Every year, Cuba’s International Book Fair is reaffirmed as the most all-encompassing, massive cultural event in the country. And there is a reason for that: with its different spaces for professional, academic and artistic exchange—book launches, forums, colloquiums, readings, concerts, exhibitions, etc.—it creates a close dialogue with diverse processes in Cuban, Latin American and universal culture. Beyond its commercial and promotional goals, and above all, the fair has always aimed to spread the infinite knowledge that pours forth from literature all over the island.
This year’s fair, a real Cuban book fiesta, is its 22nd edition. It runs from Feb. 14 to 24 in Havana, and until March 10 in the rest of the country’s provinces. This year, the fair will honor the 160th anniversary of the birth of Cuba’s poet and national hero, José Martí, and will be dedicated to writers Pedro Pablo Rodríguez (winner of the 2009 National Award for the Social and Human Sciences) and Daniel Chavarría (winner of the 2010 National Literature Award).
The guest country of honor this year is Angola, whose literary tradition will be available for fairgoers in the form of books and anthologies of poetry and prose, which will be announced during the fair. Without a doubt, this will be a significant moment for the Cuban publishing scene, which becomes stronger when its opens up to other ways of making and thinking about literature.
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