Laguna Publishing was founded in 1998 in Belgrade and is one of the biggest publishing houses in Serbia with almost 400 publications a year. Since it was established, Laguna has published over 4.500 titles.
In early 1998, Dejan PapiÃÂ, who was a computer programmer at the time, translated Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic, so that his wife could read it in their native language. However, when he tried to acquire the rights for the title, he learned he couldn't do so as an individual and that he needed the help of a publishing house instead. Soon after that, in April 1998, Mr. PapiÃÂ founded his own publishing house, Laguna. During its initial years, the publishing company faced a bombing, a social crisis and lack of funds, so it progressed at a slow pace. Only one title was published in the first year, two the following and four the year after that. In the year 2000, Laguna began publishing titles by other authors popular worldwide. The list of publications grew year after year, only to reach 350 published titles a year, thus becoming one of the most productive publishing companies in Europe.
Laguna's first editions were titles by one of the most popular British authors, Terry Pratchett. Today, some of this publisher's foreign language titles include the names of classic authors (Shakespeare, Goethe, Gogol, Chekhov, Kafka, Proust, Musil) and numerous contemporary writers with works mostly from English, Spanish, German, French and Russian speaking territories such as: Nobel winners Mario Vargas Llosa, Herta Muller, José Saramago, Gunter Grass, Toni Morrison, Czeslaw Milosz, Mo Yan, Svetlana Alexievich, George Eliot, Max Frisch, Mark Aldanov, Sylvia Plath, Agatha Christie, Henry Miller, Hans Fallada, John Cheever, Bret Easton Ellis, Amin Maalouf, Ana MarÃÂa Matute, Tony Parsons, Roberto Bolaño, Margaret Atwood, Martin Walser, Bill Bryson, Khaled Hosseini, Victor Pelevin, Lucinda Riley and many others.
Laguna has also published a great number of Serbian classics and works by contemporary authors and the list includes names such as Vuk Karadà ¾iÃÂ, Stevan Sremac, Borisav StankoviÃÂ, Branislav Nuà ¡iÃÂ, Ivo AndriÃÂ, Miloà ¡ Crnjanski, Slobodan SeleniÃÂ, Borislav PekiÃÂ, Svetlana Velmar-JankoviÃÂ, Dobrica ÃÂosiÃÂ, Miroslav AntiÃÂ, ÃÂorÃÂe LeboviÃÂ, à ½ivojin PavloviÃÂ, Duà ¡an RadoviÃÂ, Dragoslav MihailoviÃÂ, Duà ¡an KovaceviÃÂ, Ljubivoje Rà ¡umoviÃÂ, Filip David, Dragan VelikiÃÂ, Radoslav PetkoviÃÂ, Svetislav Basara, Goran PetroviÃÂ, Vladan MatijeviÃÂ, Jovica AÃÂin, Goran GociÃÂ, Ljubica ArsiÃÂ, Vule à ½uriÃÂ, Ivana DimiÃÂ, Vladimir KecmanoviÃÂ, Vladimir ArsenijeviÃÂ, Radmila LaziÃÂ, Nikola MaloviÃÂ, Ivan Ivanji, Igor MarojeviÃÂ, Mirjana NovakoviÃÂ, Uroà ¡ PetroviÃÂ, Dejan StojiljkoviÃÂ, Slobodan Vladuà ¡iÃÂ, Marko VidojkoviÃÂ, Vladimir Tabaà ¡eviÃÂ, Viktor Laziàand others.
Apart from titles from all fiction genres by foreign and Serbian authors, Laguna publishes short story collections, essays, autobiographies, travel books, children's books, picture books, dictionaries, encyclopedias, memoirs of distinguished historical and musical figures, cookbooks, titles about popular science, philosophy, psychology, mythology, and art.
The first bookstore was opened in Belgrade in 2009 in Makedonska street and another was opened the same year in number 48, Kralja Milana street, in the building of the Student Cultural Centre (SKC). Shortly after this, a sister company Delfi and a bookstore chain were founded, using Laguna's ten-year experience in publishing and modeled after the best and most popular international bookstore chains. Today, Delfi bookstores has a total of 43 stores.
