The most complete, participatory, diverse and open Book Fair to all audiences faces its eighth installment starting this Wednesday, with a very extensive program and an interesting guide to enjoy “The great conversation of literature”, the motto coined by a event with a record number of booths (87), which proposes 73 activities and will have the presence of 94 authors (41 from Asturias and 53 from outside) in its official programming, to which will be added those who attend signings and other alternative activities in the different booths.
The event will have three special thematic threads “Journalism that counts”, “Literature and technology” and “A lot of stories”. And it will also once again focus on activities for children and young people. Furthermore, to facilitate attendance at meetings with authors, one more day has been arranged this year, thus reaching five days of activity.
“The approach we want is really a great conversation about literature, in all its sense. All the presentations are talks with the authors. And there will be many colloquiums and round tables. What we want is for this exchange of ideas to be perceptible” , highlights Jaime Priede, director of the Book Fair.
The event, which has been growing edition after edition, will once again locate its booths in Begoña and Tomás y Valiente street, although in this last space the novelty passes because new stalls will have to be installed in the area already closest to the square of Parcheesi. The workers are working these days to complete the assembly before 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, when the event activity will begin. For Priede, the increase in positions also facilitates greater enrichment. “We have more presence of publishers from outside Asturias, and that is very positive,” he emphasizes.
The programming will also be spread over five days instead of the four in previous editions: “It will be longer in time, it will be more relaxed and it will make it easier for so many events to not overlap. This makes it easier to highlight the identity that the events give us. thematic threads. Because we are not a fair with many media authors who come for a while to sign copies and then leave. Our model is to generate events and cultural events, which leave a little more in the city.
Martín Caparrós, Albert Lladó and Eloy Tizón, among the authors recommended by the director of the fair
Jaime Priede, as director of the Book Fair, places special emphasis on the fact that they propose “a very diverse program for all audiences” and also transmits five moments not to be missed, which he classifies by sections.
Firstly, in the section “Journalism that counts”, he recommends Martín Caparrós, who will be on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. at the Antiguo Instituto with “The world then. A history of the present”, a book with which he won the Prize Ortega y Gasset from Periodismo 2023. “He is a reference and a master of Latin American chronicling,” praises Priede. Also notable in the “Literature and technology” section is the presence of Albert Lladó, who on Friday (8:45 p.m., Carpa Atalaya) will talk about his work “Against current affairs. Thirty questions in the face of the robotization of the present.” And in “Much Story” he stays with Eloy Tizón, who will spend Sunday (1:00 p.m., Antiguo Instituto) to analyze “Plegaria sobremiracles.” “He is a reference in the Spanish literary story,” explains Priede. Finally, in “Zona Joven” there is the round table for Friday (7:00 p.m., Carpa Alborá) on “Social networks in Children’s Literature”, in which Niloa Gray, Myriam M. Lejardi, Fran Targaryen and Nerea Pantiga. While in “Felixina” the workshop held this Wednesday (6:15 p.m., School of Commerce) stands out in which Eva Rami analyzes how artificial intelligence influences the illustration of books.
The Book Fair will hold two previous events today, with two colloquiums at the Old Institute, the first at 6:30 p.m. on “Lights and shadows of the emergence of women in cultural spheres”, and then at 8:00 p.m. with the presentation from the magazine “Lliteratura”.
