The Latin American country seeks to increase the internationalisation of its most current narrative
Colombia, guest of honour at Liber 2022
Colombia will be the guest of honour at the 40th edition of Liber, International Book Fair, organised by Fira de Barcelona and promoted by the Federation of Publishers’ Guilds of Spain (FGEE), which will take place from 5 to 7 October at the Gran Vía exhibition centre in the Catalan capital. As one of the most important publishing markets in Latin America, Colombia will take advantage of its participation in this event to promote the internationalisation of its rich and varied contemporary narrative and to recover the level of pre-pandemic exports.
Under the leadership of the Colombian Chamber of Books (CCL), the Latin American country will have a central space at Liber to present the wide range of themes, styles, publishers and new names in its current publishing production, identify export opportunities for Colombian literature, and present actions aimed at stimulating the marketing and promotion of the country’s books and narrative abroad. In Colombia, an average of 20,000 new titles are registered each year, with an available bibliographic stock of some 260,000 titles from 292 commercial, independent and university publishers and distributors.
Authors, publishers, agents, distributors and institutional representatives will make up the delegation that will travel to Barcelona in October to build a commercial and cultural bridge with Spain within the framework of the fair. For three days, professionals from the book sector from 19 Spanish-speaking countries, and a representation from the Spanish-language segment of the US publishing industry, will share their experiences of books and reading on the different stages set up at the fairgrounds. At the same time, Liber will provide Colombian fiction with a means of access to emerging markets in the rest of the world through translation.
In this regard, it should be noted that buyers and prescriptors of priority interest invited directly by Liber through its internationalisation programmes, as well as exhibitors and visitors who wish to do so, will be able to hold an agenda of interviews with the Colombian delegation within the framework of the fair.
Opportunities for Colombian books
The president of the CCL, Emiro Aristizabal, welcomes this invitation to Liber “Book fairs are the natural scenarios to expose the advances of the publishing industries to the world. For us, this representation of Colombia as guest of honour at Liber 2022 is very important, as it is an opportunity to show how the Colombian publishing sector is doing, the challenges we have as an industry facing new markets and, above all, the actions we have taken to consolidate Colombia as a leading country in the publishing industry for the world”.
Aristizábal also emphasises the significance of this outstanding presence of his country at the Spanish fair: “it is a two-way participation, as Spain will be the guest of honour at the Bogotá International Book Fair in 2025, thanks to the joint work between the Federation of Publishers’ Guilds of Spain (FGEE) and the Colombian Book Chamber, which will allow us to strengthen these ties that keep us united, as well as the actions we will undertake together to continue strengthening the Spanish-language book industries in Latin America”.
For his part, the president of the FGEE and of the Liber organising committee, Daniel Fernández, describes Colombia as a “diverse and very fertile territory, not only with renowned authors, but also with emerging voices in the world of literature that are interesting to discover and read”. Fernández is convinced that “Colombia’s participation as a guest country at Liber will serve to highlight these new names and for the publishing sectors on both sides of the Atlantic to close fruitful agreements for the commercialisation of books, the sale of rights or the translation of works by Colombian authors”.
The Liber 2022 programme of activities will also contribute to disseminating and promoting Colombian authors and publishers through business meetings, talks, conferences, book presentations and readings. The CCL is working on the composition of the official delegation and the contents of the professional and cultural agenda for the days of the fair.
This will be the second time that Colombia is the guest of honour at Liber. It was already the guest of honour at the 2006 edition held in Madrid.
About Liber 2022
In its 40th edition, Liber, Europe’s leading professional event dedicated to books in Spanish, will bring together more than 350 publishers and companies from a dozen countries and expects 7,000 professionals to attend. The fair will once again bring together all the book sectors and will offer commercial opportunities, business meetings and professional contacts in both the national and international markets. At the same time, it will promote debate, knowledge and the exchange of experiences on the different areas related to books through its Professional Conferences.
Liber 2022 is sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Sport, ICEX Exports and Investments, CEDRO, Generalitat de Catalunya, Barcelona City Council and has the collaboration of Acción Cultural Española AC/E; the Gremi d’Editors de Catalunya and l’Associació d’Editors en Llengua Catalana.
Barcelona, 16th June 2022
Images available here
Maria Dolores Herranz / Gloria Dilluvio
Prensa Fira de Barcelona – Liber
Tel. 93 233 25 41 – 21 72
mdherranz@firabarcelona.com
gdilluvio@firabarcelona.com
Gerardo Miguel
Prensa FGEE
Tel: 915765250
prensa@fge.es
Adriana Cecilia Ángel Forero
Directora de comunicación CCL
aangel@camlibro.com.co