Mexico Market Focus brochure 2015 by British Council Literature

#LBFMEXICO

CONTENTS

03 04 14 16 22

Introduction Cultural Programme

The London Book Fair, with its longstanding Market Focus Cultural Programme partner the British Council, and this year in partnership with the National Council for Culture and Arts in Mexico, Conaculta, is delighted to welcome the Mexico Market Focus into the spotlight for 2015.

Mexico Year of Culture 2015 Professional Programme Writers

Roger Bartra

Carmen Boullosa

Lydia Cacho

Francisco Hinojosa

Enrique Krauze

Tedi López Mills

Valeria Luiselli

Elena Poniatowska

Pedro Serrano

Juan Villoro

Jorge Volpi

46 48 50 64 82 96 98

WELCOME

Translating Mexico Introducing México20 Anthology

Jacks Thomas Director The London Book Fair Cortina Butler Director Literature British Council Ricardo Cayuela Gally Director of General Publications Conaculta

Since the launch of the Mexico Market Focus programme in 2014, publishers and writers from the UK and Mexico have been engaging with each other’s markets through a number of targeted seminars, delegations, publications and readings. This will now culminate in a celebration of contemporary literature and publishing from Mexico that will mark the Mexico Market Focus 2015. The London Book Fair Market Focus programme aims to strengthen cultural and business relations, educate the global publishing community about literature and contemporary authors from Mexico and help publishers from Mexico to promote their books and literature to an international audience via the fair. The Cultural Programme, curated by the British Council and detailed in these pages, showcases the writers visiting The London Book Fair through seminars, readings and events in and around the fair. These provide the opportunity for some of the finest writers from Mexico to discuss topics of relevance in front of an international literary audience and to meet their international peers. Crucially, it offers exposure for rights and export sales from the international publishing community.

Panellists Publishers Partners Map of OIympia Contact Information

The Professional Programme running concurrently at the Fair offers opportunities for those interested in learning about the business-to-business aspects of the publishing industry in Mexico. The Professional Programme is curated in partnership with the Publishers Association. The London Book Fair Mexico Market Focus is a cornerstone project of the 2015 Year of the UK in Mexico and the Year of Mexico in the UK, a celebration of cultural, educational and business exchange between the two countries. There can be no better time to look at the cultural and commercial opportunities presented by the Mexico Market Focus 2015, and we are delighted to welcome you to the programme.

CULTURAL PROGRAMME New Forms

Alejandro González Iñarritu, Alfonso Cuarón, Carlos Reygadas, Amat Escalante. After dominating at the Oscars and at Cannes in the last few years, these Mexican filmmakers might be the names on everyone’s lips, but as the UK-Mexico Cultural Programme is set to show, there are plenty of Mexican writers telling stories just as eclectic, arresting and formally inventive as ‘Birdman’, ‘Gravity’, ‘Post Tenebras Lux’, and ‘Heli’ – and with just as much box office appeal.

‘If the essay is the centaur of prose forms, then the crónica, according to one of its most notable practitioners, Mexican Juan Villoro, is a duckbilled platypus’

In a country so often discussed in terms of its machísimo attitudes and the horrific, unchecked spate of ‘femicides’, the programme is a fascinating opportunity to hear from courageous female writer-activists such as Carmen Boullosa, Lydia Cacho and Elena Poniatowska. The likes of Rocío Cerón and Amanda de la Garza will give a taste of Mexico’s vibrant poetry scene when they go head to head with UK poets SJ Fowler and Holly Pester. Despite the stereotypes, the phantasmagoria of Juan Rulfo have long since vacated the Mexican literary sphere – and the human sacrifices of Aztec temples like Tenochtitlán, as the recently deceased Mexican doyen Carlos Monsiváis put it, “nowadays take the form of governmental backhanders” – who better to challenge such lingering misconceptions than novelists and leading men of letters like Enrique Krauze, Martín Solares and Jorge Volpi? Krauze coordinates the literary periodical Letras Libres, which, along with websites like Gatopardo, has seen the flourishing of a form that Latin Americans are calling the continent’s ‘Second Boom’, the ‘crónica’ (the first ‘Boom’ featured Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel García Márquez and the like). A hybrid form of literary journalism, the crónica garners huge readerships, and some of its best practitioners are Mexicans. If the essay is the centaur of prose forms, then the crónica, according to one of its most notable practitioners, Mexican Juan Villoro, is a duck-billed platypus. To get closer to the truth of the subject, the crónica writer will use a range of approaches not typically associated with journalism – anything from autobiography to the interview, to elements of travel

writing, and even the occasional Greek chorus. Villoro is also visiting the UK this year, and it’s typical of his genre-defying tendencies to see him marshal the likes of Walter Benjamin and Javier Marías in discussions of that most vulgar of passions, football. (Speaking of football, Ragpicker Press’s The Football Crónicas, edited by Jethro Soutar and Tim Girven, is a highly entertaining introduction to the form, and also features a number of translators at the top of their ‘game’.) Villoro was also one of the judges to select twenty of today’s best young Mexican writers for Pushkin Press’s México20, the May launch of which is being celebrated at The London Book Fair. Fernanda Melchor’s brilliant collection of crónicas, Aquí no es Miami (This is not Miami), has been excerpted in México20, and reads like a meld of Dave Eggers’ fiction and nonfiction. Juan Pablo Anaya has been included too, and his collection of autobiographical essays, Kant y los extraterrestres (Kant and the Extraterrestrials), shares significant borders with the crónica. Keep an ear out, also, for the likes of Alejandro Almazán, Laura Castellanos, Fabrizio Mejía Madrid, Diego Osorno, Alejandro Toledo, none of whom have found their way into English – yet! It could be that the crónica has arisen in response to new social realities – Mexico has been rocked by recent atrocities in Ayotzinapa and Tlatlaya, and by the incessant ‘drug war’, but just as Mexican filmmakers have responded creatively to new conditions, both in society and in the movie industry itself, it seems that the crónica is flourishing in this most disconcerting of environments. Thomas Bunstead

Thomas Bunstead’s Spanish translations have appeared in Granta, the Quarterly Conversation and Vice, and include work by Aixa de la Cru, Eduardo Halfon, Yuri Herrera and Enrique Vila-Matas. He is co-editor of the Words Without Borders Mexico feature (March 2015).

EVENTS - OLYMPIA

Tuesday 14th April

Elena Poniatowska in Conversation with Gaby Wood 11:30–12:00 English PEN Literary Salon –

Elena Poniatowska is a winner of the Cervantes prize, celebrating her first UK publication, Leonora. The English PEN Literary Salon showcases leading UK writers alongside acclaimed international authors from the Market Focus. In partnership with English PEN

Wednesday 15th April

Journalism and its Dangers. With Roger Bartra, Lydia Cacho, Juan Villoro and Tom Wainwright 13:00–14:00 Gallery Suite, Room 1, Grand Hall Gallery –

Mexico is notoriously dangerous for journalists, who increasingly find themselves the target of death threats, physical attacks, arbitrary detentions and assassinations. Hear a panel of speakers discuss the relationship between the media, politics and society.

Jorge Volpi in Conversation with Stefan Tobler 16:00–16:30 English PEN Literary Salon –

Jorge Volpi is an iconoclastic writer, journalist and director of the Cervantino Festival. The English PEN Literary Salon showcases leading UK writers alongside acclaimed international authors from the Market Focus. At the heart of the Book Fair, the Salon is a place to share books, words and ideas.

Valeria Luiselli in Conversation with Catherine Taylor 11:30-12:00 English PEN Literary Salon –

Valeria Luiselli, one of the National Book Foundation’s 5 under 35, mixes literary forms to exciting affect. The English PEN Literary Salon showcases leading UK writers alongside acclaimed international authors from the Market Focus. At the heart of the Book Fair, the Salon is a place to share books, words and ideas.

In partnership with English PEN

Litro Presents New Writing from Mexico. With Daniel Krauze, Natalia Toledo and Jennifer Clement 11.30–12.30 Gallery Suite, Room 1, Grand Hall Gallery –

Litro Magazine launches its Mexico issue with conversation chaired by the issue’s guest editor, writer Jennifer Clement, and contributors to the issue Mexican writers Daniel Krauze and Natalia Toledo. They will speak on the health of Mexican literature, writing away from home and much more in between. In partnership with Litro magazine, with support from the Embassy of Mexico in London

Mexican Translation Slam. With Valeria Luiselli, Ollie Brock, Sophie Hughes and Daniel Hahn 14:30–15:30 Literary Translation Centre –

Emerging Spanish-to-English translators Sophie Hughes and Ollie Brock will test their linguistic mettle in a lighthearted duel of words. The slam will showcase the art of translation by juxtaposing competing translations of the same piece of contemporary writing by Mexican novelist, Valeria Luiselli.

In partnership with English PEN

An Insight into Contemporary Mexican Poetry. With Tedi López Mills, Pedro Serrano and Adam Foulds 16.00–17.00 Gallery Suite, Room 1, Grand Hall Gallery –

Two of Mexico’s finest poets, Tedi López Mills and Pedro Serrano, will read from their poetry and discuss their work. They will talk about the form and function of poetry, their literary influences and the place of poetry – and the poet – in society today.

New Forms of Storytelling. With Jorge Volpi, Martín Solares and Samantha Schnee 13:00–14:00 Gallery Suite, Room 1, Grand Hall Gallery –

Storytelling has often been regarded as a widespread activity in Mexico, including family anecdotes, horror stories, folktales, and historical recounts. A panel of esteemed writers explore how these genres are now presented in alternate forms of literature.

How does Mexico’s Past explain Mexico’s Present? With Enrique Krauze, Roger Bartra and others 14.30–15.30 Gallery Suite, Room 1, Grand Hall Gallery –

Historian Enrique Krauze, who collaborated with Octavio Paz on Vuelta magazine and now coordinates Mexico’s literary periodical Letras Libres, and Roger Bartra, leading sociologist and anthropologist, discuss whether the cultural history of Mexico has cast a shadow over today’s literary and social landscape.

To Live and Die in Mexico. With Elena Poniatowska, Carmen Boullosa and others 16:00–17:00 Gallery Suite, Room 1, Grand Hall Gallery –

From stories of ghosts interacting with the living, to festivals remembering the dead, death is revered in Mexico. As the Nobel prizewinning Mexican writer Octavio Paz explained in Labyrinth of Solitude: “The Mexican ... is familiar with death, jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it.” Join a panel of writers as they discuss how these extensive and varied beliefs in ghosts emerge in literature.

A Single Title’s Journey into English. With Juan Villoro, Thomas Bunstead, Joshua Ellison and Lawrence Schimel 16:00–17:00 Literary Translation Centre –

How does a publisher find a foreign language book, decide they like it, commission a translator, and what does the process look like thereafter? Taking a single case study as an example — a forthcoming collection of essays by Mexican writer Juan Villoro — Lawrence Schimel will be speaking with the publisher, translator and the author himself. 7

EVENTS - OLYMPIA

Thursday 16th April

“So Many Books” by Gabriel Zaid, A Round Table. With Enrique Krauze, Alison Baverstock and others 10:00-11:00 Mexican Pavilion –

This Round Table discussion will look at some of the themes raised by Mexican writer, poet and intellectual Gabriel Zaid in his book So Many Books, published in English in 2004. This includes the economics of the publishing industry, the merits of books over other forms of media, the emergence of e-books, and the role of books in modern culture and how the book industry has changed since the book was published over a decade ago. Enrique Krauze, a prominent intellectual, historian, essayist, critic and publisher will be a part of the discussion.

Breaking Misconceptions of Magical Realism: Reinventing Mexico’s Literary Legacy. With Juan Villoro, Christopher Domínguez Michael and others 11:30–12:30 Gallery Suite, Room 1, Grand Hall Gallery –

When Latin America literature began to gain popularity outside of Spanish-speaking circles, it was its magic, mystery and metafiction that drew European and American readers. As contemporary Mexican writers choose to break away from ‘magical realism’, this panel explores the challenges in breaking with conventions and misconceptions that have dominated the Mexican literary scene.

Juan Villoro in Conversation with Amanda Hopkinson 13:00-13:30 English PEN Literary Salon –

Juan Villoro’s work tackles the post-modern contradictions of contemporary Mexico. The English PEN Literary Salon showcases leading UK writers alongside acclaimed international authors from the Market Focus. In partnership with English PEN

Quality & Vitality: A Conversation between Mexican and British Children’s Illustrators. With Francisco Hinojosa, Anthony Browne and Julia Eccleshare

Women in Translation. With Carmen Boullosa, Joanna Walsh, A. M. Bakalar and Katy Darbyshire

Machismo and Mexico’s Experience of Feminism. With Elena Poniatowska, Lydia Cacho and Bidisha

The Wider Festival Scene: the Stars; the Audience; the Experience. With Jorge Volpi and others

13:00–14:00 Literary Translation Centre –

14:30-15:30 Gallery Suite, Room 1, Grand Hall Gallery –

15:30-16:15 Committee Room 2 –

Why are so of few of the books translated into English written by women? Why do female writers so rarely win translation prizes? Why is it so hard for women who are widely read in their own countries to find an English publisher, and what can be done to address this imbalance? Following on from sessions at last year’s London Book Fair and International Translation Day, we pick up the question to see how quickly things are changing, or whether they’re changing at all.

Patriarchal systems in Mexico have long denied women the right to play a role in nation building and to enter the public arena, and have ignored female participation during the Mexican Revolution. However, there has since been a rise of women writers in contemporary Mexico whose works attempt to break existing models of masculinity and femininity, and re-edit the female experience into the country’s history.

13:00–14:00 High Street Theatre –

Carmen Boullosa in Conversation with Amanda Hopkinson

Creators and laureates on conquering the Children’s and Young Adult Literature market, a conversation between Anthony Browne and Francisco Hinojosa. Both have captivated generations of readers in both sides of the Atlantic, and are now Children’s Laureates in their own countries. What can an author who has become the representative of an entire sector do to promote the expansion of the market?

14:30–15:00 English PEN Literary Salon –

Securing the best performers is vital to the getting a full audience. The audience experience is unique to each event, and is key to success. Success then breeds success, and a sell-out event one year makes it easier to attract great speakers in future years. This session will delve into how festivals select performers and ensure wide promotion of their events.

Carmen Boullosa, novelist, poet, essayist and playwright, defies categorisation. The English PEN Literary Salon showcases leading UK writers alongside acclaimed international authors from the Market Focus. In partnership with English PEN

EVENTS - LONDON Monday 13th April

Octavio Paz and the United Kingdom. With Enrique Krauze, Pedro Serrano and others

English Literature and Mexico: An Evening with Enrique Krauze. Introduced by Gaby Wood

14.00–17.30 British Library Conference Centre, 96 Euston Road, London, NW1 2DB –

19.45–21.00 British Library Conference Centre, 96 Euston Road, London, NW1 2DB –

This seminar explores the connections Paz made with British literature and academic life. In 1970, Mexican Nobel Laureate Octavio Paz was a Professor at Cambridge, a defining and transitional time in his career that sowed in him a life-long interest in Britain. This seminar explores this little-studied period and the connections Paz made with British literature and academic life.

