Miami Book Fair To Celebrate Literary Culture

By Mar�a E. Cruz -- Críticas, 10/15/2006

The Miami Book Fair International (MBFI) is the annual literary festival in the United States with the strongest line-up of Spanish-speaking authors. This unique fair is a major international event that celebrates award-winning, best-selling, and up-and-coming authors from around the world. Organized by the Florida Center for the Literary Arts and Miami-Dade College, the fair will take place from November 12-19 at the Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus. More than 60 Spanish and Latin American authors, including Chile’s Jorge Edwards and Nicaragua’s Sergio Ramírez, will participate.

The exhibition halls, which will be open during the weekend, will feature the most important Spanish-language publishing houses and U.S. distributors. In honor of the 20 years since the death of Jorge Luis Borges, his widow María Kodama and Daniel Fernández—a journalist with Miami’s Nuevo Heraldo—will talk about the author’s life and works. The event will take place on Saturday November 18 at the Wolfson Campus auditorium.

Authors taking part in the Ibero-American Authors Program will read from their latest works; they include Gioconda Belli (El pergamino de la seducción, The Scroll of Seduction, Rayo, 2006 [reviewed in our next issue]) and Edmundo Paz Soldán (Palacio quemado, “Burnt Palace,” Alfaguara, 2006). Additionally, Santiago Rocangliolo will read from his Alfaguara prize-winning novel Abril rojo (“Red April,” Alfaguara, 2006), and Eduardo Lago will read from his Premio Nadal de Novela debut Llámame Brooklyn (“Call Me Brooklyn,” Seix Barral, 2006). The highly-regarded Congress of Authors’ Evening With…program this year includes Isabel Allende, Frank McCourt, and Edward P. Jones.

Fairgoers will also have the opportunity to take part in an array of activities that celebrate the joy of reading, including the Children’s Alley, the Street Fair, and the Antiquarian Annex. For updated information or a complete list and schedule of the programs, visit www.miamibookfair.com/.