BookWorld, Prague 2008

24th – 27th April
Industrial Palace Prague - Holešovice Exhibition Grounds, Prague

The 14th Prague international book fair and literary festival, BookWorld, is this year taking a close-up look at Love and Passion in Literature, Books and Lifestyle, and 50 Years of Czech Egyptology. LAF is holding a collective stand representing literature organisations from the Basque Country, Catalonia, Estonia, Flanders, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Scotland, Slovenia and Wales.

In accordance with the guest of honour – Spain, LAF is also organising a debate on the current status of Spanish and Latin American literature. Literature from Spain and Latin America in the World is hosted by Mercedes Monmany de la Torre and will be held on Thursday, 24 April at 17:30 in the Literary Hall. On the panel will be Anežka Charvátová (Czech Republic), Anna Housková (Czech Republic), Amanda Hopkinson (UK), Márta Patak (Hungary), Tomasz Pindel (Poland) and Simona Škrabec (Spain-Catalonia).

The literature of Spain and Latin America has at times had a profound impact on the international literary scene. Federico García Lorca, Pablo Neruda and Octavio Paz belong to modern classics of world poetry, while Gabriel García Márquez and Mario Vargas Llosa brought Latin American prose into the foreground in the 1960s. But what is the international status of literature written in Spain and the Americas today? How has the scene changed with writing from the autonomous regions of Spain coming to the fore on the one hand, and US-Hispanic authors making a name for themselves on the other? Which books have touched the hearts and minds of readers world-wide and why? And how has globalization – both cultural and economic – affected the choices made by publishers today? 

Join the debate on Thursday 24th of April at 17:30pm in the Literary Hall, right wing, Industrial Palace, Exhibition Grounds, Prague 7.