Ten months after the previous edition, the international Book Fair. Was in Apriland not in February, as usual, when the literary event took place last year, due to the outbreak of COVID-19 caused by the Omicron variant.
Previously, in 2021, the pandemic had forced its suspension. So when the Fair starts again this February 9, three long years will have passed before it can finally resume its traditional dates, without the fatal shadow of the coronavirus.
But it has not only been COVID-19 that has besieged the largest cultural event on the island in recent times. The severe economic crisis has also caused many obstacles to its celebration.
In statements to the national and foreign press, Juan Rodríguez Cabrera, president of the Cuban Book Institute (ICL), highlighted this week the “extraordinary effort” that the organization of the already imminent 31st edition entails for the country and its cultural institutions, and He assured that, in “these difficult conditions”, the island will celebrate “the best Fair possible”.
Just a few days before the opening, Rodríguez trusted that, even in such complex circumstances, the event will once again transcend the eminently literary to reaffirm itself as “the most massive and comprehensive event of Cuban culture.”
He confirmed that during the event some 4.2 million printed copies will be put up for sale “at affordable prices for the Cuban family,” while some 1,300 digital works will be marketed.
In total, according to the manager, some 4,200 titles will be available to readers, of which about 250 will be printed news and another 600, news in electronic format. The latter can be purchased, like paper books, at the publishers’ own stands.
With these figures, the organizers of the fair —which has inclusive reading as its central theme— hope to surpass the sales of the previous edition, when more than 1.3 million copies were sold.
The Fair in this edition attracts about 120 exhibitors, including Cuban and foreign publishing houses. The foreign presence, as a whole, will cover more than 40 countries.
A Colombian-style fair
Colombia This time it will be the guest of honor country at the Havana Book Fair, which will take place for ten days before beginning to spread to the entire country.
The South American nation thus takes over from Mexico —which it was in 2022— and will arrive in the capital of the island with an important representation of its literature, art and society.
The Colombian delegation will be led by Vice President Francia Márquez and Minister of Culture Patricia Ariza, who will be the protagonists of the inauguration ceremony on Thursday the 9th, and will also participate in talks and panels at the event.
Together with Márquez and Ariza —who is a playwright, actress, poetess and plastic artist— some twenty writers, intellectuals and artists will travel to Cuba, who will animate a broad cultural and literary program during the Fair, which includes book presentations , film projections, performances by musicians and talks about culture and the current situation of the country, including the policy of “total peace” defended by the Executive of Gustavo Petro.
In this sense, Lucía González, a member of the truth commissionwill speak about what happened in the more than 60 years of internal armed conflict in the country.
Among the guest country writers announced for the fair are figures such as Laura Restrepo, Alejandra Jaramillo, Celso Román, Jaime Abello, José Luis Díaz Granados, José Zuleta Ortiz and Juan Manuel Roca.
During the days of the Fair, the work of the great novelist Gabriel García Márquez, Nobel Prize for Literature and “great friend of Cuba” will be remembered, according to the Colombian ambassador to Cuba, José Noé Ríos.
The musical art of Colombia will be represented, among others, by the group of female voices Enkelé. Its director Carolina Delgado, declared that “for Enkelé it is important to be at this event since it will be our first international destination and in addition to great responsibility since we will represent our country (Colombia), with a cultural sample of the music of the oral tradition of the Colombian Caribbean and Magdalena Medio”.
The South American country will also host an artistic gala on the 10th, at the National Theater, while its literary exhibition will amount to 624 titles. According to what was reported, Colombian books will adjust their prices for the host public, and in the same way they will make donations for institutions on the island.
In La Cabaña and throughout Havana
The 31st edition of the International Book Fair will once again have the Morro-Cabaña military historical complex as its main venue. But, as in the previous version, this well-known setting will share the spotlight with the historic center of Havana, several of whose institutions will host activities of the central program.
In La Cabaña, the Nicolás Guillén Room will once again be, destined for important panels, presentations and tributes, and other spaces such as the children’s pavilion and the national pavilion of Colombia, together with the stands of the publishers and one of the large bookstores.
