After a historic edition in its 40th anniversary, with record book sales and more than 600,000 attendees last year, the Rio Book Biennial has announced its dates for 2025. Next year, the event will take place between the 13th and the June 22 and will be the main attraction of the calendar of the World Book Capital of Rio, a title formalized for the city of Rio de Janeiro by UNESCO and the Advisory Committee of the World Book Capital.
It is the first time that a Portuguese-speaking city has been named World Book Capital. One of the main distinctive features of Rio de Janeiro for this achievement is the Rio Book Biennial, declared by the Rio City Council Intangible Cultural Heritage of the city.
Present in the emotional memory of millions of people, in 2023 the Rio Book Biennial promoted experiences that went beyond books, in unprecedented settings and focused on interaction with the public, bringing relevant contemporary discussions that follow the rhythm of the changes in the world and new approaches to create more connections with visitors. There were also sessions designed to explore the transversality of books, providing narratives that are extrapolated to films, series, music and plays. Organized by GL events Exhibitions and the National Union of Book Publishers (SNEL), the Biennial hosted more than 300 authors and personalities in more than 200 hours of programming for an audience of all ages.
With the support of the municipal and state education departments, the Biennale also hosted more than 120,000 public school students and teachers. The school visits project, which welcomed students from Rio, Queimados (in the Baixada Fluminense) and Angra dos Reis (on the southern coast of Rio), involved an investment of 13.5 million reais for the purchase of books. Professionals in Rio’s educational system also received vouchers to purchase copies, which contributed to the publishers’ record sales.
The title of World Book Capital will be valid from April 23, 2025 to April 23, 2026 – it is no coincidence that this is the date on which World Book Day is celebrated.
To be named, Rio de Janeiro had to present projects through its municipal department of culture in which it demonstrated the importance of its literary heritage and presented a clearly defined vision with an action plan to promote its literary initiatives, market sustainability publishing and promoting reading among young people, taking advantage of new technologies and the digital environment.
«The Rio Book Biennial is constantly attentive to cultural transformations and new formats of literary expression. We always start from the book as the protagonist and guiding thread of this relationship with the reader. We also understand that we play a fundamental role as catalysts of the force that is the literary universe. This, of course, was one of the main arguments for the municipality to win this unprecedented title,” said Dante Cid, president of the National Union of Book Publishers (SNEL). “Next year, we will have an even more special festival, in the midst of so many celebrations, taking advantage of the Corpus Christi festival to welcome visitors from outside Rio.”
The Rio Book Biennial is held alternately with the most important publishing sector event in Brazil, the São Paulo Book Biennial, which in 2024 will welcome Colombia as Guest Country of Honor.