Join us for an intimate evening with one of Mexico’s most distinguished men of letters, Enrique Krauze. As well as being an eminent intellectual, historian, essayist and cultural critic, Krauze worked with Octavio Paz on the magazine Vuelta for over twenty years, and later founded the cultural magazine Letras Libres. Krauze will share his thoughts on Mexican literature, politics and culture at this special London event.

In partnership with the British Library, supported by the Embassy of Mexico in London Tickets: £10 (£7 under 18), book online at www.bl.uk/whatson

In partnership with the British Library, supported by the Embassy of Mexico in London

EVENTS - LONDON

Tuesday 14th April

Thursday 16th April

The Enemies Project: Enemigos – Mexican Poetry. With Carmen Boullosa, Nell Leyshon, Rocío Cerón, Holly Pester, Amanda de la Garza, SJ Fowler, Adriana Diaz Enciso and Fabian Peake

Valeria Luiselli in Conversation with Adam Thirlwell

20.00–22.00 Rich Mix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London, E1 6LA –

The Enemies Project presents Enemigos, its long term engagement with collaborative poetry and radical translation between the writing nations of Mexico and Britain. Join four pairs of Mexican and British poets and writers as they collaborate and exchange in an original evening of literature, both read and discussed. Highlighting the evening will be the launch of the Enemigos anthology, featuring translation exchanges between 16 poets from London and Mexico City. In partnership with Rich Mix

Tickets: £10 (£7 under 18), book online at www.bl.uk/whatson

18.30–20.00 Gallery Bar at Ace Hotel London, 100 Shoreditch High Street, London E1 6JQ –

In what will be an explosive evening of high literature, join Valeria Luiselli, author of The Story of My Teeth (Granta) and one of the National Book Foundation’s Top 5 Authors Under 35, and Adam Thirlwell, author of Lurid and Cute (Jonathan Cape) and twice selected as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists, as they discuss literary experimentation and the dialogue between English and Latin American literature.

Lydia Cacho in Conversation with Gaby Wood 19.00–20.00 Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London, EC1R 3GA –

Leading Mexican writer, journalist and activist Lydia Cacho talks to Gaby Wood, Head of Books at the Daily Telegraph, about freedom of expression and human rights in Mexico. As a campaigner and investigative reporter, Cacho has exposed corruption and sex trafficking at risk to her own life. She has been awarded international prizes in recognition of her remarkable work, including the PEN Pinter International Writer of Courage Award.

Reading and Discussion with Tedi López Mills. Chaired by Sasha Dugdale 20.00–21.00 The Saison Poetry Library, Southbank Centre, Level 5, Royal Festival Hall, London, SE1 8XX –

Join us for an evening of poetry by one of Mexico’s most important contemporary poets, Tedi López Mills. She has published eleven books of poetry and two books of prose, and won the first Octavio Paz Poetry Scholarship in 1998. Her narrative poem Death on the Rua Augusta explores the limits of consciousness whilst breaking down grammatical and formal conventions. The event will offer a rare insight into her life and work.

In partnership with English PEN In partnership with Granta Books Tickets: FREE, register here: events@granta.com. For further information visit: www.acehotel.com/london

Tickets: £5 including a glass of wine, book online at www.freewordcentre.com

In partnership with Modern Poetry in Translation (MPT) as part of the ‘World Poets Series’ Tickets: FREE, book online at www.poetrylibrary.org.uk

Tickets: FREE, book online at ww.richmix.org.uk

EVENTS - LONDON

EVENTS - CARDIFF

OTHER ACTIVITIES

Friday 17th April

Monday 13th April

March - April

May - August

Voices for the Voiceless: Elena Poniatowska and Michael Schmidt

From Mexico to Cardiff Bay. With Pedro Serrano, Juan Villoro, Francesca Rhydderch, Owen Sheers, WN Herbert and Richard Gwyn

Round Table: Freedom of Expression in Mexico Various writers and invited guests

Francisco Hinojosa: Special School Project

México20: New Voices, Old Traditions With Laia Jufresa, Brenda Lozano and Daniel Saldaña París. Chaired by Maya Jaggi

19.00–20.30 London Review Bookshop, 14 Bury Place, London WC1A 2JL –

Elena Poniatowska’s work, in both fiction and journalism, has always been devoted to giving a voice to the voiceless, the disenfranchised and the oppressed. Her most famous book La noche de Tlatelolco (1971) dealt with the massacre of up to 300 protesters in Mexico City in 1968. She has written about the lives of ordinary Mexicans, such as the victims of the 1985 earthquake, as well as well-known artists and radicals such as Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti. Her most recent novel Leonora, recently translated for Serpent’s Tail by Amanda Hopkinson, is based on the life of the surrealist artist Leonora Carrington who sought and found refuge in Mexico, the country where she created most of her finest work and where she died in 2011. Poniatowska will be talking about her career with Michael Schmidt. In partnership with The British Centre for Literary Translation and the London Review Bookshop Tickets: £10 (£8 LRB subscribers), book online at www.lrbshop.co.uk

17.00–20.00 Preseli Room, Wales Millennium Centre, Bute Place, Cardiff Bay CF10 5AL –

Writers from Mexico visit Cardiff to offer an evening of short stories and poetry. Event 1: Two prize-winning writers, Juan Villaro and Francesca Rhydderch, will discuss their short stories and translations with Owen Sheers, followed by a wine reception. Event 2: Pedro Serrano and WN Herbert will read their work and discuss with academic and writer Richard Gwyn the challenges posed by translating poetry. In partnership with Fiction Fiesta and Wales PEN Cymru, supported by the University of Cardiff Free event, register at walespencymru@gmail.org, or visit www.walespencymru.org

09.30-13.00 London School of Economics, LSE Old Building, London WC2A 2AE –

A Round Table discussion with writers from Mexico and leading writers, thinkers and lawyers in the UK with an interest in freedom of expression and Mexico. Participants will discuss whether there are challenges for writers in Mexico - from the impact of the law to selfcensorship. Hosted by English PEN in association with Polis, LSE Tickets: By invitation only

–

To mark the visit of the President of Mexico Enrique Peña Nieto to the UK in March, the British Council created some exciting resources to allow schools to celebrate Mexico and the Spanish language. This included a story by the Latin American Children’s laureate Francisco Hinojosa from Mexico, called ‘La Peor Señora del Mundo’ (The Worst Woman in the World). For more information, visit schoolsonline.britishcouncil. org/contact Francisco will be meeting school students during his visit to London in April.

Friday 29th May 19.00 – 20.00 Free Word Centre

The México20 anthology brings together the works of twenty young Mexican writers under the age of forty to an international readership. Join 3 of the writers featured in the anthology, Laia Jufresa, Brenda Lozano and Daniel Saldaña París as they discuss with journalist Maya Jaggi their work, the anthology and the vast literary tradition of Mexico with brave new styles capturing an era of shifting boundaries. In partnership with English PEN, Hay Festival, Conaculta and Pushkin Press

Special Appearances at Literature Festivals Throughout the year, writers from Mexico will appear at major literary festivals in the UK, including: · Belfast Literary Festival · Edinburgh International Book Festival · Hay Festival, Hay-on-Wye · Worlds Literature Festival, Norwich 13

MEXICO YEAR OF CULTURE 2015

The diplomatic relationship between the UK and Mexico reaches back for almost 190 years, and the rich cultural history bequeathed to us by our writers and artists, our musicians and scientists over centuries before that has shaped both our countries.

digital sector, and the UK as the Guest of Honour at the Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara (FIL) at the end of November. In its 29 years, FIL has developed into one of the most important cultural festivals on the American continent. In addition to a substantial publishing industry presence, organised by the Publishers Association, and an equally heavyweight writers’ programme – both centred around a pavilion designed by the young London architectural studio Carmody Groarke – the UK as Guest of Honour will present a wide selection of cultural events both at the Fair itself and in other venues around the city.

2015 marks the beginning of an exciting collaboration between the United Kingdom and Mexico, where we explore new ways of working together. It is an opportunity to build new links, enhance existing ones and refresh the image of each country in the eyes of the other. There is a firm foundation to build on: trade between our two countries was up by 15% to £3.3 billion in 2013, compared to 2012; Mexico is the UK’s fourth largest market for goods exports; and the UK is Mexico’s fifth largest inward investor.

The creativity, collaboration and innovation which these two events represent are vital to our countries’ future prosperity in an increasingly globalised world. The arts and creative industries bring life to our streets, business to our towns and cities, and wealth to our countries. They encourage people to visit our shores and study at our universities. They lead to international relationships, forging a foundation for the trade deals of tomorrow; and they lubricate trade and business, politics and diplomacy. For the British Council and our Mexican partners they also provide a door into a space where those relationships cannot take us. They start conversations; they allow us to engage with difficult issues; they help to create dialogue and build trust – so that a deeper form of cultural, and human, relations and understanding can follow.

The year will see an unprecedented showcase of Mexican culture in the United Kingdom - including exhibitions of pieces from some of the greatest civilizations that flourished in pre-Hispanic Mexico, and the work of the young architect Frida Escobedo on display at the V&A – and the biggest ever programme of UK cultural, academic and trade projects taking place across Mexico. This ranges from landscape paintings, prints and photographs from the Tate collection 1690-2007, including works by Gainsborough, Stubbs, Turner, Constable, Burra and Hockney, to an arts and disability programme at the celebrated Cervantino Festival in October, and the National Week of Science and Technology in Mexico City where the UK will be the guest of honour. The return of Formula One to Mexico in November will be preceded by events showcasing the UK’s expertise in motorsport and advanced engineering design. A formal agreement on the mutual recognition of academic qualifications, signed by President Nieto during his visit in March, will benefit around 170,000 highly qualified people in both countries, backed up by new collaborations in science and innovation through the UK government’s Newton Fund. Bilateral trade, investment and tourism will be stimulated by high profile business forums, led by some of the most senior figures in the corporate sector in Mexico and the UK. Highlights for both countries are our respective roles in each other’s premier publishing and literature events: Mexico as the Market Focus at the London Book Fair, showcasing the excitement of its literary scene, its burgeoning book trade and its creative innovation in the

From top: All City Canvas: Mexico City’s urban art festival Candoco Dance Company integrates able and disabled dancers. They will perform at the Cervantino Festival. The Vale of Rest, by Millais, is in the Tate Collection

PROFESIONAL PROGRAMME The London Book Fair and the British Council welcome Mexico as 2015’s Market Focus country. This is a year of celebration and exchange between the UK and Mexico, exemplified by Pushkin Press and Hay Festival’s collaborative México20 anthology which showcases Mexican voices and UK translations and is launched during LBF week. The year-long programme of events will culminate in November and December, when the UK is guest of honour at the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL).

‘Mexican publishing reflects the country’s vibrant culture, with an output as innovative and playful as it is discerning and expansive.’

Also enjoying a moment of great expansion and well-earned recognition are the children’s publishers - Naranjo and Tecolote, for example - who will be speaking at the Children’s Hub on Wednesday afternoon. Children’s publishers have blazed a trail in Mexico for years, uniting many creative forces and enjoying an unusual freedom. They represent something of an anomaly in Mexico for their outward-facing approach to buying and selling rights, using scouts and agents, and attending international fairs like Bologna.

Mexican publishing reflects the country’s vibrant culture, with an output as innovative and playful as it is discerning and expansive. The market is dominated by literary fiction and reportage, imported commercial fiction, MBS and personal development, and academic books. At the fair there will be representatives from a cross-section of houses (editoriales) ranging from familiar, international names like Océano, Planeta and Penguin Random House to academic publishers (Universidad Veracruzana for example, who will be discussing the academic sector on Wednesday morning), independents, and the all-important government-owned publishing houses and associations. These are Conaculta (National Council for Culture and the Arts) who lead the dual year alongside the British Council, Fondo de Cultura Economica (FCE), and CANIEM, our Publishers Association equivalent. Digital publishing is still in its very earliest stages in Mexico and the rate of its uptake is still largely undocumented. In the past this resistance has been attributed to limited internet access and a national unwillingness to invest in e-readers, however with the arrival of Amazon.com.mx this year the digital trajectory is likely to gather speed. Larger publishers are now converting their catalogues, entrepreneurial selfpublishing sites are springing up and Apple store and Google Play are popular reading content providers on mobile phones, though Amazon’s reception has so far been marked by pricing concerns and hesitation from publishers about signing over digital content.

In recent years, with the help of national reading initiatives, the physical book market has been growing. This growth is partly explained by the insightful developments of independent publishing houses who are making themselves an increasingly significant international presence. From the smallest boutique houses who produce three books a year, to others who produce several books a month, ventures are frequently supported by government-funded co-edition models or in alliance with universities or private cultural institutions. These independent publishers will be wellrepresented at the fair, including ‘studio’ publishers like Caja de Cerrillos (Box of Matches), and larger houses like Almadía, based in Oaxaca, and Sexto Piso (Sixth Floor). Sexto Piso was started in 2002 by brothers Diego and Eduardo Rabasa (also one of the México20 authors) and is now responsible for a dynamic range of both new and established voices: Valeria Luiselli, for example, published in the UK by Granta, as well as Juan Villoro, and international classics like Carroll, James, Kafka and Kipling.

Lucy Foster has worked in publishing for the last five years, first at Sceptre, Hodder and Stoughton, and now as a freelance editor, translator and reader, specialising in Spanish and French manuscripts. Before that she lived in Mexico and worked in an art gallery. Lucy studied English at Oxford and will begin a PhD in Mexican Literature this year.

There is almost no agenting system in Mexico, with editors and translators often assuming the role of scout and agent for their favourite authors and taking responsibility for sharing them internationally. This market focus moment provides a unique opportunity to open communication channels and share Mexico’s rich literary culture with the UK and beyond. With the aim of making as many fruitful connections as possible, Conaculta has compiled a catalogue of the year’s publications along with sample translations, and bespoke matchmaking sessions are being arranged between visiting Mexican publishers and the rest of the world. Visit www.londonbookfair.co.uk/matchme, or just go to straight to the Mexican pavilion - have a tequila, see wonderful books, make friends, sign contracts! Lucy Foster

EVENTS - OLYMPIA

LONDON EVENTS - OLYMPIA

Tuesday 14th April

Overview of the Mexican Publishing Industry 10.00–11.00 Gallery Suite, Room 1, Grand Hall Gallery

How does the conversation between children’s authors and publishers go? 11.30–12.30 Children’s Hub –

Two unique and polemic writers who have, each in their own market, gone beyond what was hitherto allowed in children’s and young adult literature, talk with their editors about the creative process.

Wednesday 15th April

What we talk about when we talk about writing and reading in the digital era

Publishers Matchmaking – Buying Rights from Mexico (Children’s Publishing)

12.45–13.30 Author HQ –

15.30–16.30 Stand 6D100 –

The influence that the internet has on the reading and writing habits that are shaping the cultural face of the new millennium is undeniable. But how beneficial is this influence; do we write and read better in a when the flow of electronic information forces us to rethink and reshape the future of books and printed publications? Three authors gather to talk about their personal literary processes in new technological platforms linked to the written word.

