Mexico will be guest of honor at the Medellin Book Festival

“Mexico will be the guest of honor at the XII Festival of the Book and Culture of Medellin, which on this occasion will promote reflections on the different forms of memory”, organizers announced on Thursday August 30.

This literary meeting, which will be held from September 7 to 16, was presented under the name “The forms of memory” and with the announcement of the participation of a large Mexican delegation with guests such as writer Juan Villoro, archaeologist Eduardo Matos Moctezuma and illustrator Juan Palomino, among others.

“We have many things in common with Mexico in the cultural, artistic and literary fields. There will be a delegation of 50 people, including writers, artists and chefs to participate in a very interesting agenda, “Medellin’s secretary of culture, Lina Botero, told reporters.

The program involves 300 guests from 15 countries, including musicians, scientists, poets, filmmakers and photographers, who will talk about their creative processes and tell their stories in exercises to “remember”.

As a guest country, Mexico will have a pavilion that includes a “large library” dedicated to the best of Mexican literature, while in other spaces visitors will be able to experience their culture through their music and flavors, with the participation of traditional chefs .

Martha Serna, adviser of the culture and cooperation area of ​​the Mexican embassy in Colombia, told Efe that she will be “proud to participate in the fourth most important literary fair in Latin America” ​​and during the ten days they will share in Medellin a great deal of cultural wealth “.

She revealed that 15 Mexican writers, two mediators of culture and two traditional chefs from the states of Morelos and Puebla will participate.

In addition, she announced that a mariachi from Jalisco will be playing at the inauguration the first dose of “the varied cultural samples” that the Aztec artists will lead.

During the inauguration ceremony, which expects more than 400,000 attendees for this edition, the Colombian poet Elkin Restrepo was announced as the winner of the III León de Greiff Prize for literary merit after the jury concluded that his poetry stands out for “the use of a fine irony “and” an intelligent and precise use of the word “.

This award, which will take place on September 11 at the Book Festival, was won in 2016 by the Venezuelan poet Juan Calzadilla and in 2017 it was awarded to the Argentine novelist Luisa Valenzuela.

The fair, in addition to paying tribute to Frankenstein as a character of the invited universal literature, will include in its program more than 120 book presentations, 2,650 workshops for students, 110 stands and 49 talks.

Some of the conversations are “Growing up in a favela, narrating it later”, with the Brazilian writer Paulo Lins; “From ticks and other fictional animals”, with the Spanish writer Marta Sanz, and “Christiane: a scientific bio-musical”, with the Argentine artist Belén Pasqualini.

TYT Newsroom with information from yucatan.com.mx