Beirut, we have a problem.

So, two months in to Parkbench life and work is building up and being sent out. We have three jobs out on the hop; Parkbench freelancers have taken on a proofing job, a Hiberno-English / Dublinese edit and a German reader's report.

In between juggling my own editorial jobs, I had the pleasure of catching up with one of Parkbench's most established and successful translators last week here in Dublin, and we got chatting about plans for approaching publishers and making new contacts in the translation world.

As part of my efforts to mount a post-ferragosto  attack on publishers abroad, I have been building up some contacts outside of Europe. For obvious reasons, the Arab world is looking like a good place to start, and so, in addition to more serious research, I joined up to a few interesting groups on Facebook.

And herein lies the rub: a little help, perhaps, with this message from the Arab Publishers' Association?

فقدت حركة النشر في لبنان والوطن والعربي

الزميل الاستاذ عبود خير الله عبود

الامين العام السابق لاتحاد الناشرين العرب

نائب رئيس نفابة اتحاد الناشرين في لبنان

صاحب ومدير دار الجيل والمختار في لبنان ومصر وتونس