The 83rd edition of the Madrid Book Fair begins on May 30.
Photo: EFE – Welcome Velasco
This year, the Madrid Book Fair will feature a series of Latin American authors in its activities, focused this time on sports within literature.
The program presented this Wednesday includes writers such as the American Richard Ford or the Argentine Mariana Enríquez to talk about literature as resistance, while the American Lionel Shriver, the Spanish Sergio del Molino or Soledad Puértolas and the Colombian Héctor Abad Faciolince will address the rhythm in water.
Leila Guerriero and Martín Caparrós, both Argentine, the Mexican Juan Villoro Ruiz and the Chilean Alejandro Jodorowsky, are also among the invited authors, for talks on topics such as short stories and soccer.
A total of 350 booths will host the central Retiro Park from next May 30 in the 83rd edition of the fair, with a new space for small publishers that will open for the first time at night on one day.
The director of the fair, Eva Orúe, presented at a press conference the programming of this next meeting of readers, authors, booksellers, editors and distributors that will be inaugurated by the queen of Spain, Letizia, and that will last for 16 days.
Under the motto “Train your mind, read your body”, the fair will be the scene of more than three hundred activities that, according to Orúe, will go beyond dealing with books or athletes, although it will feature numerous athletes who are also authors or writers. with a “particular sensitivity” towards sport.
With a budget of 1.7 million euros, one of the novelties will be “The Illuminated Night”, an evening on June 7 in which the fair will remain open until 11:30 pm local time, with theatrical performances and musical performances .
On June 5, Environment Day will be celebrated again at the fair with the Libernatura festival, which will talk about the rise in literature dedicated to topics related to nature. And on June 13, Olympic and Paralympic Day will be celebrated with activities and the presence of athletes.
The previous edition, in which it rained for a good part of the fair, exceeded the business volume of 2022 by 9.6%, with book sales of around 11 million euros, although the number of visitors dropped to around 1.2 million, compared to 3 million the previous year.
