This delivery of our newsletter, Dear reader, it is special or, at the very least, it stands out from the others because it seeks to be, rather than a simple guide, something like a handheld program.
The work of which this delivery American letters The program, which premieres in three days, is the Guadalajara International Book Fair, the most important festival of literature and books in our language and whose guest of honor is, in this edition, the European Union.
Although the reason was not this, that this year’s edition of the fair – in which we witness conflicts and wars that, although they are happening at the moment in which you read these words, seem to have been torn from the 20th century, since hundreds, thousands of civilians are run over, disappeared, killed and devastated, regardless of their age or sex and even inside hospitals, in an absolutely unpunished and criminal manner—have the last project you sought as a guest of honor— I say this regardless of its success or failure—dissolving national borders is not minor.
Conflicts and the FIL of Guadalajara 2023
As a result of what I have just written, before this hand program presents the actors and literary scripts on which I would like to put the focus – always, as happens in this space, what said spotlight illuminates is solely and exclusively a consequence of a subjectivity, a particular taste and a very personal way of understanding literature—I dare to recommend, to those who are going to attend the fair and to those who wish to take note to connect remotely, from wherever they are, through streaming of the fair, the following events, which due to their theme and their participants—all of whom are writers—I consider fundamental to understanding new aspects of our present.
And, at the Guadalajara fair, that fair of fairs that has many other fairs within it, readers will be able to attend the table “Writers for democracy and civil rights”, in which the Hungarian writer and thinker will participate. Zsuzsanna Szelényi and the Bulgarian writer, translator and editor Ilija Trojanow; to the conference “How to write and read in violent times”, in which the Cypriot writer and journalist Stavros Chistoloulou, the Ukrainian writer Haska Shyyan, the artist, writer and composer from the Netherlands Eva Meijer and the French writer and translator Neige will participate Sinno, who has lived in Mexico for almost two decades; to the conversation “Words as an instrument of tolerance and openness”, in which the Portuguese writer and playwright Lídia Jorge, the Croatian writer Olja Savicevic, the Maltese writer and biomedical born in Jordan and of Palestinian origin Walid Babhan and the Belgian writer, playwright and actor Angelo Tijssens, and at the table “How to write and read from the margins”, where the Moldovan writer and journalist Tatiana Tibuleac, the Turkish Cypriot poet Zeki Ali, the Irish writer and screenwriter Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin, who writes in Irish language, and the Spanish writer and poet Berta Dávila, who writes in Galician.
Subjective, particular and very personal guide
At the FIL of Guadalajara in 2023, a fair in which, as I have said many other times, there is space, events, books and authors for all readers, without distinction of taste, preferences, interests and affinities, just as in its editions previous ones, it will be easy to get lost, because entering this one is getting into a disproportionate and often maddening space. Therefore, to lend a hand to the readers of American letters who are going to attend – as well as, again, so that those who cannot attend can write down some names or titles in their agendas – here is my subjective, particular and very personal guide, which is nothing more than a basic plan to approach to certain books or, as I said at the beginning of this installment, a mere manual program for that work in which thousands of readers, hundreds of writers and editors, dozens of journalists, a dozen actors, a handful of youtubers who want to be people of letters and the occasional lost, anxious or depressed politician. Of course, as I have also said on other occasions, this guide – which ignores those books and authors to whom a previous installment of our edition has already been dedicated newsletter and in which only books written from Latin America are considered—is not intended to be more than a starting point.
According to taste. Nothing more personal than each person’s taste. And mine, this time, leads me to recommend a book published by the Guatemalan publishing house Sophos, a project that was born from the bookstore of the same name — which, by the way, has just celebrated its fifteenth birthday. The book by Arnoldo Gálvez Suárez that I want to recommend is titled Someone will dance with our mummies and it is the compilation of three short novels that could also be three long stories, in which language is one of the main protagonists and in which, its other protagonists, the characters, always travel through some gorge: The ice age, that’s what friends are for and Everything that is not known. Gálvez Suárez’s work is a compendium of emotions and insights that never cease to surprise the reader page by page, as it is also a pantone of the grays of the soul.
According to preferences. Less personal than taste but just as intense, my preferences push me to recommend that the readers of this newsletter look for the following independent Latin American publishers, which, without a doubt, are going to be interesting and whose books are not easy to find in bookstores in Mexico —as they will not be in those of countries that are not their countries of origin, but for that reason it is essential to keep them in mind, to look for them in those other fairs that are so similar to the FIL in Guadalajara—: the Chilean ones Pig Riders, Overalls and Ditch; the Costa Ricans The three editors and Encino editions; the Uruguayans Creature and fish on ice; the bolivians Dum Dum and Mantisthe Argentines Chai Editor, Lethe, Stealth and Godot Editions, and the Colombians Himpar Editions and Laguna Books.
According to interest. As happened to me exactly a year ago, I am convinced that one of the most interesting events of this FIL that will just begin will be the presentation of another book by El Colegio Nacional (co-published with several institutions and accessible in several of the countries in our region ), in this case: Talk and live in America, from Concepción Company Company, who will be accompanied by Mariana Hernández and the book’s editor, Alejandro Cruz. Speaking and living in America It is a kind of history of language—and of what a language says and tells about its speakers—that many of us who live between Tierra del Fuego and Tijuana use (although we could well say between Tierra del Fuego and, for example , Chicago).
According to affinities. As I have also said on other occasions, although it may seem less personal, in reality it is something more important and profound, since it involves a dialogue at multiple levels, which is why I want to recommend, this time, to those attending the fair, that they do not leave without getting a copy of A music, by the Argentine Hernán Ronsino, published by Sixth floor, publisher that is also relaunching The difficult light, by the Colombian Tomás González —an author that I will never tire of recommending, since he is, without a doubt, one of the greatest prose writers of our language—, and, since we are between musical notes and keys, with a copy of A provincial pianist, by the Uruguayan writer Ramiro Sanchíz, a novel published by Random House.
Yesaccording to emotions and hesitations. For an inveterate reader, there are few things as exciting as discovering an author, finding, therefore, a first book whose appearance can and should be celebrated. This is why here I want to recommend searching and reading story books. I’d prefer that they imagined me without a head, from the Chilean María José Bilbao —published by Montacerdos— and Natural disasters, of the Uruguayan Tamara Silva Bernascheawhich I will also talk about very soon in this newsletter —published by Criatura—, as well as the novels Every town is a scar, by the Mexican Hiram Ruvalcaba, who until now had only published short stories – it is in the Random House edition – and The vast territory, from Chilean Simon Lopez Trujillo —published by Caja Negra—.
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