable? Why, despite immense human capital and literary capacities, does a large part of this city’s cultural output remain in the shadows? And why has a large part of Isfahan’s publishing and writing structure not prepared itself for professional competitions and updated intellectual currents?
Understanding this necessity, the Iran’s Book News Agency (IBNA) in Isfahan organized the roundtable “Isfahan and the Crisis of Unseen Works; Investigating the Roots” with the presence of Mehdi Tamizi, writer and visual artist, Farhad Bardbar, writer and documentary filmmaker, Marzieh Golabgir Esfahani, writer and researcher, and Mostafa Heidari, manager of Oghnom Publishing, to gather a collection of experiences, criticisms, and analyses from experts, writers, and publishers, and to draw a realistic, accurate, and forward-looking picture of the book situation in Isfahan.
This roundtable was formed with the aim of answering these very questions; questions that are of fundamental importance not only for book and publishing activists but also for the culture-loving body of Isfahan and Iran. Book and Reading Week is an opportunity for the city of Isfahan to once again look at its book, writing, and publishing issues with a critical, deep, and unvarnished perspective, and to formulate this perspective in the form of a multifaceted and specialized dialogue.
What you will read next is the first part of this roundtable.
Mehdi Tamizi, writer and visual artist
