Between November 25 and December 3, approximately twenty authors and illustrators of Catalan literature will take part in the 38th edition of the Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara (Guadalajara International Book Fair) (Mexico), which is considered the most significant yearly gathering in the publishing world for Spanish-language literature This year, Spain is the guest of honour and Barcelona will take over in 2025.
The writers Albert Pijuan, Najat El Hachmi, Pol Guasch, Blanca Llum Vidal, Biel Mesquida, Joan Carles Mèlich, Joan Subirats, Àngels Gregori, Josep Ballester, Vicent Berenguer i Micó, Aina Garcia-Carbó, Care Santos and Jordi Sierra i Fabra will be the protagonists of conferences, workshops and presentations. Illustrators Tyto Alba, Luci Gutiérrez and Nadia Hafid will also be present. Other Catalan authors who are not part of the official programme but who will also promote their works at the fair are Ramon Gener, Liliana Fortuny and Jaume Copons. Alongside these creators there will be more than 50 Catalan publishers and institutions working to project literature.
The Institut Ramon Llull will participate in FIL once again to enhance its association with Latin American publishers, particularly in Mexico, and encourage the translation of Catalan literature into Spanish. This initiative aims to enhance next year's cultural programme, in which Barcelona will take center stage, by presenting a comprehensive and inclusive overview of Catalan literary creation. To achieve this purpose, the IRL will present to Latin American publishers the album Nueva literatura catalana por descubrir (New Catalan Literature to Discover), a selection of Catalan works with the potential to be translated and published in the Latin American market.
The Institut Ramon Llull has a long history of partnership with the Guadalajara FIL that started in 2004, the year in which Catalan culture was a guest of honour. Since then, it has regularly attended with the twin objectives of presenting authors as part of the official fair programme through collaboration agreements and participating in meetings with professionals in the Latin American book industry to promote the translation and publication of Catalan literature in countries within this linguistic sphere. The focus is on translating works into different varieties of the Spanish language.
The FIL, which had more than 800,000 visitors last year, plans a schedule featuring over 3,000 literary, academic, artistic, and professional events. This edition will be attended by 850 writers from 43 countries who collectively speak 19 different languages.