Meet with Mexican publishers in our bespoke matchmaking sessions.

Opening of the Mexican Pavilion 14.15–15.15 Stand 6D100

Find out more at www. londonbookfair.co.uk/matchme

Publishers Matchmaking – Selling Rights to Mexico (Children’s Publishing) 16.30–17.30 Stand 6D100 –

Meet with Mexican publishers in our bespoke matchmaking sessions. Find out more at www. londonbookfair.co.uk/matchme

Books for Everyone: Promoting Academic Publishing – A Mexican Case Study

UK Guest of Honour at Guadalajara Book Fair: Opportunities for UK Publishers & Writers

11.30–12.30 The Faculty –

11.30–12.30 Children’s Hub –

Universities and books are institutions that have been closely related throughout history. Books have served to cover an important part of each one of the three missions of a university: teaching, research, and the promotion of culture. This panel discussion will cover the strategies, actions and projects developed by Universidad Veracruzana, the Al texto Network of Academic Publishers, and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, in order to bring academic books into the hands of the reader.

The Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara (FIL) is one of the most important book fairs for the Latin American region. Taking place in November 2015, the UK will be the Guest of Honour hosting a broad arts and cultural programme and pavilion showcasing the best of British art and literature. This session presents the purpose, design and opportunities for UK publishers and writers.

Bright Minds: Children’s Publishing, Talent Working 13.00–14.00 Children’s Hub –

What are publishers’ strategies nowadays for bringing books to children and young adults who are mesmerized by the world of visual communication? Four original publishers from two different countries discuss different ways of bringing together images, words, emotions and ideas.

Publishers Matchmaking – Buying Rights from Mexico (Fiction) 14.00–15.00 Stand 6D100 –

Meet with Mexican publishers in our bespoke matchmaking sessions. Find out more at www. londonbookfair.co.uk/matchme

Why do children read: case studies of reading promotion 14.30–15.30 Children’s Hub –

A conversation between UK and Mexico publishers and literacy experts about aims and experiences in each country and the impact of their work on the reader.

Publishers Matchmaking – Selling Rights to Mexico (Fiction) 15.00–16.00 Stand 6D100 –

Meet with Mexican publishers in our bespoke matchmaking sessions. Find out more at www. londonbookfair.co.uk/matchme

NOTES

LONDON EVENTS - OLYMPIA

Thursday 16th April

Translating Mexico: the Hows and the Whos 13.00–14.00 Stand 6D100 –

Translators will be discussing how they came to establish a relationship with their authors, acting as champions and agents for them in the English speaking world, and how the avenues that have already been created can continue to be used to increase the visibility of Mexican literature.

Digital Codex Mendoza for the LBF 2015, Mexican Heritage Institute 14.00–15.00 Stand 6D100 –

This digital edition of the Codex Mendoza represents the first attempt in the world to create a digital resource that permits an in-depth study of a Mexican codex. Digital Codex Mendoza is available through a web app for a more complete approach intended for researchers and specialized users and an iPad app intended for the general public. Both are available, freely, through its website and through the iTunes store. Through this work the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, INAH (National Institute of Anthropology and History) demonstrates the broad-based utility of this type of edition and the need to seek new forms of representation for such complex systems of knowledge. At the same time, the effort furthers the permanent calling of the INAH to study, preserve, and spread awareness of the cultural patrimony of the Mexican people.

WRITERS

“Mexican literature today is as global as its economy”

Mexican literature today is as global as its economy. Yet the power of Mexican identity and history, and the intense exploration of these by twentieth-century masters like Octavio Paz, Carlos Fuentes and Juan Rulfo, are not so easily cast off. The eleven guests at LBF 2015 are differently marked by this heritage as they face – or look away from – a rapidly changing country.

If Cacho is the heroic model of an engagée journalist, all of these visitors are part-time columnists and commentators: there are no ivory towers in the Mexican tradition. Juan Villoro is particularly eclectic, with his passion for football and rock music and critiques of media and pop culture. His fiction offers sly epics of the individual between hubris and failure amid successive utopias. The rootless Valeria Luiselli meditates on space, time and exile in American and Hispanic journals; an eerie novel merges characters and periods in Harlem, evoking Paul Auster and Julio Cortázar as well as Rulfo.

Paradoxically, both Paz and Fuentes were cosmopolitans. As diplomats and academics, their years abroad helped them understand their country better and lent depth to their fiction, poetry and essays. Boundaries were broken within and between genres, with Paz’s poetic criticism/reflective poetry and Fuentes’s narrative innovations. Most of our visiting writers are similarly notable for their peripatetic lives, scholarly breadth and versatile output, and the hybridity of their structures. But the younger ones tussle with the gifts and strictures of the ‘fathers’. Perhaps Rulfo, never an official authority figure to be toppled like Paz, is the ancestor whose historic and human, rather than sacred, myths, and reshuffling of time have left the most uncontested trace. Rulfo rarely travelled. Elena Poniatowska is close to him in espousing Mexico and listening to the voices of the dead and the dispossessed, in haunting works of testimony that emphasise popular heroism. In contrast Jorge Volpi – though first inspired by Fuentes’s Terra Nostra – believes Mexican themes have had their day; his fiction riffs on world history through science, intrigue and apocalypse. Carmen Boullosa’s take on history is more interior, exploring the sense of outsiderhood shared by pirates, vanquished emperors, women or children in worlds they don’t own. Her poetry, novels and plays, carnal yet metaphysical, transmit a homesickness for Mexico’s lost self. The poet and essayist Tedi López Mills is likewise marked by the philosophical bent of Mexican letters, filtered through classical and French masters. Abstract inner dialogues touch on existential dilemmas, questioning all extremes. López Mills and Boullosa’s feminist critiques of authoritarianism, relevant to Mexico’s patriarchal society, involve the refusal to be a ‘public intellectual’. This very Latin figure is epitomised by the great liberal historian Enrique Krauze, Paz’s long-time collaborator on Vuelta magazine and founder-director of today’s leading Hispanic cultural organ, Letras Libres. His chief

works analyse Mexico’s past through the figures of its strongmen. But power in Mexico has lately broken down into networks of organised crime in league with corrupt officials. By investigating paedophile rings and femicide, the journalist Lydia Cacho has undergone several attempts on her life and yet refuses to be silenced. In her tragic feminism, powerless Mexicans now exhibit the ‘learned helplessness’ of battered women.

Such writers reject the dense solemnity of Mexico’s giants. Pedro Serrano’s poetry, airy and musical, pays cool attention to the inner-outer landscape. His wordplay is accessibly witty. Humour, so irrepressible on the street, was scarce in elite twentieth-century literature; but at last the farcical iconoclasm of another master, Jorge Ibargüengoitia, is coming into its own. One disciple is Francisco Hinojosa, who delights in chaos and absurdity and drips black humour into fables for adults and children. Mexican idiosyncrasy continues to be a compulsive topic 65 years after Paz’s Labyrinth of Solitude. The anthropologist and sociologist Roger Bartra has tirelessly updated that book from an anti-nationalist, postmodern position, and the debate goes on. Because if Mexico, even before the current disintegration, belonged to the ‘fragmented Western world,’ as Bartra argues, it remains fantastic, rich in images and stories, unique: a charged place where, as Villoro admits, ‘reality is truly hyperbolic’. Lorna Scott Fox A journalist, translator and editor, Lorna Scott Fox translates from French and Spanish. Her latest published translation is Teresa, My Love, by Julia Kristeva. She has written for several periodicals in Mexico, Spain, the US and the UK, including La Jornada, El País, the London Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement and The Nation.

WRITERS

ROGER BARTRA Roger Bartra, born in Mexico City in 1942, is a Mexican sociologist and anthropologist, recognised as one of the most important contemporary social scientists of his country. Bartra, son of Spanish Civil War refugee writer Agustí Bartra and Anna Murià, is well known for his work on Mexican identity in The Cage of Melancholy: Identity and Metamorphosis in the Mexican Character, his social theory on The Imaginary Networks of Political Power and, recently, for his anthropo-clinical theory of the exocerebrum, that argues that the brain is partly constructed by external socio-cultural elements that complete it. Trained as an anthropologist in Mexico, Bartra earned his doctorate in sociology at La Sorbonne and he is an Emeritus Researcher at Mexico´s National Autonomous University, where he has worked since 1971 and was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1985. He is also an Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck College, University of London.

Photo credit: Josefina Alcazar

Awards

1996 National University Award 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award in Historical Research on Contemporary Mexico Daniel Cosío Villegas (National Institute of Historical Studies of the Revolutions of Mexico, INHERM). 2013 National Award in Sciences and Arts 2014 Member of the Mexican Academy of Language

Titles published in English Anthropology of the brain. Consciousness, Culture, and Free Will Cambridge University Press (2014) The Mexican Transition. Politics, Culture, and Democracy in the Twenty-First Century Wales University Press (2013) The Imaginary Networks of Political Power Fondo de Cultura Económica/La Jaula Abierta (2012). Melancholy and Culture: Diseases of the Soul in Golden Age Spain translated by Christopher Follett: Iberian and Latin American Studies series, University of Wales Press (2008) Blood, Ink, and Culture: Miseries and Splendors of the Post-Mexican Condition translated by Mark Alan Healey: Duke University Press (2002) The Artificial Savage. Modern Myths of the Wild Man translated by Christopher Follett: Michigan University Press (1997). Wild Men in the Looking Glass. The Mythic Origins of European Otherness translated by Carl T. Berrisford: Michigan University Press (1994) Agrarian Structure and Political Power in Mexico Johns Hopkins University Press (1993) The Cage of Melancholy. Identity and Metamorphosis in the Mexican Character translated by Christopher J. Hall Rutgers University Press (1992) The Imaginary Networks of Political Power translated by Claire Joysmith: Rutgers University Press (1992)

Contact Cambridge University Press University of Wales Press 25

WRITERS

CARMEN BOULLOSA Carmen Boullosa was born in Mexico City in 1954. Her first book was the novel Antes, published in 1989. She is now the author of seven volumes of poetry (including La patria insomne and Hamartia-o Hacha), seventeen novels, two book of essays, and ten plays (seven staged). Her work is eclectic, often focusing on the issues of feminism and gender roles within a Latin American context. Her translated works include They’re Cows, We’re Pigs, a historical novel set in a buccaneering world of pirates, revolutionaries and rogues, and Cleopatra Dismounts, a novel offering three versions of the life of Cleopatra. She has lectured at Oxford, Cambridge, Heidelberg, Freie Univertät, Irvine, Brown, UCLA, Yale, the Library of Congress, UNAM and others. Her novel La otra mano de Lepanto was accounted by an international survey of authorities to be among the top works of literature written in Spanish in the last twenty-five years. Boullosa served as a Chief Advisor to a major museum exhibition (Nueva York 1613 1945: New York and the Spanish-Speaking World), and engaged in the writing and production of a feature film Las paredes hablan. An exhibit of some of her art has been held at Museo Carrillo Gil (Las despechadas).

Titles published in English Texas translated by Samantha Schnee: Deep Vellum (2014) Cleopatra Dismounts translated by Geoff Hargreaves: Grove Press (2007) They´re Cows, We´re Pigs translated by Lee Chambers: Grove Press (2001) A Narco History (How the US and Mexico Jointly Constructed the “Mexican Drug War): Or Books (2015) Awards 1990 Premio Xavier Villaurrutia, Mexico 1997 Anna Seghers Preis, Berlin 1996 LiBeratur Preis, Frankfurt 2009 Premio de Novela Café Gijón, Madrid 2014 City Citation, New York

Contact @carmenboullosa www.carmenboullosa.net Agency: Jennifer Lyons, at Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency, LLC.

Photo credit: Mike Wallace

She has won five NY-EMMY awards for the magazine programme “Nueva York” on CUNY TV.

Boullosa’s most recently translated novel, Texas: the Great Theft (translated by Samatha Schnee), won the 2014 Typographical Translation award. Published by fledging translation publishers Deep Vellum, it is an evocation of the volatile Texan-Mexican border during the 1859 Mexican invasion of America.

WRITERS

LYDIA CACHO Lydia Cacho was born in Mexico City in 1963. She has been described by Amnesty International as ‘perhaps Mexico’s most famous investigative journalist and women’s rights advocate’. She began her writing career working for newspapers in Cancún, before beginning to work on violence against women, the subject for which she is best known. In 2000, Cacho founded a centre for vulnerable women in Cancún. Her translated work Slavery Inc is a ground-breaking work of investigative journalism, following traffickers and their victims all over the world, and exposing links to arms smuggling and terrorism. Her award winning books on organised crime, child pornography and human trafficking have brought her to Europe, Asia, Latin America, Australia, Canada and the United States as a professional speaker. She has been a guest lecturer at Columbia University, NYU, Syracuse University, University of Michigan, Stanford University, and UCLA among others.

Titles published in English Slavery Inc. translated by Elizabeth Boburg: Granta (2013) Awards 2010 Pen Pinter Prize U.K 2010 UNESCOGuillermo Cano freedom of expression award 2012 Women of the world Thompson Reuters Award to bravery in journalism 2013 Olof Palme Award 2013 Chevalier De la Legion De Honneur du France

Contact @lydiacachosi www.lydiacacho.net Agency: Indent Agency Andrea Montejo andrea@indentagency.com

She is a Board Member of Article 19, the UK-based freedom of expression NGO. Her books have been translated into eighteen languages. She lives under constant death threats by organised crime lords she has exposed.

WRITERS

FRANCISCO HINOJOSA Francisco Hinojosa was born in Mexico City in 1954. He studied Spanish Language and Literature at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Before dedicating himself to writing on a full time basis, he edited various periodical publications such as La gaceta. He has published more than 50 books of poetry, short stories, travel chronicles, journalism, essays, children’s literature, textbooks, and anthologies. Hinojosa is the first International Ambassador of the Children and Youth fair for Latin America, a position inspired by the UK’s Children’s Laureate. Some of his titles are: Robinson perseguido, La peor señora del mundo, La Fórmula del Dr. Funes, Una semana en Lugano, Ana, ¿verdad?, Informe negro, Un tipo de cuidado, Migraña en racimos, Mexican Chicago, La nota negra, Cuéntame, Poesía eras tú, El tiempo apremia and Emma. His works have been translated into English, Korean, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Lithuanian and Slovenian. Hinojosa’s book Hectic Ethics is a selection of very funny and sardonic short stories unconventionally exploring human relationships.

