The Guadalajara International Book Fair begins its 36th edition this Saturday. The most important editorial meeting in Spanish will take place between November 26 and December 4 in the capital of Jalisco with the participation of more than 600 writers from 45 countries, 12,000 professionals from the sector and 1,500 publishers, according to the organizers.
The guest of honor this year is Sharjah, a hereditary monarchy with totalitarian features that organizes the most important literary festival in the Arab world.
EL PAÍS has selected some of the most outstanding activities on the programming and proposes this (incomplete) list of events not to be missed:
1. The prizes: Mircea Cărtărescu and Daniela Tarazona
On the first day of the fair, on Saturday November 26 at 11 am, the
most important Romanian writer, author of the
Cegador
and
Solenoid
trilogy, will receive the FIL Prize for Literature in Romance Languages from the Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramírez.
On Wednesday, November 30 at six in the afternoon, the winner will be the Mexican writer Daniela Tarazona, who will receive the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Award, which recognizes the literary work of women in the Hispanic world, for her most recent novel,
split island
.
2. Adonis, for the first time in FIL
The 92-year-old Syrian poet will give a master lecture on Saturday, December 3 at six in the afternoon in the Juan Rulfo Auditorium of the exhibition.
Poetry in the Arab world: between the fixed and the changeable
is the title of the talk he will have with the Mexican poet and translator Jeannette L. Clariond.
The event can also be viewed via
streaming
and there will be a translation from Arabic to Spanish.
On Sunday the 4th at five in the afternoon, the poet, who has been a Nobel candidate for years, will also participate in a poetry reading aloud.
3. Rosa Montero interviews Elena Poniatowska
The Spanish writer will interview the 90-year-old Mexican journalist to talk about her latest book,
The Polish Lover
, a work in two volumes in which Poniatwska, winner of the Cervantes Prize in 2013, investigates the story of her ancestor Stanislaw Poniatowski, the last King of Poland, and reconstructs his own biography.
The meeting will be on Sunday 27 at seven in the afternoon.
Montero will also present her most recent book,
El peligro de estar sane
, on December 2 .
4. Bosé, Belli, Padura and Harwicz meet the readers
On Sunday, November 27, the Spanish musician Miguel Bosé will present his book
Secret History of My Best Songs
.
A day later, on Monday the 28th, the Nicaraguan Gioconda Belli will talk about her new work,
Luciérnagas.
A book of essays on the essays of living
.
The Cuban Leonardo Padura will talk about his novel
Decent Persons
, a mixture of criminal and historical fiction, on Wednesday the 30th. And the Argentinean Ariana Harwicz will present
The Weak Mental
, about the tense bond between a mother and her daughter, on Thursday, December 1 .
More outstanding presentations will be those of
Song of the old lovers
, by Laura Restrepo;
That day fell on a Sunday
, by Sergio Ramírez;
Reserve bitches
, by Dahlia de la Cerda;
Just before the end
, by Emiliano Monge;
The Invincible Armada
, by Antonio Ortuño;
Story of a Woman Who Walked Through Life in Designer Shoes
, by Margo Glantz;
The kisses
, by Manuel Vilas;
Goodbye to the cold
, by Elvira Sastre;
Revolution
, by Arturo Pérez-Reverte;
Spinoza in Parque México
, by Enrique Krauze, or
Bastard Feminism
by Maria Galindo.
Swiss author Jöel Dicker's presentation of
The Alaska Sanders Case
, the final novel in the trilogy starring Marcus Goldman, was cancelled.
5. Cecilia Vicuña reads poetry aloud
The Chilean artist, poet and activist Cecilia Vicuña, who this year has exhibited her work at the Guggenheim in New York and at the Tate in London, will offer a poetry reading aloud on Saturday 26 at six in the afternoon.
Space for this event is already sold out.
However, visitors will also be able to listen to Vicuña that same day at 7:30 p.m. at a table entitled
Reading politics: social processes and literary language,
which she will share with the linguist Elisa Loncón and the writer Paulina Flores.
6. The Sharjah Pavilion
The territory, one of the seven that make up the United Arab Emirates, is the guest of honor at FIL this year, along with Arabic literature.
In total, 57 works have been translated from Arabic into Spanish and will be available at the fair.
For nine days, Sharjah will host talks on calligraphy, business or astronomy, screen a film written by Sultan Muhammad al-Qasimi, offer traditional music concerts, give doll-making workshops and more.
Among the outstanding activities related to Arab culture will be the poetry readings by the Syrian writer Maram al-Masri, one of the most prominent voices of her generation, and the presentation of
Banipal magazine.
, a showcase of Arabic literature in Spanish, which will be in charge of the Omani Jokha Alharthi, the first author in Arabic to win the Booker Prize.
7. Sontag by Valenzuela
The Argentine narrator and journalist Luisa Valenzuela was one of the closest friends of the American writer and activist Susan Sontag.
In this edition of FIL, Valenzuela, 83, will talk with the director of the fair, Marisol Schultz, about the work of the narrator who died in 2004. The meeting entitled
Forever, Susan
will be on Thursday, December 1 at Six o'clock in the afternoon.
The Argentine writer will also participate in another dialogue entitled
Pleasure and eroticism, literary scenarios
on Wednesday, November 30, together with the Spanish Manuel Vilas and the Mexicans Ana Clavel and Enrique Serna.
8. Masterful conversation between Irene Vallejo and Alberto Manguel
The Spanish writer and philologist, author of
El infinito en un junco
, and the Argentine writer and intellectual will talk on Sunday, November 27 at 12:30 p.m. at the opening ceremony of the Carlos Fuentes Literary Hall.
10 years ago, this space was created within FIL to pay a "permanent tribute" to the author of
Aura
and award a distinctive medal to writers with careers such as Jonathan Franzen, Salman Rushdie, Paul Auster or Margo Glantz.
The talk will be moderated by the Mexican writer Rosa Beltrán and both writers will receive an award from Silvia Lemus, wife of the Mexican writer.
9. The return of FIL children and the Comic Fair
After FIL Niños moved out of the fairgrounds in 2021 due to the covid-19 pandemic, the event returns to Expo Guadalajara with 17 reading and creative writing workshops, 27 children's shows and more than 30 workshops.
In addition, between December 1 and 4, artists such as the Mexican Thalia Machuca, the Spanish Anabel Colazo, the Canadian Mélanie Leclerc or the French Leopold Prudon will participate in the Comic + Graphic Novel Fair.
For four days, there will be a presentation of comic strips and graphic novels, as well as different workshops.
Bonus: THE COUNTRY in the FIL
The director of EL PAÍS, Pepa Bueno, will talk with the communicator Gabriela Warkentin about the challenges of journalism in times when the industry is looking for formulas to increase its income and attract new readers and faces strong challenges due to the irruption of false news, the changes technology, populist movements that threaten Ukraine's freedoms and war.
The table of EL PAÍS, which is one of the organizers of the FIL, is on Saturday, November 26 at six in the afternoon.
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