Laguna does not cover only the Serbian market, but has an active presence in Montenegro, where there are four readers' clubs, as well as in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where Laguna has eight readers' clubs. In its gradual expansion over the years, Laguna began opening readers' clubs in cities all over Serbia and today there are over 600 000 members in 60 clubs in 29 cities in Serbia (Belgrade, Lazarevac, Smederevo, Novi Sad, Novi Pazar Nià ¡, Kragujevac, Zrenjanin, Gornji Milanovac, Jagodina, Kraljevo, Leskovac, PanÃÂevo, Poà ¾arevac, Lebane, Sremska Mitrovica, Subotica, Valjevo, Vrà ¡ac, ZajeÃÂar, ÃÂaÃÂak, à  abac, Kruà ¡evac and Uà ¾ice) and the region (Bijeljina, Banja Luka, Sarajevo, Tuzla, Nikà ¡iÃÂ, Podgorica).
Twice a year, in June and December, Laguna hosts Book Night, a popular event during which there is a big discount not only for Laguna's titles but for books from other publishers as well. The first Book Night was organized in 2009 and this event promoting the love of books and reading has been organized every year across Serbia. By popularity and the number of visitors, it is second only to the Belgrade Book Fair. Apart from this one, Laguna organizes many other events to engage their existing members and attract new ones. Some of them include Let's exchange gifts, when every person to donate blood gets a book as a present, Autograph for Safety, during which all collected funds are used to equip the sensory room in Duà ¡an DugaliÃÂ, a school for children with special needs; Bring Libraries to Life Again has enabled the collection of over 15,000 books to help libraries destroyed in the floods of 2014. Laguna has also hosted numerous book donations for schools and other institutions and their libraries, as well as for women in safe houses; together with Coca-Cola Laguna has organized book donations for orphaned children and joined forces with the bank Eurobank and the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation to open libraries in 27 daycare centers across Serbia.
With the desire to bring the literary world to their readers, Laguna regularly organizes literary evenings in all major Serbian cities, in collaboration with many Serbian authors and has been host to numerous foreign authors as well. The list of popular writers that have visited Serbia at Laguna's invitation are Mario Vargas Llosa, Tony Parsons, Tracy Chevalier, Tariq Ali, Amitav Ghosh, William Paul Young, Lucinda Riley, Javier Sierra, Mo Hayder, Pierre Lemaitre, Heleen Van Royen, Giulio Leoni, Luca di Fulvio, Luc Besson, Juan Gómez Jurado, Guy Gavriel Kay, Nataà ¡a Dragniàand many others. Norwegian thriller writer Jo Nesbo has also been Laguna's guest, and American fantasy author Peter V. Brett was Laguna's special guest at the 2018 Belgrade book fair.
During the 20 years of its existence, Laguna and their authors, translators and associates have won numerous prestigious awards and recognitions. Many authors have been awarded several literary and translation awards for the titles they published with Laguna.
The novel "Kuca secanja i zaborava" (The House of Memory and Oblivion) by Filip David was awarded the NIN prize in 2014 and the following year in 2015 this prize was given to another title published by Laguna â Islednik (The Investigator) by Dragan VelikiÃÂ. In 2016 the prize went to Laguna's author Ivana Dimiàfor her novel Arzamas and in 2018 the author Vladimir Tabaà ¡eviàreceived this literary recognition for his novel Zabluda Svetog Sebastijana (St. Sebastian's Misaprehension) also published by Laguna.
The "Ivo AndriàLiterary Prize" was awarded to Vule à ½uriàin 2015 for the short story collection Tajna crvenog zamka (The Secret of the Red Castle), Goran Petroviàreceived this prize in early 2019 for his life's work and the prize "Veljkova golubica" the same year. The novel Ravnoteza (Balance) by Svetlana Slapà ¡ak won the "Golden Sunflower" prize and the prize was given to Dragan Velikiàfor Islednik (The Investigator), a novel that received the prize "KoÃÂiÃÂevo pero" as well. Dejan Stojiljkovic was awarded the "Miloà ¡ Crnjanski" literary prize in 2009 for the novel Konstantinovo raskrà ¡ÃÂe (Constantine's Crossroads), and Laguna's titles LutajuÃÂi bokelj (The Wanderer from Boka) by Nikola Maloviàand Kuca od soli (The House of Salt) by Milomir Petroviàboth received the "Laza KostiÃÂ" prize.