Titles published in English Hectic Ethics translated by Kurt Hollander: City Lights (1998) Awards 1993–2016 Member of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte 1993 Premio Nacional de Cuento de San Luis Potosí 1996–1997 Grant from the Mexico – United States Fund for Culture, Rockefeller Foundation 2005 Finalist, Primer Premio Iberoamericano de Literatura Infantil y Juvenil 2015 Ambassador of the Feria Internacional del Libro Infantil y Juvenil

Contact @panchohinojosah

As a children’s writer Hinojosa is hilarious and pedagogic at the same time, he writes stories with actions and consequences, refusing to talk down to children but writing modern fables to impart wisdom. Hinojosa has obtained various awards and recognitions, such as the San Luis Potosí National Short Story Award, as well as multiple grants from Mexico’s National System of Creative Artists (SNCA).

WRITERS

ENRIQUE KRAUZE

Enrique Krauze was born in Mexico City in 1947. He is a Mexican historian, biographer, essayist, publisher and intellectual. Krauze published his first article when he was 24, in Siempre magazine, and he then began contributing to Plural magazine. Krauze has continued his work in journalism, regularly writing for El Pais, The New York Times, Bloomberg and many others. Krauze’s Redeemers, one of his works available in English, details the many political and philosophical discourses competing in Latin America, and explores the lives of intellectual giants Octavio Paz, Che Guevara and Hugo Chavez. The Wall Street Journal described the book as ‘the standard history of postcolonial Mexico’. Krauze worked closely with Octavio Paz on the magazine Vuelta, both as deputy editor and deputy director. Vuelta published an important group of intellectuals. It was disbanded on Paz’s death and its cultural role taken over by Letras Libres, a literary and cultural magazine founded by Krauze. Krauze is also the producer of the documentary company ClioTV, which has produced two major TV series on Mexican history including México Nuevo Siglowas, which was the first documentary to depict on public television the events of the 1968 protests.

Titles published in English Redeemers. Ideas and Power in Latin America translated by Hank Heifetz: Harper Collins (2011) Mexico: Biography of Power. A History of Modern Mexico, 1810–1896 translated by Hank Heifetz: Harper Collins (1998) Awards 2008 Knight Grand Cross Order of Isabella the Catholic 2010 National Prize of Mexico for Arts and Sciences, Category of History, Social Sciences and Philosophy 2012 Great Prize of Chapultepec 2012 Caballero Bonald Foundation Prize 2014 Foundation for Analysis and Social Studies (FAES in Spanish)

Contact @EnriqueKrauze enriquekrauze.com.mx

WRITERS

TEDI LÓPEZ MILLS

Tedi López Mills was born in Mexico City in 1959. She studied philosophy at the Mexican National University and literature at the Sorbonne. She has published eleven poetry books: Cinco estaciones, Un lugar ajeno, Segunda persona (Efraín Huerta National Poetry Award), Glosas, Horas, Luz por aire y agua, Un jardín, cinco noches (y otros poemas), Contracorriente (Premio de Literatura José Fuentes Mares), Parafrasear, Muerte en la rúa Augusta (Premio Xavier Villaurrutia), and most recently, Amigo del perro cojo. In Death on the Rua Augusta, published by Eyewear Publishing, López Mills explores consciousness and what links us to reality.

Awards 1994 Premio Nacional de Literatura Efraín Huerta 2006 Premio Nacional de Literatura José Fuentes Mares 2009 Premio Xavier Villaurrutia de Escritores para Escritores 2013 Premio de Narrativa Antonin Artaud

Contact Eyewear Publishing

Photo credit: Norma Patiño

López Mills has also published two books in prose, one on Stéphane Mallarmé, La noche en blanco de Mallarmé, and a collection of personal-narrative essays, Libro de las explicaciones. She has translated the work of many American, Canadian, English and French poets. She lives in Mexico City.

Titles published in English While Light is Built translated by Wendy Burk: Kore Press, (2004) Death on Rua Augusta translated by David Shook: Eyewear Publishing, (2014)

WRITERS

VALERIA LUISELLI

Valeria Luiselli was born in Mexico and lives in New York. She is the author of the internationally acclaimed novel Faces in the Crowd and the book of essays Sidewalks, both translated to multiple languages and published in the UK by Granta. Faces in the Crowd is a multi-narrative story about little-known Mexican poet Gilberto Owen in New York and the life of a young mother who has just returned to Mexico City. The boundaries between the lives of the characters blur until it’s no longer clear what events belong to whom. The Guardian writes ‘Concerned, above all, with literature’s ability to transcend time and space, Faces in the Crowd signals the appearance of an exciting female voice to join a new wave of Latino writers.’ Her most recent novel is The Story of My Teeth (Granta 2015). Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, The New York Times and McSweeney’s, among other places. In 2014 she was the recipient of the National Book Foundation’s “5 under 35” award.

Titles published in English The Story of My Teeth translated by Christina MacSweeney: Granta (2015) Faces in the Crowd translated by Christina MacSweeney: Granta, (2013) Sidewalks translated by Christina MacSweeney: Granta, (2012) Awards 2007–2008 National Fund for Arts and Culture (FONCA) fellowship for young artists, Mexico 2010–2011 National Fund for Arts and Culture (FONCA) fellowship for young artists, Mexico 2014 Berlin Academy of Arts Award Fellowship for Young Artists, Berlin 2014 American Booksellers Association award Indies Introduce: Best Debut Fiction 2014 National Book Foundation’s “5 under 35” award

Contact

Photo Credit: Alfredo Pelcastre

@ValeriaLuiselli Agent: Laurence Laluyaux, Rogers, Coleridge and White

WRITERS

ELENA PONIATOWSKA

Elena Poniatowska was born in Paris, France in 1932. She left France for Mexico when she was ten to escape the Second World War. Poniatowska is a writer and journalist who has written more than 50 books. Her best known work is La noche de Tlatelolco (The night of Tlatelolco, the English translation was titled Massacre in Mexico) about the repression of the 1968 student protests in Mexico City. She is considered to be “Mexico’s grande dame of letters.” In 1970 she rejected the Villaurrutia Literary Prize offered to her for Massacre in Mexico, asking the President who was going to give a prize to the students who had died in the 1968 protests. Poniatowska was awarded the National Prize of Arts and Sciences, the highest prize given to an intellectual in Mexico, in 2002. China chose The Skin of the Sky as the best Latin American Novel of 2001. She is Doctor Honoris Causa of the New School of Social Research, Columbia New York, Manhattanville College, Florida Atlantic University, University of Pau, France, UNAM, la Universidad Complutense de Madrid and other Mexican Universities. In the USA, she received the Mary Moors Cabot for Journalism in 2004 and the International Women Media Foundation Award in 2006. Besides other recognitions she is Officer of the French Legion d’Honneur.

Awards 2014 Medalla de Bellas Artes, México. 2013 Premio Nacional de Periodismo por Trayectoria, México. 2013 Premio Excelencia en las letras José Emilio Pacheco, Mérida Yucatán México. 2013 Premio de Literatura en Lengua castellana Miguel de Cervantes, Madrid, España.

Contact @Eponiatowska www.fundacionelenaponiatowska.org/ Agent: Schavelzon Graham Agencia Literaria, S.L.

Photo Credit: Michel Amado

Leonora, Poniatowska’s first UK publication, is a fictionalised account of the life of Leonora Carrington, a close friend of Poniatowska’s.

Titles published in English Leonora translated by Amanda Hopkinson: Serpent’s Tail (2015) Dear Diego translated by Nathanial Gardner: Aris & Phillips Ltd (2012) Tinísima translated by Katherine Silver: University of New Mexico Press (2006) Massacre in Mexico translated by Helen R Lane: Viking Press (1975) The Skin of the Sky translated by Deanna Heikkinen: University of New Mexico Press (2006) Here’s to you, Jesusa! translated by Deanna Heikkinen: Penguin (2002)

WRITERS

PEDRO SERRANO Pedro Serrano, born in Montreal in 1957, has a Degree in Spanish from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), an MPhil in English Studies from King’s College London and a PhD in Literature from UNAM. He teaches Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetry and Translation at UNAM. He has also taught at the Universidad de Barcelona and Georgetown University. He has published several books of poetry. Together with Carlos López Beltrán he edited and translated La generación del cordero (The Lamb generation) a bilingual anthology of contemporary poetry from the UK, and an anthology of the Irish poet Matthew Sweeney. He translated Shakespeare’s King John and Edward Hirsch’s Aligeren la oscuridad (Lay Back the Darkness). His poetry was put to music by Hilda Paredes in Canciones lunáticas, first performed by the Arditti Quartet at Wigmore Hall in London.

Titles published in English Peatlands, translated by Anna Crowe: Arc Publications (2012) Awards 1987–1988 British Council Scholarship 1989–1992 UNAM scholarship 1996 Fideicomiso Mexico/USA 2001, 2010 Sistema Nacional de Creadores 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship for poetry

Contact www.periodicodepoesia.unam.mx

His poems have appeared in Modern Poetry in Translation, Nimrod Internacional Journal and Bomb, among others. Serrano uses language to shake up assumptions about natural oppositions, combining an acute observation of the natural world with an understanding of the place of the urban in our society. He has been included in the anthologies Reversible Monuments (Copper Canyon, 2002) Connecting Lines (Sarabande Books, 2006), Mexican Poetry Today 20/20 Voices (Shearsman Books, 2010), Being Human; More Real Poems for Unreal Times (Bloodaxe, 2011) and Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, poetry, drama and Writing, edited by X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. His book on TS Eliot and Octavio Paz, La construcción del poeta moderno. T. S. Eliot y Octavio Paz appeared in Mexico in 2011. He edited in 2012, again with Carlos López Beltrán, 359 Delicados (con filtro). He was granted the Guggenheim fellowship in 2007. He is the editor of Periódico de Poesía, an online poetry journal, and his book Peatlands, translated by Anna Crowe and introduced by W.N. Herbert, was recently published by Arc. 40

WRITERS

JUAN VILLORO

Juan Villoro was born in Mexico in 1956. He is well known in Mexico for his novel El Testigo, currently unavailable in English, in which he examines the period of transition undergone by Mexico after the 2000 election, when the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) lost power. Villoro’s translated book of short stories, The Guilty, forthcoming from George Braziller Inc, is a postmodern tackling of the contradictions of contemporary Mexico. Villoro writes regularly for Mexican periodicals, writing about sports, cinema, literature and travel. He has been Professor at the UNAM, and visiting Professor at Yale, Princeton and Pomeu Fabra University (Barcelona). He has also translated works by Truman Capote, Graham Green, Goethe, Lichtenberg, and Rezzori.

Titles published in English The Guilty translated by Kimberley Traube: George Braziller Ltd, (2015) Awards Premio Iberoamericano José Donoso (Chile, for life achievement) Premio ACE (Argentina, for best theater play of the year) Premio Antonin Artaud (best Mexican book of the year) Premio José María Arguedas (Cuba, best novel of Latin America in the last two years) Premio Herralde (best book of the year) Manuel Vázquez Montalban International Award (Spain, best sports journalism of the year)

Contact @JuanVilloro56

WRITERS

JORGE VOLPI

Jorge Volpi was born in 1968 in Mexico City. In 1996 he co-authored the ‘crack’ manifesto, proclaiming a break with the boom generation and disaffection with the socio-political system. He is the author of the novels La paz de los sepulcros, El temperamento melancólico and the Trilogy of the Twentieth Century: En busca de Klingsor, El fin de la locura and No será la tierra. The first part of this trilogy, translated as In Search of Klingsor, is the story of an American physicist trying to unmask Hitler’s chief science advisor, in the period immediately following the Second World War. It has been translated into nineteen languages. Volpi has also written novellas collected in Días de ira, Sanar tu piel amarga, El jardín devastado and Oscuro bosque oscuro. He has taught at universities in Mexico, Chile, Spain, USA and France. He has been a fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation and the National System of Creators of Mexico. He was director of TV channel Canal 22 from 2007 to 2011.

Titles published in English In Search of Klingsor translated by Kristina Cordero: Fourth Estate (2009) Seasons of Ash translated by Alfred Mac Adam: Open Letter (2009) Awards 2009 José Donoso Award for his work, (Chile) 2009 Prize Debate-House of America by “ El insomnio de Bolivar” 2009 Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters of France 2011 The Order of Isabel the Catholic of Spain The Planeta-Casa de América Award for his novel “Tejedora de sombras”.

Contact @jvolpi

He is a contributor to Reforma and El País newspapers. In 2012 he received the Planeta-Casa de América Award for his novel Tejedora de sombras. In 2014, was published his novel Memorial del Engaño in Latin America and Spain. In 2015 this novel will be published in Brazil, Portugal, Italy and France. Volpi is currently General Director of Festival Internacional Cervantino, which takes place every autumn in Guanajuato. One of the major festivals of its kind in the world, it has become one of the most important international artistic and cultural events in Mexico and Latin America.

TRANSLATING MEXICO

In her novel Faces in the Crowd (Granta, 2012), Valeria Luiselli compares literary recognition to a rumour that “multiplies like a virus until it becomes a collective affinity”. And perhaps the same can be said of the dissemination of Mexican writing internationally. In the 1950s, Octavio Paz offered the world a vision of Mexican identity that fixed, almost isolated it within a “labyrinth of solitude”, a framework that fitted neatly into the pre-conceptions that would encourage the Boom in Latin American literature in the 60s and 70s. And Mexico was proudly represented in that literary phenomenon by Carlos Fuentes – admirably translated into English by Margaret Sayers Peden – so raising the volume of the rumour of Mexican literature. But what about the other voices that were not noticeably present? Margaret Sayers Peden’s equally admirable translation of the great classic of 20th century Latin American literature, Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo, never quite achieved “collective affinity” status in the English-speaking world. Where was Josefina Vicens? And even before that, in the 20s and 30s, who was listening to the voices of Los Contemporáneos, including such iconic figures as Xavier Villaurrutia, Salvador Novo and Gilberto Owen, all offering, through their prose and poetry, a very particular image of what modernism might mean in Mexico? They seem to have got lost in the labyrinth. If the rumour seemed to die down for a few decades, it has most definitely been growing to a crescendo in recent years. Granta’s 2010 Best of Young Spanish Novelists contained only one Mexican author: Antonio Ortuño. Yet following a mention in their ‘Best Untranslated Writers’ series, Sergio Pitol has finally been translated into English (The Art of Flight, Deep Vellum, 2015; Tr. George Henson). Carmen Boullosa’s latest novel, Texas: The Great Theft (Deep Vellum, 2014) won her and translator, Samantha Schnee, the 2014 Typographical Era Translation Award; Guadalupe Nettel is to be published this year in a translation by J.T. Litchenstein (Seven Sisters Press); Álvaro Enrigue’s stunningly imaginative Muerte súbita (Sudden Death) will soon appear in English translation and rights to Daniel Saldaña París’s first novel, En medio de extrañas víctimas (Among Strange Victims), have recently been bought by Coffee House Press. And, of course, the novelist and essayist Valeria Luiselli created her own rumour with her widely acclaimed first books: there is no doubt that her second novel, The Story of My Teeth (Granta/Coffee House Press, 2015; Tr. Christina MacSweeney) will equally captivate readers. The list goes on: poetry is flourishing in Mexico now, and such

