The Quito International Book Fair 2024 (FILQ), which took place between June 8 and 16 with Colombia as the Guest Country of Honor, broke its participation record with the attendance of 60,493 people according to figures from the Metropolitan Network of Libraries. Furthermore, according to Pablo Muñoz, mayor of Quito, «Sales increased by 30%» those of previous editions.
The Quito Metropolitan Convention Center, located in Bicentenario Park, hosted the Quito International Book Fair under the motto Crossroadwhich sought to promote objectives for the benefit of society, contributing to knowledge in different areas of knowledge, writing, the politics of the region and the intellectual growth of youth and the sciences.
The fair had 300 activities, including workshops with spaces for children, youth and adults; artistic and musical presentations, writers’ activities and promotion with book publishers, conversations and round tables.
The fair was attended by extraordinary writers, who in total included 179 authors, both international and national, turning this fairground into a huge showcase of the book industry.
However, the Quito Book Fair 2024 was not without controversy since various actors from the cultural and publishing sector denounced that the cultural agenda of the fair was marked by Correismo. Among the controversies, it is worth highlighting the presence on the agenda of the Guatemalan writer Rafael Cuevas Pérez, who was highly questioned by writers and intellectuals such as María Fernanda Ampuero, Cristina Burneo Salazar, Gabriela Wiener or Mónica Ojeda, who shared the manifesto of The Flyersa collective that alludes to Ojeda’s story and the Andean witches while also positioning several female creators against gender violence in literary events, since the II Cuenca International Book Fair, last April.
