Críticas Magazine

Adriana V. Lopez

Spain’s Literary Black Week
July 17, 2008

This past week in pleasant and sunny Gijón, Spain, darkness and criminal activities were celebrated among bookish types. Since 1987, the Spanish author and journalist Paco Ignacio Taibo II has reigned over this fair celebrating noir and mystery fiction in his hometown of Gijón. Held this year from July 11th-20th., many big name authors in the noir genre like Eduardo Mendoza, Roberto Ampuero, and Ronaldo Hinojosa were invited  to discuss all things criminal writing. I was lucky to be able sit down in Madrid with one of the fair’s guests this year representing the U.S. and Cuba and drink some dark and heavy Rioja wine before she departed on a train to her week in blackness. Achy Obejas is the editor for Havana Noir (Akashic, 2008) and is also the translator for the upcoming Barcelona Noir (Akashic, 2009, Co-edited by this blogger herself and Carmen Ospina).  Obejas is a busy woman. She’s got a new novel coming out with Akashic this year and also recently translated Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao into Spanish for Random House. When I asked her what the organizer’s asked her to discuss on her Tuesday and Wednesday tertulia/panels she smiled and told me, “El mal y sus protagonistas.” Translated as “Evil and its protagonists.” I gather cigarettes and dark sunglass are required for a literary symposium like this. When she arrived Saturday morning to Gijón she was greeted with a literary carnival of sorts: cotton candy, darts,  balloons and a haunted house ride. And that fabulous statue I’ve pasted a pic of below for your viewing. Here are more pics of the festival's lavish setting.


Fun by day, but that place must get creepy when the sun ets. Hope Achy gets back okay. In any case, you can find out more about this fair at the Semana Negra website and look out for Paco Ignacio Taibo's upcoming collection of stories, Mexico City Noir, that he edited for Akashic's Noir Series. And below is a  photo of our dinner before Achy's week of darkenss. Seated from left to right: Lawrence Schimel (A MidsummerNight's Press), Achy Obejas , me, and Jaime DePablos (Vintage Español).

Posted by Adriana V. Lopez on July 17, 2008 | Comments (0)