“So what has brought about this exit from the labyrinth?... a strong tradition of serious cultural and literary criticism and the growing number of platforms where writers can publish their work”

Christina MacSweeney has an MA in Literary Translation from the University of East Anglia. Her translations of Valeria Luiselli’s novel, Faces in the Crowd, and collection of essay, Sidewalks, were published by Granta (2012/2013) and Coffee House Press (2014). A second novel by the same author, The Story of My Teeth, is forthcoming in 2015. She also contributes to wide variety of literary magazines and websites. In 2013, her translation of a collection of essays by the Paraguayan art critic Ticio Escobar (The Invention of Distance) was published in a bilingual edition by the AICA/Fausto.

poets as Luis Felipe Fabre and Paula Abramo deserve to have their voices added to the clamour. So what has brought about this exit from the labyrinth? There are no doubt numerous reasons, but two that come to mind are a strong tradition of serious cultural and literary criticism and the growing number of platforms where writers can publish their work: Letras Libres, offers critical thought and reviews from some of the country’s brightest minds, and a number of exciting, independent publishing houses such as Sexto Piso have sprung up, giving space to the best of new Mexican writing and carrying it beyond the national boundaries. All this, along with the backing of State cultural bodies such as Conaculta, forms the solid grounding creativity needs to blossom, to find its voice. Mirroring this, translators have been increasingly committed to encouraging the multiplicity of voices, collaborating with such publishers as Pushkin Press, Granta, And Other Stories – to name but a few – contributing to, and often acting as editors for, online sites like Words Without Borders and Asymptote. Quietly working behind the scenes, they have frequently had a fundamental influence on what gets translated: reading, writing reports and sample translations, talking with publishers and literary agents, talking to each other, and then, only then, doing what they love: carrying over into English the styles, rhythms, musicality and voices of the authors they admire. Adding to the growing chorus. So, if the rumour has sometimes been more hushed, it has never died out. Mexican writing has continued – sometimes a little more solitary, sometimes booming – to offer readers worldwide, through the work of talented translators, its ideas, opinions, creativity and unique perspectives on that world. ¡Viva el rumor! Christina MacSweeney

INTRODUCING MÉXICO20 ANTHOLOGY Authors Juan Pablo Anaya, Gerardo Arana, Nicolás Cabral, Verónica Gerber, Pergentino José, Laia Jufresa, Luis Felipe Lomelí, Brenda Lozano, Valeria Luiselli, Fernanda Melchor, Emiliano Monge, Eduardo Montagner Anguiano, Antonio Ortuño, Eduardo Rabasa, Antonio Ramos Revillas, Eduardo Ruiz Sosa, Daniel Saldaña Paris, Ximena Sánchez Echenique, Carlos Velázquez, Nadia Villafuerte Translators Juana Adcock, Ollie Brock, Thomas Bunstead, Peter Bush, Nick Caistor, Beth Fowler, Lorenza Garcia, Lucy Greaves, Daniel Hahn, Rosalind Harvey, Amanda Hopkinson, Sophie Hughes, Margaret Jull Costa, Christina MacSweeney, Catherine Mansfield, Anna Milsom, Samantha Schnee, Lorna Scott Fox, James Womack, Frank Wynne

To celebrate the Year of México in the UK and the Year of the UK in Mexico, Hay Festival, the British Council and Conaculta present México20, a project that promotes new voices in Mexican literature and brings their work to an international readership and the global publishing world.

NOTES

A jury of three experts on Mexican literature – Juan Villoro, Guadalupe Nettel and Cristina Rivera Garza – chose twenty young Mexican writers under the age of 40, from the fields of both fiction and non-fiction. The México20 list was announced in December 2014. Each writer was paired with 20 British translators. A piece by each of the 20 writers will be published to form an anthology. Published by Pushkin Press, México20 will be launched at the London Book Fair, 14–16 April 2015. Extract from México20 foreword To bring together twenty narrative texts written by authors under the age of forty at the time of selection, to be translated into English: this was the job in hand, entrusted to three of us – all professional readers, yes, but with markedly different reading practices. And, of course, twenty texts cannot be plucked from a pile without conversations, re-readings, differences, debates, disgruntlements, more readings, and, finally, agreements. It must be said that having access from the outset to PDFs of all of the texts under consideration afforded a conversation as rich in textual nuance as in empirical examples. It’s normal, advisable even, to start any search by defining its field of interest. It’s also true that, once the search has begun the definition of the field, and the field itself, will undergo a constant process of transformation. Narrative is, after all, a living practice – not a lesson set in stone. If we acknowledge that every aesthetic decision inevitably implies an ethics, we must also accept that what is being played out in these authors’ different ways of narrating are different ways of being in the world and of constructing that fiction-reality currently dominated by a state in crisis and a galvanised civil society.

Cristina Rivera-Garza

PANELLISTS

Bidisha is a Trustee of the

A.M. Bakalar was born and

Booker Prize Foundation and is a BBC presenter and broadsheet journalist specialising in gender, social justice, international affairs, human rights and the arts and culture. Having begun her journalistic career at 14 and cut her first book deal, with HarperCollins, at 16, she is the author of two novels, the travelogue Venetian Masters, the internationally acclaimed reportage Beyond the Wall: Writing A Path Through Palestine and most recently Asylum and Exile: Hidden Voices, based on her outreach work with asylum seekers and refugees. She is currently working on her sixth book.

raised in Poland. She lived in Germany, France, Sicily and Canada before she moved to the UK in 2004. Madame Mephisto, her first novel, was among readers’ recommendations to the Guardian First Book Award. Her writing has appeared in The Guardian and The International New York Times. She was the editor of Litro Magazine Polish Issue and her short story ‘Whatever Makes You Sleep at Night’ was published in Wasafiri. Asia also appeared on BBC Radio 3 Night Waves, Proms Plus Literary and BBC Radio 4 At Home Abroad. Recently her essay ‘The Future of Paper Books’ has been published in Wasafiri Birthday Edition.

Photo by Marek Olszewski

PANELLISTS

Alison Baverstock cofounded

Ollie Brock is a translator and

Anthony Browne is one of the

Thomas Bunstead’s Spanish

MA Publishing at Kingston University. She has researched and written widely about publishing and writing but of late her particular research interest has become self-publishing. She is the author of the seminal The Naked Author (Bloomsbury) and since publication has extended her research with further detailed explorations of those involved in self-publishing, whether in practice or in servicing the market. Selfpublishers emerge as proficient, well resourced and perhaps most interestingly, very well satisfied by the process. She looks forward to sharing her latest findings.

literary journalist. His articles have appeared in Revista de Libros, the Times Literary Supplement, the New Statesman, TIME magazine and In Other Words, the journal of the British Centre for Literary Translation. He has co-translated works by authors including Isabel Allende. He lives and works at the London Buddhist Centre, where he co-edits The London Buddhist, a new magazine.

most celebrated author-illustrators working today. He was Children’s Laureate from 2009 to 2011 and has won multiple awards, including the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal twice, the Kurt Maschler Award three times and the much coveted Hans Christian Andersen Award. His outstanding work is loved and admired all around the world. In 2015 Walker Books UK will publish an anniversary edition of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, illustrated by Anthony and release Browne’s new picture book Frida and Bear, illustrated by Danish illustrator Hanne Bartholin. For Walker Books, Anthony Browne’s titles have sold nearly 5 million copies worldwide and been translated into 19 languages across 22 countries. 2013 marked the 30th Anniversary of Gorilla and in 2014 Willy the Wimp also celebrated 30 years with the publication of Willy’s Stories.

translations have appeared in Granta, the Quarterly Conversation and Vice, and include work by Aixa de la Cruz (the short story ‘True Milk’ was selected for Dalkey Archive’s Best of European Fiction 2015), Eduardo Halfon, Yuri Herrera and Enrique Vila-Matas. A co-editor of the Words Without Borders Mexico feature (March 2015), Thomas’s own writing has appeared with the Times Literary Supplement, the Paris Review blog, the Independent, www.3ammagazine.com, >killauthor and Days of Roses.

PANELLISTS

Photo by Anja Pietsch

PANELLISTS

Jennifer Clement is an

Katy Derbyshire is a London-

Sasha Dugdale is a poet,

Julia Eccleshare is a writer,

Joshua Ellison is the founder

Adam Foulds studied English at

American-Mexican author. Among other works, Clement wrote the memoir Widow Basquiat (considered one of the most important books on the painter Jean-Michel Basquiat) that made the “Booksellers’ Choice” list in the United Kingdom and three novels: A True Story Based on Lies (finalist for the UK’s Orange Prize for Fiction), The Poison That Fascinates and Prayers for the Stolen (a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Book), which received an NEA Fellowship for Literature and the Sara Curry Humanitarian Award.

born translator who lives in Berlin. She translates contemporary German writers including Inka Parei, Clemens Meyer, Helene Hegemann, Simon Urban and Christa Wolf. Katy thinks out loud about German books and translation issues at her blog http://lovegermanbooks.blogspot. de/ as well as co-editing the online journal http://www.no-mans-land. org/, co-hosting Berlin’s monthly translation lab and occasionally leading translation workshops.

translator and Editor of Modern Poetry in Translation. She has published two collections of translations of Russian poetry. The most recent, Birdsong on the Seabed (Bloodaxe) by Elena Shvarts, was a Poetry Book Society choice and shortlisted for the Popescu and Academica Rossica Translation Awards. A third collection of her own poems, The Red House, was published by Carcanet in August 2011.

broadcaster and lecturer, and the Guardian’s children’s books editor. She is a judge of the Branford Boase first novel prize and was a judge for the Whitbread Children’s Book prize in 2001. She won the Eleanor Farjeon Award in 2000 in recognition of her outstanding contribution to children’s books. In addition to numerous anthologies her books include, Treasure Islands: The Woman’s Hour Guide to Children’s Reading (BBC Books, 1987), A Guide to the Harry Potter Novels (Continuum, 2002), Beatrix Potter to Harry Potter: Portraits of Children’s Writers (National Portrait Gallery, 2002) and, with Nicholas Tucker, The Rough Guide to Teenage Books, (Rough Guides, October, 2003). She is married with four children and lives in London.

of Habitus, an international journal of Diaspora culture and literature. Library Journal commended the magazine’s “exemplary creative and journalistic work.” His work has appeared in The New York Times, World Policy Journal, on National Public Radio, and in publications from Belfast to Beijing. He has curated events and delivered lectures at the New York Public Library, Harvard University, Princeton University, The PEN World Voices Festival, The Museum of Jewish History, The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, and other venues. As a photographer, writer, and editor, he had worked in Israel, Bosnia, Hungary, Russia, Mexico, Argentina, and Germany.

St Catharine’s College, Oxford, and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. His long narrative poem, The Broken Word won the 2008 Costa Poetry Award. His first novel The Truth About These Strange Times won the 2009 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, and his second novel, The Quickening Maze, was shortlisted for the 2009 Man Booker Prize. Adam was selected as one of the ‘Granta Best of Young British Novelists’ in 2013 and one of the ‘Next Generation Poets’ in 2014. He lives in London.

PANELLISTS

Richard Gwyn was born and

Daniel Hahn is a writer, editor

W.N. Herbert was born in

Amanda Hopkinson translates

Sophie Hughes is literary

Daniel Krauze is the author

grew up in south Wales. While studying anthropology at the London School of Economics, he became interested in the threatened cultures, languages and music of peripheral communities. He is Director of the MA in Creative Writing, Cardiff University. He edited The Pterodactyl’s Wing: Welsh World Poetry (2003), an anthology of new poetry from Wales. He has published poetry in translation from Spanish, Catalan and Lithuanian. His most recent books are Sad Giraffe Café (2010), a collection of prose poems, and The Vagabond’s Breakfast (2011) a memoir.

and translator with forty-something books to his name. His translations from Portuguese, Spanish and French include fiction from Europe, Africa and the Americas and non-fiction by writers ranging from Portuguese Nobel laureate José Saramago to Brazilian footballer Pelé. His work has won him the Blue Peter Book Award and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. His most recent book is The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature. He is currently chair of the Society of Authors.

Dundee, and educated at Brasenose College, Oxford. He has published seven volumes of poetry and four pamphlets, and he is widely anthologised. His last five collections, with Bloodaxe Books, have won numerous accolades. He has been shortlisted twice for the T.S. Eliot prize and twice for the Saltire. He has gained three Poetry Book Society Recommendations, and won three Scottish Arts Council Awards. He has published broadly in the field of Creative Writing, and is a regular reviewer of contemporary poetry.

from Spanish (Elena Poniatowska, Ricardo Piglia); Portuguese (Jose Saramago, Paulo Coelho); and French (Dominique Manotti). She is Professor of Literary Translation at City University, London and a former Director of the British Centre for Literary Translation. She also writes books on Latin American and European photography. Amanda Hopkinson was responsible, as a Trustee of English PEN, for co-founding the Writers in Translation committee in 2004; and she is a Board member of Welsh Literature Exchange and Modern Poetry in Translation.

translator and editor living in Mexico City. Her translations and reviews have appeared in Asymptote Journal, Dazed and Confused, Words Without Borders, The White Review and the Times Literary Supplement. Her translation of Iván Repila’s internationally acclaimed novel The Boy Who Stole Attila’s Horse is published by Pushkin Press. Before becoming a full-time translator she worked for the UK literary agency, Lucas Alexander Whitley, and she currently reads for literary scout Lucy Abrahams and various UK publishers. At the moment she’s working on translations of the Mexican writer and political activist, José Revueltas, as part of her BCLT mentorship.

of the story collections Ravens (Planeta, 2007) and Fever (Planeta, 2010). In 2012, Fallas de Origen, his first novel, won the first New Lyrics award by Editorial Planeta, and published in Mexico, Peru, Chile and Argentina. He is currently co-editor of the magazine Letras Libres.

PANELLISTS

Credit: Anita Staff

PANELLISTS

Christopher Domínguez Michael is a historian, essayist and a well-known critic. He is famous for his anthologies of the work of José Vasconcelos. His Diccionario Crítico de la Literatura Mexicana, 1955–2005 (2007) was translated into English in 2012. In 2004 he received the Premio Xavier Villaurrutia for Vida de fray Servando, a historical biography. He is member of the National System of Arts Creators and receiver of the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship. He was on the editorial board of Vuelta magazine (1989 – 1998) and is currently on the board of Letras Libres and a cultural columnist for Reforma in Mexico City.

Francesca Rhydderch is

Lawrence Schimel (New

Michael Schmidt, born in

Samantha Schnee is the

Owen Sheers’ second poetry

a freelance writer and literary editor based in Aberystwyth. A Cambridge University graduate in Modern Languages, Francesca was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Wales Aberystwyth for her comparative study on the work of Virginia Woolf and Kate Roberts. She was editor of New Welsh Review from 2002-2008. Her debut novel, The Rice Paper Diaries won the Wales Book of the Year Fiction Prize 2014. She was also shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award 2014.