Other rooms are distributed among buildings in Old Havana, such as the Palacio del Segundo Cabo, the Palacio de los Capitanes Generales and the Colegio Universitario San Gerónimo, while a second large bookstore will be around the Museum of Natural History.
These sites are joined by 16 other sub-sites, including the Casa de las Américas, the Dulce María Loynaz Center, the National Library, the Hispano-American Center for Culture, the Víctor Hugo House, the Cuba Pavilion, the House of Poetry and the Palace Technological “Finca de los Monos”. Each of these places will have its own program, which multiplies the proposals available to fans of literature.
Along with talks and launches, the central program will have among its main spaces those dedicated to remembering the centenaries of the poet and essayist fine garcia marruz (1923-2022) and the scientist and writer Antonio Núñez Jiménez (1923-1998), as well as those focused on the work of the bibliographer Araceli García Carranza and the novelist Julio Travieso Serrano, National Literature Award 2021, to whom the event.
Various prizes will also be awarded during the Fair. Thus, the Guillén room will host the recognition of the poet Delfín Prats as the 2022 National Literature Prize on the 10th. In the following days, and on the same stage, the historian and professor Francisca López Civeira (National Social Sciences Prize) will be honored. and the editor Natividad Alfaro (National Edition Award).
The winners of the literary criticism awards will also be recognized, Alejo Carpentier (narrative and essay), Nicolás Guillén (poetry), Calendar (for writers up to 35 years old) and Dinosaur (mini-story). The Reader’s prizes will be awarded to the books with the most acceptance for their sales, and the one for La Puerta de Papel, dedicated to the Island’s Territorial Editions System.
“All the arts” at the Fair
As usual, various events will coexist during the days of the fair. This time, for example, the Professional Book Fair returns, which will have within its program the National Bookseller Workshop and the Publishers and Translators Meeting. In addition, other already traditional meetings will be held such as the Young Writers of Latin America, the Library Scientist, the Serial Publications and Digital Media, the Promoters of Poetry, the Historians, and the colloquiums on Social Sciences and Human Health and the Environment. Atmosphere.
The Digital Cuba Project will bring together writers, experts and digital book managers in the Santo Domingo Building of the Havana Historian’s Office. On this occasion, under the slogan “More clicks, more reading”, this event will host panels, conferences and presentations, while it will honor the 230th anniversary of the first public library in Cuba and the 15th anniversary of the Cuban Book and Reading Observatory.
A novelty in the 2023 edition will be the first Publishing Business Forum, to be held from February 13 to 15, which seeks to promote exchange between professionals in the sector, publishing houses, representation agencies and authorities from various countries, as well as explore opportunities. business and export services related to the publishing industry, as explained to the press.
However, the billboard once again goes beyond letters and defends the claim of being, more than a literary event, a “fair of all the arts”, according to the president of the ICL.
Concerts, trova clubs, plastic arts exhibitions and film cycles in theaters such as the Alfredo Guevara and the Multicine Infanta, will come together throughout an event, whose tickets are already on sale in the Cuban capital.
Casa de las Américas and the city’s bookstores sell both daily tickets to La Cabaña, at 15 Cuban pesos, and others valid for every day, at 100 pesos. Children under 12 years of age are exempt from payment, the organizers confirmed.
The Book Fair will close its doors in Havana on Sunday, February 19, but the event will not end with that.
As of March 2, his tour of the island will begin, first in the western region (from March 2 to 5, in Pinar del Río, Havana, Mayabeque, Artemisa, Matanzas and Isla de la Juventud).
Then in the central (from 9 to 12, in Villa Clara, Cienfuegos, Sancti Spíritus, Camagüey and Ciego de Ávila) and finally in the east (from 16 to 19, in Las Tunas, Granma, Holguín, Guantánamo and Santiago de Cuba). .
The city of Santiago will once again be in charge of closing and starting the countdown for the 32nd edition of this event, in 2024.
