Santander (EFE).- Nicaraguan writers Sergio Ramírez, 2017 Cervantes Prize winner, and Gioconda Belli will be in charge of opening and closing, respectively, the 42nd Santander and Cantabria Book Fair, which will be held from June 30 to July 10 at the Plaza Porticada with more than 40 invited authors.
Relaunched last year with a new format and the name of Felisa, the fair will also offer an intense program of concerts and cultural activities.
More than 30 artists will participate in this parallel program, “Las noches de Felisa”, which will be inaugurated with the show “Lorca in New York”, by Alberto San Juan and his band, the coordinator of Felisa, Paco Nadal, announced this Monday. during the presentation of the 42nd edition at Casyc UP.
a touch of attention
The fair, which is organized by Librerías Asociadas de Cantabria with the support of the Santander City Council and the regional government, will bring together 14 bookstores, two fewer than last year.
According to Paco Nadal, the fact that they are fewer than in 2022 is a “wake-up call” about the way in which books reach readers, within a fair in which very famous Santander bookstores participate but also “bookstores are concentrated of the neighborhood and of the town”.
Among the authors who have already been confirmed are Julio Llamazares, José María Pérez “Peridis”, the gastronomic popularizer María Nicolau, Mario Obrero -last Loewe Award winner-, the Cuban Abraham Jiménez Enoa or the journalists Anna Bosch and Javier Lafuente.
The presence of Cantabrian writers also stands out, confirming, according to the fair, the good harvest of recent months with names such as Marta San Miguel, Juan Gómez Bárcena, Pilar Ruiz, Alberto Santamaría or Félix G. Modroño.
In “Las noches de Felisa” Casapalma, Spanish Peasant, Maki Soto, Sephardica from Seville, with their Sephardic music, El Naán Trío or Jimmi Barnatán and The Cocooners, who will meet again on the Porticada stage, will perform.
In addition, poetry will have its space with the proposals led by Carlos Mestre or Gonzalo Escarpa.
Previous activities
Felisa, which also wants to be a meeting place open to all around the book, will offer activities prior to its inauguration during the month of June, such as the short story contest “Fantastic Library”, which will focus on the centenary of the Library Menendez Pelayo.
Also in the Filmoteca de Cantabria will take place the cycle “Paper or celluloid?” that it will screen films based on books; and the “Escuelisas” workshop will be held to give guidelines to writers on the publication of their works.
According to the president of the booksellers association, Luis Lisaso, bookstores will once again take to the streets to reach “all audiences” with a party around “letters and cartoons”, because the world of comics will also be the protagonist. .
Lisaso has vindicated paper against digital formats and the space occupied by booksellers. “We need the human. That is why we are booksellers and we want to have our place in the world”, he said.
defense of rights
For the Vice President and Minister of Culture, Pablo Zuloaga, this 42nd edition of Felisa is also “a hymn to freedom” and to the defense of rights, with such notable presences as the Nicaraguans Sergio Ramírez and Giconda Belli, whom the their country’s government has stripped them of their nationality.
Zuloaga has highlighted “the essential role of booksellers and booksellers in the advancement of critical thinking” and the “very high level” of the invited firms.
The mayoress of Santander, Gema Igual, recalled that in 2022 almost 7,000 people participated in the cultural program of this fair, which became “a great festival of culture open to a diverse and enthusiastic public”.
The Councilor for Culture, Javier Ceruti, has highlighted the City Council’s firm commitment to the fair, which this year will receive 50,000 euros, compared to 35,000 last year. EFE