Bogotá International Book Fair (FILBo) hosts Mexico as Guest Nation

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The Mexico Pavilion at FILBo - Bogotá International Book Fair. Photo: Richard Emblin

The Bogotá International Book Fair (FILBo) is one of the cultural highlights of the year, and returns to the capital’s exhibition grounds Corferias this month with a full program of literary events, as well as the fair’s traditional pavilions. With Mexico the guest nation of honor, 25 other nations are also participating, among them Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Korea, Cuba, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Spain, United States, France, Italy, Israel, Mexico, Mozambique, Nigeria, Portugal, United Kingdom and Vietnam.

Edition 35 of FILBo will also pay tribute to Gabriel García Márquez, the Colombian Nobel Laureate who lived in Mexico until his death in 2014. García Márquez is the most translated Latin American author, and second in the Spanish language to Cervantes. The Mexico Pavilion was designed to showcase the theme “Roots and encounters: A future of peace for our America”.

The guest nation’s slate of authors covers extensive literary terrain, and includes crime novelist and political activist Paco Ignacio Taibo II; literary journalist Juan Villoro; poet, writer and critic Gabriela Jáuregui; children’s novelist Vivian Mansour and poet Alejandro Magallanes, among others.

Opening on April 18 (until May 2), FILBo is also a showcase for Colombian talent, and the national line-up includes Ana Lucía Caicedo, Santiago Gamboa, Oscar Pantoja, Pilar Quintana, Vito Apüshana, Juan Gabriel Vasquez, and Velia Vidal, among others.

Included in the international guest list is Richard Firth-Godbehere (UK), PhD and Fellow at the Centre for the History of the Emotions, Queen Mary University of London; essayist and best-selling science writer David Wallace-Wells (US); feminist writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria) and Kim Thúy, the Vietnamese-born Canadian writer, whose debut novel Ru won the Governor General’s Award for French-language fiction at the 2010.

FILBo is organized by the Colombian Chamber of Books and admission for persons age 13 or older is COP$11,000. The price of admission for children, ages 6 to 12, is COP$8,500 and free for those under the age of six. Visit the official website of fair at www.feriadellibro.com and follow the event on social media @FILBogota #FILBO35años.

Corferias: Cra 37 No.24-67