Join us this week with a new batch of literary dispatches covering a wide range of news from Latin America, Greece, and Spain; from censorship and literary awards to a slew of literary festivals, read on to learn more!
Miranda Mazariegos, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Latin America
In Colombia, Laura Ardila Arrieta’s book La Costa Nostra was pulled from publication days before going to print by Editorial Planeta, one of the most influential publishers in the Spanish-speaking world. Ardila Arrieta’s book investigates one of the most powerful families in Colombia and was pulled due to “three legal opinions that proved to us that the text contained significant risks that, as a company, we did not want to take on,” according to Planeta’s official statement. Ardila Arrieta was signed by Indent Literary Agency a few days later, and her book has instead been published by Rey Naranjo, an independent Colombian publisher who stated that the publishing of the book represents “the desire to contribute so that the future of our democratic system improves and that education and reading empowers us as a society.”
In other news, director and producer Elisa Miller has taken Fernanda Melchor’s Hurricane Season to the screen! Melchor’s most renowned novel, a thriller set in a town called La Matosa, is available to stream on Netflix as of this month. Temporada de Huracanes dives deep into the heart of Mexico’s violence against women and offers a raw and real depiction of what reality is for many women in the North American country. Melchor’s novel was considered one of the best literary works of 2017, and it put the author on a list of authors under forty to watch. In 2019, the translation of her book received the International Literature Prize from Casa de la Cultura, which came with a prize of 35,000 euros.
In Argentina, the Premio Estimulo a la Escritura 2023 received more than 1100 submissions for a national prize that grants funding for young authors to publish their creative work. In four of the five categories (narrative, short narrative, playwriting, and screenwriting) authors will receive up to $2,120, and graphic novels will receive $1,410 meant to cover costs of editing, copyright, and publishing. This is the second-highest number of submissions for this prize, right after the 2021 contest, which garnered 1300 submissions.
“They’ve turned it into a bad joke or a good joke, but I think that 100 Years of Solitude is a vallenato with 450 pages, and I’m absolutely serious,” says García Marquez in an unedited interview published by Tinta Libre, a cultural magazine that recently started an alliance with one of Spain’s largest newspapers, El País. The interview was conducted in 1994 in Cuba by Jon Intxaustegi with the help of journalist Mauricio Vicent, as part of a documentary that didn’t make it to the screen. The unedited interview was published by Tinta Libre both in their print magazine and online.
Christina Chatzitheodorou, Editor-at-Large, Reporting on Greece
Between October 6-9, Athens experienced its third annual Art Book Fair. Founded in 2019, the Athens Art Book Fair is an artist-run project that showcases both Greek and other artistic publications and brings together creative publishing practices at the international level. Past exhibitors included small editions, independent bookshops, and literary projects from around the world, including initiatives—such as Barzakh and the Bazar Art Book Fair—from Beirut, Tehran, Istanbul, and many more.
This year, the geographical composition did not disappoint, as it spanned once again beyond the Greek borders; even though Greek-based and Athens-based projects constituted the vast majority of the exhibitors, Tunis (Bao Books), Tirana (Pararoja), and Vilnius (12:15 & Artist Book Selection) were amongst the cities represented in the book fair. From largely understood languages to languages only spoken by a few (i.e. Mpataria), the fair presented publications from various backgrounds that brought together individuals who share a common passion for books, publishing, and art. It is in this very intersection, where cities, languages, books, present, and past all meet, that the Art Book Fair differentiates from simpler book fairs and makes it even more worth visiting.
On October 26, Albanian author Yilli Demneri presented his book Θυμάμαι (I Remember) at MONK bar in Athens. Demneri’s book reconstructs the city of Tirana in the 1960s and 70s through his youthful memories. By recalling his memories, Demneri does not wish to provide a personal memoir or a biography. The aim of the book is to depict images of the past as self-contained worlds. Identifying a significant gap in the Greek publishing space, Eurasia Publications began in 2018 a systematic attempt to highlight works by contemporary Albanian writers.
The Friends of Manolis Anagnostakis Group started a new round of online meetings dedicated to those who took the initiative to found the organisation and have passed away. The online meeting will begin with a tribute to Christos Papoutsakis, architect and editor of the magazine Anti. The next meeting, on November 13, will focus on Panagiotis Moullas, Emeritus Professor of Modern Greek Philology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
Τhe new issue of Theseis (October–December 2023) entitled “Gramsci, Althusser, Foucault” was recently published and is available in bookstores, as well as from Nisos Editions. Theseis, which was first published in 1982, focuses on studies of Marxist theory, mainly in the field of political economy and the theory of the state.
Marina García Pardavila, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Spain
Spain is full of literary festivals; you just need to find the one that suits you best! From the most independent and avant-garde voices to writers who are already well consolidated in the literary map, festivals are a great chance to keep up with new trends and catch up on discussions. Women writers, queer writers, and writers from regional literatures, such as Basque, Galician, and Catalan, are leading the change.
The 15th edition of the Festival Eñe took place from October 14–November 5 between Madrid and Málaga. This is a festival with a long tradition in the Spanish panorama of literary festivals. Nonetheless, 2023 marks a new beginning for the Eñe Festival due to the recent passing of Alberto Anaus, founder of the festival. The new director, Jesús Ruiz Mantilla, has chosen Languages as the theme of this year and has incorporated transmedia and videogames as part of the literary content. Unlike previous years, the main focus in this year’s festival was to strengthen the link between South American and European literature. For this reason, the list of writers included extremely beloved authors such as Mariana Enríquez, José Luis Peixoto, Phillipe Sands, and Monika Zgustova. It also offered a space for Catalan and Basque writers, in an attempt to provide a diverse showcase of the literature written in Spain. Among the most outstanding writers, there were Llucia Ramis, Imma Monso, Katixa Agirre, and Karmele Jaio. However, Galician literature was notably missing.
Another highlight of the last month was the Festival Letraheridas 2023, which took place from October 16–21 in Pamplona. Every year since 2019, this festival brings together women writers to stir new conversations and establish a dialogue between their work and a precursor. In this way, Oh, diosas amadas has become a highly expected section for literature fans. This year includes writers such as Margaryta Yakovenko, Mónica Ojeda, and Paula Bonet.
In the following weeks the will get kick-started in Logroño. Do not miss out on these amazing festivals—you can always follow them online!
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