The "Isidora SekuliÃÂ" prize was given to ÃÂorÃÂe Milosavljeviàfor ÃÂavo i Mala gospoÃÂa (The Devil and the Little Lady) and to Svetislav Basara for the novel AnÃÂeo atentata (The Angel of Assassination), while authors Ljubivoje Rà ¡umoviàand Nikola Maloviàwere awarded the "Branko ÃÂopiÃÂ" prize. Vule à ½uriÃÂ, the author of the first partizan crime novel Nedelja pacova (The Week of the Rats) was the winner of the "Stevan Sremac" prize, also won by Laguna's authors Ljubica Arsiàfor her novel Rajska vrata (The Heaven's Door) and Krsta Popovski for his novel Ina. Basara's novel The Angel of Assassination won also the award of the Serbian literary society "Biljana JovanoviÃÂ", while Dragoslav Mihailoviàwon the "Grigorije Boà ¾oviÃÂ" prize the same year for his short story ÃÂetrdeset i tri godine (Forty three years).
In early 2019, the fortieth prize of the magazine Politikin Zabavnik for young authors was awarded to Stefan TiÃÂmi, author of the novel Ja sam Akiko (I am Akiko), published by Laguna.
Apart from these prizes, Laguna's titles have received, among others, the "Prize of the AndriàInstitute" from AndriàCity, the Meà ¡a Selimoviàcritics' award for the book of the year, the "Desimir Toà ¡iÃÂ" prize, the prize of Zmaj's Children's Games Festival "Neven", the "Meà ¡a SelimoviÃÂ" regional prize and many others.
Laguna's authors are not the only ones to receive literary awards, many translators working for the publisher have received recognition for their works. Ana M. Jovanoviàreceived the translation award Ljubià ¡a Rajiàfor her translation of the Mo YanâÂÂs novel à ½abe (Frogs), Ana KuzmanoviàJovanoviàwas awarded the "Radoje TatiÃÂ" prize for her translation of José Saramago's novel Sva imena (Todos os nomes), and the prize "Dr Jovan MaksimoviÃÂ" was awarded to Dejan Mihailoviàfor the translation of the novel Samoubistvo (áðüþÃÂñøùÃÂÃÂòþ) by Mark Aldanov.
Laguna has also received multiple Golden Hit Liber awards for the most read title and has been awarded the FONKUR award for Publisher of the Year twice. Among other recognitions, the international award for freedom and journalism should be mentioned, as well as the Liplje prize of the Banja Luka book fair for contemporary literature, the journalists' award for the most professional collaboration with the media in 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2018, the prize of the Belgrade City Library for the most read foreign title in 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2018 and for publisher of the year, and Laguna has also been voted publisher of the year by journalists' choice multiple times at the Belgrade Book Fair. At the London Book Fair in the spring of 2016 Laguna was shortlisted next to a French and American publishing house for international publisher of the year.
Mala Laguna is a branch of Laguna Publishing dedicated to children's books and young adult titles. The first titles were published in 2002 and since then, around 70 titles are published annually under the Mala Laguna brand. The list of publications includes the works of renowned children's and young adult authors such as Miroslav AntiÃÂ, Gradimir StojkoviÃÂ, Ljubivoje Rà ¡umoviÃÂ, Vlada StojiljkoviÃÂ, Uroà ¡ PetroviÃÂ, Igor Kolarov, Branko StevanoviÃÂ, Vladislava VojnoviÃÂ, Gordana MaletiÃÂ, Robert TakariÃÂ, Vesna ÃÂoroviàButriÃÂ, Vesna VidojeviàGajoviÃÂ, Zoran Penevski, and others. Mala Laguna titles include many illustrated books as well, which feature the works of some of the most esteemed Serbian illustrators such as Duà ¡an PetriÃÂiÃÂ, Duà ¡an PavliÃÂ, Aleksandar ZolotiÃÂ, Nemanja RistiÃÂ, Tihomir ÃÂelanoviÃÂ, Marica Kicuà ¡iÃÂ, Milica RadenkoviÃÂ, Kosta MilovanoviÃÂ, and many others.
Mala Laguna publications have received numerous awards and recognitions:
Laguna Publishing started its online magazine titled Laguna Bookmarker â Your Reading Universe in 2017. The magazine publishes interesting facts on published titles, synopsis, reviews, examples of the most beautiful bookstores and literary cafés in the world, as well as interviews with Serbian and foreign authors, articles on reading habits, parenting, and child-rearing. The Bookmarker includes both educational videos and texts and the content published exceeds a thousand publications per year.