Central America Cuenta lands in the Caribbean by the hand of Mircea Cărtărescu, Rosa Montero and Alma Guillermoprieto

The Dominican Republic will host the Centroamérica Cuenta literature festival, which this year celebrates its 10th anniversary with the participation of more than 70 authors from 20 countries.

The festival, which was born in Managua and has become itinerant due to the political persecution of the Daniel Ortega regime against intellectuals and critical voices, lands in May in the Caribbean by the Romanian writer Mircea Cărtărescu, the Spanish Rosa Montero, the Mexican chronicler Alma Guillermoprieto and the Lebanese poet Joumana Haddad.

"The projection and dissemination of Ibero-American literature from Central America is one of the central axes of this festival, and in its 2023 edition the most important exponents of letters, journalism and thought will exchange ideas about literature", they have reported. organizers.

Centroamérica Cuenta has become an important promoter of literature in the region by projecting its creators, mainly young writers making their way in the publishing world.

The festival also organizes year after year the delivery of the Central American Short Story Cover Award and discussions about the political news of an isthmus that suffers the excesses of authoritarian regimes, corrupt governments and violence.

Since its creation in 2013 by the writer Sergio Ramírez, Cervantes Award winner, the festival has held more than 500 events, with the most representative voices from Latin America, Spain, the United States, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.

This year it will have the participation of the Romanian writer Mircea Cărtărescu, winner of the FIL Prize for Literature in Romance Languages, who will preside over a talk entitled "Between reality and dreams".

Cărtărescu is considered by critics to be the most important Romanian writer today, has won the most important literary awards in his country and is a strong candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Among his works, the

trilogy (1996, 2002, 2007) stands out, which has established him internationally and has been cataloged by international critics as his masterpiece.

The trilogy is made up of the titles

and

This year the festival will carry out 27 dialogues with creators from America and Europe, among which also stand out "The impulse to write" with the participation of the Nicaraguan writer Gioconda Belli, the Colombian Juan Gabriel Vásquez, the Lebanese poet Joumana Haddad, the Argentine writer Claudia Piñeiro and the Venezuelan Daniel Centeno Maldonado.

Rosa Montero, from Spain, will participate in "The journey of words", in which she will share a table with Sergio Ramírez, the Mexican Benito Taibo and the Spanish Berna González Harbor.

This year the festival will also focus on Caribbean literature, with the presence of meetings of local authors such as Frank Báez, Jochy Herrera, Rey Andújar, José Mármol, Soledad Álvarez.

Interest in journalism and the discussion of current events will have its space with a series of discussions in which the Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities, Alma Guillermoprieto, Michael Reid, former senior editor of The Economist weekly and Javier Lafuente, will

. deputy director of EL PAÍS

America.

Among the activities planned for this year is the presentation of the books

, coordinated by Javier Lafuente and Eliezer Budasoff;

, by Benito Taibo;

, by photographer Daniel Mordzinski, and

, by Luis García Montero.

The festival will take place from May 16 to 21 and will have both the Dominican capital and the city of Santiago as venues.

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