Promotion of EU Prizes, ECOC, Outreach

EU as Guest of Honour at FIL Guadalajara: Supporting collaboration between European and Latin American professionals

The 37th edition of the Guadalajara International Book Fair, took place from November 25 to December 3, 2023, and saw this year the participation of the EU as Guest of Honour (GoH). The fair is the most important publishing gathering in Ibero-America, with 15.000 book professionals and catalogues of more than 1.500 publishers from 35 countries. The EU’s participation aimed to forge lasting and mutually enriching relationships with Mexico, Latin America, and the Caribbean, and offer a unique opportunity for professionals from the book sector, from Europe and Latin America to establish contacts and develop long term cooperation.

The Cultural Relations Platform, in support of the Delegation of the European Union to Mexico, and in coordination with the EU as Guest of Honour and FIL Guadalajara, supported a series of activities. Renata Zamida and Sarahí Padilla , two experts hired by the CRP, developed thematic workshops at the FIL, connecting European book sector’s professionals with their Latin American counterparts. It took place on November 27, 28, and 29.

Publishing is one of the largest cultural industries in Europe, with more than half a million professionals and 575.000 titles published annually. On the other hand, countries in Latin America such as Mexico have a dynamic book sector that publishes nothing less than 165 million titles every year, while Brazil is amongst the Top 10 publishing markets in the world. Through this participation, the EU intended to support small and medium European publishers, literary agents, and book promoters and facilitate even more the connections with potential partners and organisations in Latin America.

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