York, 1971) writes in both English and Spanish and has published over 100 books in many different genres as author or anthologist, for both children and adults. His children’s books ¿Lees un libro conmigo? (Panamericana) and Igual que ellos/Just Like Them (Ediciones del Viento) were chosen by IBBY for Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities in 2007 and 2013, respectively, and No hay nada como el original (Destino) was chosen for the White Ravens 2005. He has also won the Lambda Literary Award (twice), the Spectrum Award, the Independent Publisher Book Award, etc. Recent publications as a translator include collections by the Mexican poets Elsa Cross, Luis Armenta Malpica, Luis Aguilar and Miguel Maldonado, the children’s book Meet the Artist: Picasso by Patricia Geis (Princeton Architectural Press); and the graphic novel EuroNightmare by Aleix Saló (Penguin Random House). He lives in Madrid, Spain, where he is a Spanish->English translator.

Mexico in 1947, has translated poetry and prose by Octavio Paz, Jose Clemente Orozco, Homero Aridjis and other Mexican writers. He is the founder-editor of Carcanet Press and of the magazine PN Review, modelled on Octavio Paz’s Plural and Vuelta. He is currently a writer in residence at St John’s College, Cambridge.

Founding Editor of Words Without Borders, which has published over 2,000 works of literature translated from over 100 languages into English in the past decade. Her translation of Carmen Boullosa’s Texas: The Great Theft was published by Deep Vellum in 2014 and was one of the BBC Worldwide’s “Top Ten Books to Read in December.” It received the 2014 Typographical Translation Award and is longlisted for the PEN America Translation Prize.

collection Skirrid Hill won a Somerset Maugham award. His first novel, Resistance, was translated into ten languages and adapted into a film. His plays include The Passion, Mametz and The Two Worlds of Charlie F, which won the 2012 Amnesty Freedom of Expression Prize. His verse drama Pink Mist won the Welsh Book of the Year 2014. His next novel I Saw a Man will be published in June 2015. He is Professor in Creative Writing at Swansea University.

PANELLISTS

Martín Solares (Tampico, 1970)

Catherine Taylor is Deputy

Adam Thirlwell is the author of

Stefan Tobler is the publisher

Natalia Toledo was born

Tom Wainwright was

is a Mexican writer, critic and editor who received the Efraín Huerta National Literary Award in 1998 for his short story, ‘El planeta Coralex’. The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction laureate, Junot Díaz, praises his work as “brilliant, but mostly unavailable in English.”

Director of English PEN. Previously publisher at the Folio Society, she was part of the team that set up the inaugural Folio Prize as well as numerous media and literary sponsorships and partnerships. Catherine has worked for organisations as diverse as The British Library, Microsoft and Amazon.co.uk, and regularly writes on The Guardian, Telegraph and Independent and has been a judge on the Jewish Quarterly and EUPL prizes.

three novels, Politics, The Escape and Lurid & Cute; a novella, Kapow!; and a project including an essay-book – which won a Somerset Maugham Award – and a compendium of translations edited for McSweeney’s and Portobello Books. His work has been translated into thirty languages. He has twice been selected as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists.

at And Other Stories. Its titles include many Latin American novels, including the Guardian First Book and Oxford-Weidenfeld shortlisted Down the Rabbit Hole by the Mexican writer Juan Pablo Villalobos. As well as continuing to publish Villalobos, from 2015-2017 it will publish three novels by fellow Mexican Yuri Herrera. In 2012 Stefan Tobler was named one of The Bookseller magazine’s Rising Stars. He is also a literary translator. Recent translations include Rodrigo de Souza Leão’s All Dogs are Blue and Água Viva by Clarice Lispector.

in Juchitán, Oaxaca, and has published several books of poetry. She writes in both Zapotec and Spanish. She is a member of Mexico’s presitigious Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte and recipient of the National Literature Prize Nezahualcóyotl. She combines her literary work with studies in traditional cuisine from Tehuantepec and Toledo also designs traditional clothing and jewellery.

The Economist’s Mexico City correspondent between 2010 and 2013, during which time he covered Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. He now writes for the International section of The Economist in London. Previously he has been homepage editor of Economist.com, Britain correspondent and deputy editor of The World in 2014. He read philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University. His first book, Narconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel will be published in February 2016 by Ebury Press.

NOTES

PANELLISTS

Joanna Walsh’s writing has

Simon Willis is digital editor at

Gaby Wood is Head of Books

been published by Granta, Dalkey, Salt, Tate, and in many journals. She writes arts journalism for The Guardian, the New Statesman, and The London Review of Books online. Her story collection, “Fractals”, is published by 3:AM Press. “Hotel” will be published by Bloomsbury in 2015, as will a collection of stories from The Dorothy Project. She is fiction editor at 3:AM Magazine, and also runs #readwomen.

The Economist’s culture magazine Intelligent Life, and a former associate editor of Granta. He writes about books in translation for both Intelligent Life and The Economist.

at the Daily Telegraph. She is the author of Edison’s Eve, which was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award in the United States, and has written for the London Review of Books, Granta and Vogue. Wood worked for many years at the Observer, where she held posts including deputy literary editor, review editor, senior feature writer and New York correspondent.

PUBLISHERS

PUBLISHERS - GENERAL

Alfa Omega Editores

Anglo Digital

Ediciones Era

Ediciones Felou

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Alfaomega Grupo Editorial, SA de CV is a Mexican company with a publishing career spanning over thirty years in the domestic market, and with over twenty years in the international publishing world, and with three subsidiaries in Colombia, Argentina and Chile. Alfa Omega has concluded Agreements of Co-publication with renowned publishers in Spain and Chile. It has successfully entered into digital marketing, electronic books and e-books. For over twenty years it has exhibited at the International Book Fair in Guadalajara. Each year it also attends book fairs in Spain and Germany.

Anglo Digital is a young publishing house with presence in Mexico and Colombia that for more than 10 years has lent its services to the high school sector; both private and public. A socially responsible company, a leader in the elaboration of didactic digital resources that allow the new society of students to have… A new way of thinking!

Ediciones Era S.A de C.V was founded in 1960 and for fifty years it has been one of the most important Mexican publishing houses. Throughout its life it has published novels, poetry, short story, chronic, history, social sciences, art, and children’s and young adult books. Currently its catalogue is composed of more than four hundred titles, it publishes around twenty new ones every year and numerous reprints. Its catalogue has been consolidated as one of the most important in the world of publishing in Spanish, and it includes the majority of the best writers in our country that had been publishing their works during the last half century such as Elena Poniatowska, Carlos Monsivaís, José Emilio Pacheco, Carlos Fuentes, Octavio Paz, Juan Rulfo and many others that have already become classics.

Ediciones Felou is a Mexican company that offers services such as publishing and book distribution, as well as the publication of works for companies, institutions and authors interested in the Mexican and Latin-American market. In addition we are the exclusive distributor of important Mexican and foreign publishing houses. Our commercial network covers all Mexican territory and includes the principal bookshop chains. Plus we have short term deals that allow us to reach the Hispanic market in the U.S. We offer services of consultancy, development, and publishing production for independent and corporative projects in traditional format and e-book.

www.anglo-digital.com

www.alfaomega.com.mx

www.felou.com

www.edicionesera.com.mx

Artes de México

La Caja de Cerillos

Editorial Limusa

Editorial Océano de México, S.A De C.V

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More than twenty years have gone by since Artes de México resumed its editorial work. Over this period we have published a series of issues on the different faces of Mexico. One series of titles, for instance, looked at national symbols that have given us a better understanding of who we are, how our country is perceived abroad, and how this perception has influenced our own imagination. Of equal importance is our country’s festive side. In each of these issues, the power of amazement has guided our approach to artistic expressions whose beauty bewitches us, or whose complexity fascinates us.

The Match Box Editions came about in January 2011 as an editorial initiative by Andrea Fuentes Silva and Alejandro Cruz Atienza. Since its foundation, and while conceiving the editorial work as a creative process, we have explored the paths of word and image through alternative and interdisciplinary proposals, with literary works, art, essay, disclosure and other unclassifiable pieces, particularly illustrated books for adults and readers of various age groups. At The Match Box we have edited works that express various forms of thought and universal creation while exploring the relationship between the content with the aesthetic value and objectivity of the books.

Editorial Limusa is a Mexican company founded in 1954 with the mission to publish mainly scientific and technical works, a core business that has not changed over time. Throughout these six decades in business, it has released over 7000 titles, 2000 of which are still being listed in our current catalogue. Presently, Limusa is publishing 100 new titles plus 600 reprints yearly, among these, works by American leading authors from John Wiley’s higher education catalogue, in addition to the works by authors from other publishers around the world. Limusa encompasses several other imprints aiming to target audiences: such as preschool and elementary school, secondary school and high school, books for children, popular science books, plus co-publications with both private and public universities. Our company is present in all Spanish-speaking countries and in selected markets in the United States.

Océano is a global Spanish-language book publishing and distribution group, present in all Latin American markets. Its publishing headquarters are located in Barcelona and Mexico City. Océano de México is noted as a leading house in general non-fiction, fiction and reference books, as well as children’s and YA. Its list covers literature and non-fiction in many, diverse genres: from simple practical books to reference, essay and classics. As a distributor, Océano de México also handles various lists for the Latin American markets.

www.artesdemexico.com

www.lacajadecerillosediciones.com

www.oceano.com.mx

www.noriega.com.mx

PUBLISHERS - GENERAL

Profesionales Edimpro

Editorial Almadía

Ficticia Editorial

Fondo de Cultura Económica

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Publishing house distributor of books and magazines

Almadía was founded ten years ago as an independent publishing house that brings to Mexican readers some of the best national and international literary works that are peripheral to mainstream ideas. Linked to the quality of these works, our bet in the fresh and always surprising design of covers and illustrations, has distinguished us among other publishers. Our catalogue is formed by novels, short stories, nouvelle noire, poetry, essay, chronicles & memoirs, classics, as well as children’s books and special art editions of some renowned works of our back list. Some of our interational authors are J. M. G. Le Clèzio, Alberto Manguel, Gonçalo M. Tavares, Sofi Oksanen, Rivka Galchen, Camille de Toledo, Stefan Kiesbye and Ondjaki, and many others. We also distribute in Mexico the best works of several publishing houses from Argentina & Spain. After ten years we continue to renew our commitment: to offer high quality works beautifully prepared for readers, to promote national and international contemporary literature and to innovate in the Mexican publishing industry.

Ficticia is a publishing house whose main interest is the contemporary short story written originally in Spanish. Born in 1999 as a website in the shape of a ‘virtual city of narrators and stories’ it became a reference site for anyone interested in Spanish storytelling. Ficticia published its first pocket book in 2000. Since then it has published the most important collections of short stories including first works of new authors, and authors of renown. Its bibliography includes works by writers from Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, and Spain. Ficticia, by means of co-editions has a special series of works and anthologies that have been endowed with literary national prizes. But Ficticia has more than stories to tell, we also publish novels, essays, art books on architecture, book collections on football, baseball and boxing. Our publishing house is not only interested in quality writing we are also dedicated to quality in the layout process.

Throughout the course of its 80-year history, Fondo de Cultura Económica (FCE) has published the work of many outstanding authors and scholars, creating one of the richest and most diverse lists in Latin America. The Nobel Prize winner Octavio Paz, along with Alfonso Reyes, Carlos Fuentes, Juan Rulfo, Rosario Castellanos, and hundreds of other distinguished literary authors, including the elected 2015 Mexican ambassador for Children’s Books, Francisco Hinojosa, have made FCE their home. We also have a longstanding tradition as an academic publisher: established in 1934, FCE originally provided students of Economics with books in Spanish before gradually expanding to include other subjects, and its backlist now consists of some ten thousand titles on Anthropology, Art, Communication, Education, History, Philosophy, Sociology, Popular Science, and Psychology. For the last twenty five years, the Children’s Books division has published titles of outstanding literary and visual quality, some of which have received important recognitions such as a New Horizons Award, and mentions in the White Ravens Catalogue and the AIGA.

www.sitesa.mx

www.ficticia.com

www.almadia.com.mx

www.fondodeculturaeconomica.com

Editorial Paralelo

Editorial Sexto Piso

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Publishing house dedicated to producing books about the Mexican patrimony and to editing the monthly magazine Mexicanísimo

Editorial Sexto Piso was born in 2002 in Mexico. Their catalogue has grown to exceed the figure of two hundred titles published in 2013 and is currently one of the most important publishing houses in Mexico, and has a subsidiary in Spain and distribu¬tion throughout Latin America. Sexto Piso has six collections: Classic, Fiction, Essay, Realities, and Illustrated Children books. Sexto Piso has always been characterized by a direct and familiar approach with everyone involved in the process of realisation, edition, dissemination, distribution, promotion, and sales. All these relationships established over eleven years of life make it possible for us to continue growing and doing what we love: editing good books and reaching the maximum of potential readers.

www.mexicanisimo.com.mx

www.sextopiso.com

El Milagro

Nitro Press

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El Milagro (The Miracle) is an independent cultural association, founded in 1991, devoted to producing theatre, to publish books and to promote artistic thinking. Its publishing house is a very important space in the Hispanic world for its knowledge of contemporary playwriting and theatrical thought.

NITRO/PRESS is a publishing house of multidisciplinary character, the first stage of which began in 1997, it included books, a printed magazine, a video magazine, postal art, etc., plus besides literature it gave special attention to the plastic arts and the graphic and editorial design. In that form, which closed in 2004, NITRO/PRESS published more than a hundred artists of various countries, among them the French Orlan. In our second stage which started in November of 2009, the publishing house has been giving emphasis to the narrative, chronic, and modern essay, as well as forgotten literary genres, divided in five collections Lados B – Narrativa de alto riesgo (annual anthology), Cuadernos, InterView (interviews and essays), Punto de Quiebre (commemoratives books) and Letras Rojas (literature and crime).

www.edicioneselmilagro.com.mx

Nitro-press.com

PUBLISHERS - GENERAL

Grupo Planeta

Mantis Editores

Textofilia S.C

Trilce Ediciones

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Grupo Planeta, the largest Spanish-speaking publishing house and one of the top 10 editorial houses worldwide, is proud to present its Latin America Rights Office, a new business division launched in April of 2014 in Mexico City aiming to promote Latin American authors and the region’s literary production, including fiction and nonfiction, towards other languages, territories and formats.

Mantis Editores is a publishing house that specialises in poetry, with almost 300 titles, whose works were recognized with the Pluma de Plata that is awarded by the Board of the October Festivals in Guadalajara (in 2006). Since August 1996, from the first title, our strategy has been to know and publish some of the most promising and representative poets of Mexico and of other nations. In 2006 we specialized in poetry. Now we hold two collections: Terredades (principal) and Liminar (luxury), as well as the co-editions with Écrits des Forges, a publishing house of Quebec (in Spanish-French), with whom we have produced around 60 bilingual titles; with Selo Sebastião Grifo, of Brazil (Spanish-Portuguese), and with Quattro Books and BookThug, of Toronto (Spanish-English). Plus, we have worked in producing samples of Mexican Poetry translated into Arabic, German, and Rumanian. The book 13 mantis en un país germano was selected as the best poetry book published in Mexico in this year in the V Independent Book Fair organized by the FCE, and Mujer América / Femme Amérique, by the Haitian Anthony Phleps, and it was granted the International Prize for Poetry Gatien Lapointe-Jaime Sabines that same year.

