by the El Reportero news services
Colombian author Gabriel García Marquez and Mexico’s Octavio Paz will be honored at the 28th edition of the Guadalajara International Book Fair, or FIL, Latin America’s most important such event, fair president Raul Padilla López announced.
At Wednesday’s press conference to present the Nov. 29-Dec. 7 fair’s general program, Raul Padilla López said participants will commemorate the birth centennial of Paz (1914-1998) and celebrate the memory of García Márquez (1927-2014), who died in April.
“This year’s fair will honor key figures in Spanish-language literature who have died or whose (birth) anniversaries happen during 2014,” FIL’s president said.
The fair will also commemorate Mexican writers such as Jose Emilio Pacheco (1939-2014), who died in January; José Revueltas (1914-1976); and Efrain Huerta (1914-1982).
The gathering of about 650 writers from 32 countries will include Brazilian Nelida Piñon, Nicaragua’s Ernesto Cardenal, Scottish musician David Byrne, Welsh author Ken Follett, and Italian scholar Claudio Magris, winner of the FIL’s Literature Award in Romance Languages for 2014.