Spain inaugurates the 2024 Panama Book Fair as Guest Country of Honor

> The Ministry of Culture presents a broad programme of activities, which includes a delegation of ten Spanish authors who create in different official languages ​​and literary genres.

> Spain has an official pavilion of 135 square metres and an additional space in the children's, youth and comic literature area.

> Participation in this fair is part of the internationalisation strategy of the Spanish book sector, which this year is focused on Latin America, with the Guadalajara Book Fair as a highlight.

Spain has just inaugurated the 2024 Panama Book Fair as Guest Country of Honour under the motto 'The language that embraces us', a participation organised by the Ministry of Culture with the collaboration of Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, through the Embassy of Spain in Panama. At the opening ceremony, held yesterday afternoon at the Atlapa Convention Centre in Panama City, the broad literary programme that Spain will develop until 18 August was presented. The ceremony was attended by the Minister of Education of Panama, Lucy Molinar, and the Secretary of State for Culture of the Government of Spain, Jordi Martí, among other institutional representatives.

The Spanish delegation at this fair is represented by ten authors, who create in the different languages ​​of the State and in various literary genres. Among them are Sergio Ramírez, winner of the 2017 Cervantes Prize; Patxi Zubizarreta, winner of the 2023 National Prize for Children's and Young Adult Literature; Yolanda Castaño, winner of the 2023 National Poetry Prize; Àngels Gregori, Inés Martín Rodrigo, Iñaki Martínez, Manuel Vilas, Xavier Mas Craviotto, Cristina Triana and Javier Sierra. In addition, they will hold meetings with Panamanian authors.

Spain also has, as Guest Country of Honour, an official pavilion of 135 square metres, shared with the Federation of Publishers' Guilds of Spain (FGEE), as well as an additional space in the children's and young adult literature area and another area for bibliographic and comic book exhibitions.

Specifically, the exhibition area of ​​the pavilion is decorated with characters from the exhibition 'The Best of the Golden Age' by the Spanish-Japanese comic author Ken Niimura, who has brought to manga the most outstanding literary characters of that brilliant Spanish literary period from a different point of view, fusing Japanese culture with literary characters from the past, references of universal literature.

The literary programme proposed by Spain includes poetry evenings and recitals, musical performances, children's activities, comic book workshops and round tables and discussions where current Spanish literature will be reflected upon by its protagonists. Spanish music will be added to the literary activities, with the concert ‘Paqueando’ that Diego Amador and José María Bandera will dedicate to Paco de Lucía on Friday 16th at the Teatro La Huaca, organized by the Embassy of Spain in Panama.

The presence of Spain as Guest of Honor will also serve to promote the use of Spanish in the Anglophone Caribbean region, where the interest that Spanish authors arouse among the public is growing.

Internationalization of the book sector

The participation of Spain as Guest of Honor Country at the Panama International Book Fair is part of the general strategy of internationalization of the book, focused this year especially on Latin America, with the participation of Spain as Guest of Honor at the Guadalajara Book Fair 2024, in Mexico.

The Panama Book Fair is thus part of the so-called ‘Road to Guadalajara’, a series of activities planned with the aim of increasing Spain’s participation in the Mexican fair, the most important of its kind in the Spanish-speaking world and which will be held from November 30 to December 8.

Spain at the Panama International Book Fair

The first Book Fair in Panama was held from August 1 to 5, 2001, with Costa Rica as the Guest Country. For its part, Spain’s first participation as Guest Country of Honor at the Panama International Book Fair dates back to 2007, with the ‘Cantar de Mío Cid’ as the thematic axis of the fair, coinciding with the eighth centenary of this work.

More information at the Fil website