Textofilia S.C was founded in 2004 as a literature and contem¬porary art magazine (Textofilia). Since it has been well received at the main bookstores of the country, in 2009 the partners created the publishing house Textofilia Ediciones, and they started to publish books of literature and art in their five different collections. Later on, the company decided to become a distributor specialising in books and cultural projects. By that time, Textofilia won the Edmundo Valadés grant in the category of ‘Support to Independent Magazines’ at the National Fund for Culture and Arts in Mexico in the years 2005-2006 and 20062007. Textofilia has been invited to participate in multiple cultural spaces in Spain, Argentina, India, Holland, United States and Mexico.

Trilce Ediciones is a publishing house specialising in the development of content from the creation of the concept, research and production, to its distribution through several platforms, such as books, apps, exhibitions and web. We have four collections. In ARTE we publish books of photography, design, architecture, Mexican pop culture and contemporary art. TRISTÁN LECOQ is a poetry and poetic prose collection characterized by its conscientious production and the quality of its authors. El ENCARGUITO is a collection devoted to the journalism of renowned writers. In NIÑOS Y JÓVENES we publish books for young readers, with selected themes and the best illustrations.

www.editorialplaneta.com.mx

www.trilce.com.mx

www.textofilia.com

www.mantiseditores.com

Panorama Editorial

Penguin Random House

El Milagro

Nitro Press

–

Founded in 1979, one hundred percent Mexican and under the motto, ‘Por la superación del ser humano y sus instituciones’ (For the improvement of the human being and its institutions), Panorama publishes books on personal enrichment, self-help, and management whose mission is directed towards the publication, digital or print, of books with information and techniques that help with individual enrichment and family matters in the different aspects of the life of the human being, as well as the development of all kind of institutions. Its current editorial background is composed of over 800 titles of national and international authors that follow the present tendency, which helps in the promotion of values in the human being.

Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, leading company in publication and distribution in the Spanish language, forms part of the international group Penguin Random House founded the 1st of July of 2013 after an agreement between Bestelsmann (53% shareholder) and Pearson (47% shareholder) to merge their respective companies dedicated to publishing: Random House and Penguin. The objective of Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial is the publishing of books for all kinds of readers of all ages and in any format, whether paper or digital. In order to achieve this it doesn’t cease to innovate, to open new ways that allow it to be at the forefront of the editorial creation, renewing itself constantly to adapt to the changing times.

www.panoramaed.com.mx

www.megustaleer.com.mx

www.edicioneselmilagro.com.mx

Nitro-press.com

PUBLISHERS - GENERAL

PUBLISHERS - CHILDRENS

Tumbona

Vaso Roto Ediciones

3 abejas S.A de C.V

Amaquemecan

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Under the slogan “The universal right to idleness” (El derecho universal a la pereza), Tumbona Ediciones proposes a sort of creative resistance against the cultural impoverishment of our country. Our goal is to provide hospitality and circulate the genres which are more neglected by the bigger groups (short narrative, literary essay, and aphorism), as well as titles and less frequent gambles in our editorial landscape (visual books of small format, and flipbooks). We are interested in discussing the current notion of book and to understand the publishing house as a space for the artistic experimentation and the dissemination of critical thinking, a place where the book is continuously transforming and in dialogue with new formats.

Vaso Roto Ediciones is a publishing house focusing mainly on foreign voices. The quality that distinguishes Vaso Roto places it as one of the most prestigious independent publishers in Mexico. With a carefully curated catalogue, it seeks to promote the most prominent voices in the global scene. The huge amount of care that goes into every book has been recognised with the Editorial Merit Award by UNAM in 2014 and the Juan de Mairena Award granted by the Secretariat of Culture of Jalisco. Mexican authors on its list include Elsa Cross, Eduardo Lizalde, Ricardo Yáñez, Alfredo Espinosa, Luis Armenta Malpica, visual artist Daniel Lezama and sculptor Javier Marín.

Editorial 3 Abejas is a project that began in 2012 with the financial support of public and private institutions of culture. We are experts in children’s literature. Our editorial and design team has extensive experience in literature, art and graphic design.

Mexican publisher specialising in children’s and young adult literature, non-fiction and books for reading promoters. Its catalogue includes authors such as Gilberto Rendón Ortiz (Casa de las Américas Award, National Children’s Short Story Award “Juan de la Cabada”), Elena Dreser, Juana Inés Dehesa, Margarita Robleda, Ricardo Chávez Castañeda and the emeritus Vicente Quirarte and Miguel Léon-Portilla. Publishing books in Braille, picture books, non-fiction, short stories and fiction.

www.editorial3abejas.com

www.amaquemecan.com

www.vasoroto.com

www.tumbonaediciones.com

Ediciones Castillo

Ediciones El Naranjo

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Ediciones Castillo has received several publishing awards for its high quality publications, including the 11th International Children’s Book Prize in 2006 [awarded by Mexico’s National Arts Council, Conaculta] and Book Design Prizes in 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 from Mexico’s publishing associa¬tion, CANIEM, for its textbooks and educational publications. Since 2006, Ediciones Castillo has been publishing world-class children’s books, choosing a wide variety of themes that reflect and expand the reader’s world. We also introduce up-and-coming authors and illustrators. Our catalog consists of more than 220 fiction and non-fiction titles by leading Mexican and international authors and illustrators.

Ediciones El Naranjo is an independent Mexican publisher with more than ten years of experience in the production of books for children and young adults that has distinguished itself for the quality of its catalogue. Its proposal summons the imagination and sensibility of the readers by offering them works with subjects that concern them the most. Their motto, ‘Sácale Jugo a la Lectura’ (‘Squeeze the juice out of books’), is an invitation to enjoy the books while developing a taste for the various artistic and literary manifestations, by expanding the knowledge about Mexican culture and of other countries, and cementing the habit of reading through editions made with great care. Several prestigious writers and illustrators collaborate with this publisher, and it also provides a place for the creativity of young talents.

www.edicionescastillo.com

www.edicioneselnaranjo.com.mx

PUBLISHERS - CHILDRENS

CIDCLI

El Dragón Rojo

Editorial Santillana

Libros para Imaginar S.A de C.V

–

CIDCLI is a publishing house dedicated entirely to children’s books. Over the past 35 years we have worked with world-renowned writers and illustrators to ensure that our books reflect the best quality of Latin America literature. We incorporate new tools, formats and production techniques to our traditional line. Paper and digital publications share the stage equally at CIDCLI. We publish fiction and non-fiction collections. We have produced a quality backlist that has received a lot of national and international recognition. Our books proudly form part of the cultural heritage of many public libraries.

El Dragón Rojo is a small publishing house that started to take form in 2007 following the encounter of Mónica Gonzalez Dillon, author and editor, with Fabricio Vanden Broeck, designer, illustrator and editor. Formally established in 2012, El Dragón Rojo is the result of two visions exploring new and original approaches to existence and to our world. El Dragón Rojo is a quality orientated small publishing house developing new and sophisticated ideas for alert audiences. Publishing only 100% original material El Dragón Rojo is totally commited to Mexican authors and illustrators as well as universal classics revisited from a contemporary viewpoint.

Come with us on a journey across an ocean of possibilities. Imagining is all about playing with words and images. Inventing and dreaming are ways of creating characters, stories, tales, and narratives. At Libros para Imaginar we embrace diversity in children’s books featuring illustrations and contents from a variety of places. Here you will find our character Xook, which in the Mayan language means “to read”¸ he represents a cacomistle, a mammal native to Mexico. Xook will guide you along the multiple pathways of the imagination.

www.cidcli.com

www.eldragonrojo.mx

The objective of Editorial Santillana is to contribute to the development of the education and culture of Mexico, through the production and dissemination of content, services and educational and literary high quality and innovative material that responds to the necessities of both the agents of the educating system and the young readers of our country. “Alfaguara Infantil y Juvenil” is a scholastic collection that targets readers from 3 years of age to teenage years. Its content is a combination of our most emblematic works with the work of new contemporary authors. Generations of readers have discovered the pleasure of reading through one of the most important catalogues in the history of children’s and young adult literature in Spanish. It has more than 400 titles, with authors such as Roald Dahl, Michael Ende, Luis Pescetti, Arnold Lobel, Elvira Lindo, Ana Mª Machado, César Mallorquí, Yolanda Reyes, Gianni Rodari and Jordi Sierra i Fabra among many others.

www.librosparaimaginar.com.mx

www.leeralfaguara.com.mx | www.santillana.com.mx

Ediciones Tecolate

Ediciones SM

Petra Ediciones S.A de C.V

–

Ediciones Tecolote was created in 1993 with the purpose of spreading various aspects of knowledge among a broad non-specialized readership. This publishing house was set up by people from the Social Sciences who wanted to turn books into an attractive and enjoyable medium; a medium which could become accessible to the general public and to young people who are feeling increasingly attracted to electronic media, whilst being increasingly driven away from reading. We have an owl as our logo, a symbol of wisdom bearing wings made of books.

We are a publishing company with over thirty years of dedica¬tion to the world of children’s literature. We have successfully carried out our Classic Collection for children “Barco de Vapor”, promoting the creation of more and more readers. Its series caters to a diverse audience, from learning readers to twelve years of age or older, with works by increasing difficulty, designed for different degrees of maturity and reading ability. For young readers we have the collection “Gran Angular”. Our catalogue also includes illustrated poetry, classics of world literature presented in new and attractive books, colourful formats for the enjoyment of all readers, and informative books that complement school knowledge in an entertaining and fun way.

Petra Ediciones publishes beautiful illustrated books: photography, art, fiction, and non-fiction for Children’s and Young adults by innovating renowned international authors, writers and artists. The books bring forth images full of meaning that incites the reader to observe, value, interpret, understand, and recreate the world, developing aesthetic experiences and mak¬ing them more mindful and sensitive to the reality around. Petra Ediciones has received several international and national recognitions, such as the BOP, Best Children’s Publisher of the Year in Central and South America 2014, for Bologna Chil¬dren’s Book; New Horizon Award; The Ten Best Art Books for Children from 1995-2000; IBBY International Honour List; The Best Children’s Books in Spanish, Banco del Libro de Venezuela and Editorial Merit Award by Caniem, among others. Petra’s books are based on the belief that the ability to perceive, decipher, and understand the world relies greatly on significant childhood experiences. We have sold rights to Canada, India, Switzerland and France.

www.edicionestecolote.com

www.ediciones-sm.com.mx

www.petraediciones.com

PUBLISHERS - INSTITUTIONAL

CANIEM

Norma Ediciones

–

The National Chamber for the Mexican Publishing Industry (CANIEM) is a chartered body that gathers editors of books and magazines. Its primordial function is to provide management services and support to its partners and simultaneously to the members of the value chain of book and magazine; plus it performs the key tasks of the promotion and dissemination of books and reading, as well as supporting the free publication and circulation of ideas.

Norma Ediciones provides a comprehensive portfolio of editorial content, innovative and educational products. With over 50 years of experience operating on Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America and Europe, it offers the best books for grades preschool, primary and secondary, as well as support materials for teachers. It offers a portfolio of diversified children’s literature for readers from age 3 to young adults. The catalog LIJ Norma has prestigious authors and illustrators who have won various awards around the world and selected titles that cover a wide variety of genres and relevant topics, seeking to reinforce the values of the reader.

www.caniem.com

Consejo Nacional de Fomento Educativo (Conafe)

Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública

–

The National Institute of Public Health (Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública) –dependent of the Ministry of Health– is an academic institution whose commitment is to offer research results to prevent and control diseases. Among its publication highlights is Salud Publica de Mexico, an international, bi-monthly journal which promotes the application of biological, social, behavioral and clinical sciences to understand and resolve population health problems. It is an indexed journal.

Conafe produces books, compact discs and didactic games directed towards children and school-age youth, with the objective to cover the needs posed by the programs of community education. Some of these materials are fed from the Mexican popular oral tradition; other publications are based on the adaptation of scientific research. www.conafe.gob.mx

–

www.insp.mx/produccion-editorial.html

www.interactivosnorma.com

Nostra Ediciones –

Nostra Ediciones is a Mexican publishing house founded by Mauricio Volpi its general director. Its efforts are focused on education, design and the publication of books with high quality contents and finishes. Our principal publishing line is directed towards a reading audience comprised of children and young adults, and it covers diverse narrative genres, art books and books on cultural and scientific dissemination. We also have a large collection of essays about topical debates, politics, economics, health, ideology and legal culture. www.nostraediciones.com

Consejo Editorial de la Administración Pública del Estado de México

Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (Conaculta)

Educal

–

The mission of the Editorial Fund State of México (FOEM for its abbreviation in Spanish), is to stimulate the creation of the new readers among children and youth; project natural, cultural, artistic, historical and social wealth from the State of Mexico, and lay the foundations for the conformation of a great bibliographic heritage that preserves the State’s publications.

The National Council for Culture and the Arts (Conaculta) is a decentralized agency of the Ministry of Public Education (SEP) responsible for the preservation of the integrity of the nation’s cultural heritage in its many artistic and cultural ways, as well as the management of programs in order to encourage the creation, development and distribution of that obtained heritage. Conaculta’s actions are designed to maintain a professional commitment that benefits all the Mexican society through the promotion and dissemination of the arts and the cultural sector. The General Direction of Publications (DGP) of the National Council for Culture and the Arts (Conaculta) has the commitment to promote reading through the publication and dissemination of a wide publishing offer. Its tasks are to encourage creative writing across the country, from emerging writers to established authors. It also involves the government institutions, independent publishers, promoters, agents and of course the readers, all in specific projects that result in the promotion of reading.

Educal’s objective is to perform the national and international activities of commerce and distribution of goods and cultural services, produced by the administrative units and the public institutions, grouped by The National Council for Culture and the Arts (Conaculta) of the Secretariat of Public Education (SEP), as well as editions and products of other public institutions, preferably of educational and cultural character.

Ceape.edomex.gob.mx

–

www.educal.com.mx

www.Conaculta.gob.mx

PUBLISHERS - UNIVERSITY

Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE)

El Colegio de México

Instituto Politécnico Nacional

Red Altexto

–

El Colegio de México is an institution of higher education, which objective is to organize and conduct research in the area of social sciences and the humanities, provide higher education to form professionals, researchers and college professors, publish books and magazines about subjects related to its activities and where the works of its professors and researchers are gathered.

The Instituto Politécnico Nacional is an educational institution of the state which serves as a high school and a higher education nonprofit institution. It produces publications like text books and science and technology source books, as well as general culture.

Altexto is a network integrated by university and academic press. Founded in 2006, it currently is network of 54 university and academic institutions around the country. Its main objective is to promote and support their activities and publishing areas; also it supports the distribution and marketing of books, facilitates the participation of member institutions in domestic and foreign fairs book, and encourages copublication between its members and with other institutions.

CIDE substantial activities are threefold: scientific research; meritocratic leadership training at the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees; and dissemination of socially useful knowledge. These activities are conducted in six academic divisions: Public Administration, Economy, International Studies, Legal Studies, Political Studies and History. The publications focus on these areas of study. The dissemination of knowledge is achieved through the participation of researchers in mass communication such as radio, television and print media like newspapers and publications published and distributed in major libraries in the country, and directly participation in the most important book fairs in Mexico and abroad by the direction of CIDE publications.

www.publicaciones.ipn.mx

www.colmex.com

www.uv.mx/editorial/altexto

www.liberiacide.com www.cide.edu

El Colegio de Sonora

Comercializadora Universidad de Colima S.C

Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa

Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos

–

It creates scientific and humanistic knowledge which identifies and analyses social problems in Sonora and Mexico as well as globally, and proposes solutions. Moreover, it develops com¬mitted human resources, able to implement these solutions, strengthening links with society based on autonomy, plurality, equality and public accountability.

The libraries of the Universidad de Colima offer a grand assortment of titles edited by the Universidad de Colima, as well as possessing a special collection from several commercial publishing houses which can be found in their 8 libraries located in the state of Colima.

Editorial UAS publishes the texts produced by university academics and writers from various parts of Mexico and the world on all aspects of thought: scientific, literary and cultural, based on their unquestionable quality and their high humanistic mission.

The General Direction of Research Publications is in charge of the Publication Program at the Universidad Autonoma del Estado Morelos (UAEM). Its purpose is to promote research in this institution, to strengthen this work, which is one of the fundamental functions. This is accomplished through scientific, monographic and periodicals publications, in print and digital media.

www.colson.edu.mx

Editorial.uas.edu.mx

www.uaem.mx/publicaciones

NOTES

PUBLISHERS - UNIVERSITY

Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes

Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León

–

Our mission in Editorial UAA is to contribute to the dissemination of knowledge, science, technology and culture generated in the institution, as a result of the work and creativity of teachers, researchers and students, through printed and digital, books and magazines, thereby facilitating a regional connection.

The Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, located in the city of Monterrey, is one of the greatest public education institutions in Mexico, with an editorial production involving more than 300 titles per year, which makes it the university (public or private) with the highest number of publications outside Mexico City. Its catalogue includes titles from all literary genres and fields of knowledge, highlighting co-editions with public and commercial book publishers.

www.uaa.mx/direcciones/dgdv/editorial

www.uanl.mx

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)

Universidad Veracruzana

–

Editorial de la Universidad Veracruzana has been a publishing house with a long and recognised tradition in promoting academics, literature, philosophy, history, anthropology and arts. It has been for more than 65 years in the Mexican university market and its books and journals have reached several distribution points in Latin America and further afield. Its publishing tradition is one of the most solid among institutions of higher education not only because it has printed the best of its researchers but also several outstanding fiction and nonfiction writers from Mexico and Latin America. Editorial de la UV also has accomplished an acclaimed catalogue of translations from a number of modern languages.

UNAM is the largest publishing house in the Spanish-speaking world. Its production averages 1200 printed titles and 500 electronic titles per year. It publishes literature, and state-ofthe-art research in Spanish for all sciences and humanities. It translates the most within the Mexican publishing industry, and it has been the publishing house of the most outstanding academic writers in modern Mexico. www.libros.unam.mx

–

www.uv.mx/editorial

PARTNERS

The London Book Fair (LBF)

British Council

The Publishers Association

Conaculta

The London Book Fair (LBF) is the global marketplace for rights negotiation and the sale and distribution of content across print, audio, TV, film and digital channels. Taking place every spring in the world’s premier publishing and cultural city, it is a unique opportunity to explore, understand and capitalise on the innovations shaping the publishing world of the future. LBF brings you direct access to customers, content and emerging markets. LBF 2015, the 44th Fair, will take place from Tuesday 14-Thursday 16 April 2015, Olympia London. LBF’s London Book and Screen Week will run for the second year, with the book fair as the pivotal three day event within a five day programme. Mexico is Market Focus country in 2015, following Korea in 2014.

The British Council creates international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and builds trust between them worldwide. We are a Royal Charter charity, established as the UK’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. Our 7000 staff in over 100 countries work with thousands of professionals and policy makers and millions of young people every year through English, arts, education and society programmes. We earn over 75% of our annual turnover of nearly £700 million from services which customers pay for, education and development contracts we bid for and from partnerships. A UK Government grant provides the remaining 25%. We match every £1 of core public funding with over £3 earned in pursuit of our charitable purpose.

The Publishers Association (The PA) is a strategic advisory partner to The London Book Fair Market Focus professional programme. The PA is the leader consumer organisation serving book, journal, audio and electronic publishers in the UK. Membership comprises over 100 companies from across the trade, academic and education sectors, comprising small and medium enterprises through to global companies. The PA members represent roughly 80% of the industry by turnover, and annually account for around £5bn of revenue.

The PA brings UK publishers together with the rest of the world by organising the UK collective at overseas book fairs, leading trade missions for the industry and providing statistics and relevant information on overseas markets.

www.britishcouncil.org

www.publishers.org.uk

The General Direction of Publications (DGP) of the National Council for Culture and the Arts (Conaculta) has the commitment to promote reading through the publication and dissemination of a wide publishing offer. Its tasks are to encourage creative writing across the country, from emerging writers to established authors. It also involves the government institutions, independent publishers, promoters, agents and of course the readers, all with specific projects that result in the promotion of reading.

www.londonbookfair.co.uk.

www.conaculta.gob.mx

PARTNERS

Belfast Book Festival

British Centre for Literary Translation

Edinburgh International Book Festival

Embassy of Mexico in London

The Belfast Book Festival returns this year on 9th June. After the rip-roaring success of the 2011, 2012 and 2013 editions, the aim of this Belfast Book Festival is to bring to life all the energy and passion that Belfast has for books and writers. The Festival is based at the Crescent Arts Centre, with events happening across the city in a variety of venues.

The British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT), based at the University of East Anglia, is Britain’s leading centre for the development, promotion and support of literary translation and contemporary writing from around the world. BCLT aims to promote translation and translated literature, encourage the production of translated literature, support professional literary translators at all stages of their career, share models of best practice, and generate and encourage academic debate.

The Edinburgh International Book Festival began in 1983 and is now a key event in the August Festival season, celebrated annually in Scotland’s capital city. Biennial at first, the Book Festival became a yearly celebration in 1997. In its first year the Book Festival played host to just 30 ‘Meet the Author’ events. Today, the Festival programmes over 700 events, which are enjoyed by people of all ages.

The Embassy of Mexico in London is the diplomatic mission of Mexico in the United Kingdom. Our vision is to extend and strengthen Mexico’s foreign policy with the government of the United Kingdom, through actions on the different political, economic, social and cultural issues and to solve the needs of the Mexican community in the United Kingdom, through short and long term programmes.

www.edbookfest.co.uk

http://embamex.sre.gob.mx/reinounido

www.belfastbookfestival.com

www.bclt.org.uk

British Library

Cardiff University

Free Word

Granta

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the world’s greatest research libraries. It provides world class information services to the academic, business, research and scientific communities and offers unparalleled access to the world’s largest and most comprehensive research collection. The Library’s collection has developed over 250 years and exceeds 150 million separate items representing every age of written civilisation and includes books, journals, manuscripts, maps, stamps, music, patents, photographs, newspapers and sound recordings in all written and spoken languages. Up to 10 million people visit the British Library website every year where they can view up to 4 million digitised collection items and over 40 million pages.

Cardiff University is recognised in independent government assessments as one of Britain’s leading teaching and research universities and is a member of the Russell Group of the UK’s most research intensive universities. The 2014 Research Excellence Framework ranked the University 5th in the UK for research excellence. Among its academic staff are two Nobel Laureates, including the winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize for Medicine, University Chancellor Professor Sir Martin Evans. Founded by Royal Charter in 1883, today the University combines impressive modern facilities and a dynamic approach to teaching and research. The University’s breadth of expertise encompasses: the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences; the College of Biomedical and Life Sciences; and the College of Physical Sciences and Engineering, along with a longstanding commitment to lifelong learning. Cardiff’s flagship Research Institutes are offering radical new approaches to pressing global problems.

Free Word is an international centre for literature, literacy and free expression that celebrates and explores the power of words to change lives. Through our artistic programmes and public events we promote and protect the written and spoken word and provide a space for collaboration, exploration and dissent.

Granta Books is one of the most independentminded and prestigious literary publishers in the UK. The imprint publishes around 25 new titles a year, both literary fiction and upmarket non-fiction, and has established a reputation for publishing intelligent, challenging and original books. We publish groundbreaking, ambitious and beautifully written fiction, including prizewinning novels by Eleanor Catton and AM Homes, as well as voice-driven nonfiction from critically-acclaimed writers such as Diana Athill and Patrick Barkham. We are always looking for and nurturing new talent, with debuts on the list by Robert Macfarlane, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor and Valeria Luiselli.

www.bl.uk

www.cardiff.ac.uk

www.freewordcentre.com

www.grantabooks.com

PARTNERS

English PEN

The Enemies Project

English PEN promotes the freedom to write and the freedom to read in the UK and around the world. The founding centre of a worldwide writers’ association, established in 1921, we work to identify and dismantle barriers between writers and readers, whether these are cultural, political, linguistic or economic.

The Enemies project is about poetry in collaboration - across the arts, across languages & nations, across form, style & content multifarious, multidisciplinary but essentially cogent program of events, exhibitions, tours & publications that provide the grounding to comprehensively explore the notion of collaboration in a contemporary, active, innovative realm of poetry, across the globe. So far, over 400 poets, artists, photographers and musicians have participated in over 100 events, in over twenty cities, in well over a dozen countries and there is much much more to come.

www.englishpen.org

www.theenemiesproject.com

London Review of Books and London Review Bookshop In the more than 35 years since its first issue in 1979 The London Review of Books has established itself as one of the world’s leading intellectual and cultural journals. Skilfully matching writers with subject matter, and with a strong commitment to the long form, the Review is often provocative, sometimes controversial, and always illuminating. In 2003 the journal opened the London Review Bookshop in Bloomsbury, to sell the books that reflected its values and concerns, and to be a meeting place for writers, readers and publishers. These ambitions have been magnificently realized, and the bookshop has become an essential part of the city’s cultural life, with an impressive programme of author readings and debates, and a carefully curated stock of the very best titles on offer in the English language.

Modern Poetry in Translation Modern Poetry in Translation publishes the best of world poetry in the best Englishlanguage translations. We publish great poetry, conversations, interviews and reviews and we have an active digital presence with free workshops, supplementary material, blogs and podcasts. In 2015, MPT celebrates 50 years of groundbreaking international publishing with a programme of events, readings and performances. Sign up to our newsletter and join us to support world poetry. www.mptmagazine.com

www.lrb.co.uk and www.lrbshop.co.uk

Hay Festival

Litro

Wales PEN Cymru

Writers Centre Norwich

Hay brings together writers from around the world to share stories and ideas at the annual festival in the staggering beauty of the Brecon Beacons National Park, and at our festivals around the world - from Cartagena to Dhaka and from Beirut to Nairobi.

Litro Magazine is the UK’s largest read free short stories and creative arts magazine, in print and online. Litro’s ethos is finding new ways of looking at the world through stories. Traditionally Litro focused on short fiction, armed with a mission to discover new and emerging writers, giving them a platform to be read alongside stalwarts of the literary scene. Now Litro has added more strings to its bow developing a fully-fledged online platform a place for readers, writers and the broader creative community to discuss various aspects of literature, arts and culture through features, reviews, non-themed fiction, interviews, columns. And recently launching its US edition LitroNY.com.

Wales PEN Cymru is now one of 145 PEN centres in more than 100 countries across the world. It is affiliated to PEN International which is the leading voice of literature worldwide.

Writers’ Centre Norwich is a dynamic literary organisation based in the East of England. Our mission is to explore the artistic and social impact of creative writing through pioneering and collaborative projects, working with writers and other partners regionally, nationally and internationally. We are audience-focused and artform-led, with an agenda of excellence, engagement and experimentation.

www.hayfestival.org

www.litro.co.uk

PEN promotes literature and defends freedom of expression. It campaigns on behalf of writers around the world who are persecuted, imprisoned, harassed and attacked for what they have written. www.walespencymru.org

We believe that literature, creative writing, reading and literary translation can open doors to new worlds; that they can liberate, entertain, challenge and transform lives. www.writerscentrenorwich.org.uk

NOTES

PARTNERS

Rich Mix

The Saison Poetry Library

Rich Mix is a charity and social enterprise that offers live music, film, dance, theatre, comedy, spoken word and a range of creative activities for people of all ages and all cultures. All profits go back to support our education, arts and community activities which nurture new and local talent.

The Saison Poetry Library is the UK’s largest collection of modern and contemporary poetry from 1912 onwards. It is open to everyone and free to join (on proof of UK address). The library runs a monthly event series called Special Edition and a program of exhibitions which run throughout the year. The library’s website is a great way to see at glance what events are taking place across the UK and its digital archive at www.poetrymagazines.org.uk is a free database of contemporary poems from UK magazines.

www.richmix.org.uk

www.poetrylibrary.org.uk

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NOTES

Map of Olympia

Ground floor

Level 1

West Hall Entrance

West Hall Entrance To level 1

Disabled access

Kensington Olympia Main Entrance

To level 1

Literary Translation Centre

Mexico Pavillion

English PEN Literary Salon To Ground Floor

To Ground Floor

Cultural Programme Gallery Suite Kensington Olympia Main Entrance

Disabled access

CONTACT INFORMATION The London Book Fair Olympia London Hammersmith Road Kensington London W14 8UX

JOIN THE CONVERSATION www.britishcouncil.org/mexicomarketfocus Follow on Twitter #LBFMEXICO

Opening Times

Tuesday 14th April 2015: 09:00 - 18:30 Wednesday 15th April 2015: 09:00 - 18:30 Thursday 16th April 2015: 09:00 - 17:00

The London Book Fair Market Focus

The London Book Fair Katie Morris T: +44 (0)20 8910 7154 E: Katie.Morris@reedexpo.co.uk www.londonbookfair.co.uk Press Enquiries

Midas Public Relations Nicola Green T: +44 (0)20 7361 7865 E: Nicola.Green@midaspr.co.uk Cultural Programme

British Council Bhavit Mehta T: +44 (0)20 7389 4140 E: Bhavit.Mehta@britishcouncil.org www.britishcouncil.org/ mexicomarketfocus Press Enquiries

British Council Alex Bratt T: +44 (0)207 389 4872 E: Alex.Bratt@britishcouncil.org

Printed using FSC certified paper Designed by www.gaggeroworks.co.uk Printed by CPI Printing www.cpibooks.com/uk

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