The literary supplement of ‘El Periódico de España’, born just a few weeks ago, brought together a group of writers and professionals from the book industry at Madrid’s Retiro Park to talk about the current situation in the industry and the role of literature. play and its criticism
this Madrid Book Fair and its surroundings go a long way. Books are sold, books are toasted (last time, at the party last Friday). April, the literary supplement to this newspaper) and intense conversation about books. This Monday, the second was done again, again at the initiative of the Prime Minister. April. The action was called: the book of all of us, but the point was to put the book and the different connections in the industry in the present moment. Therefore, called by Juan Cruzpromoter Apriland by alex salmoncrop director, writers met at the CaixaBank del Retiro pavilion (Olga Merino, Julio Llamazares, Ray Loriga), a literary agent (Palmyra Marquez), an author and cultural promoter dealing with all these trades surrounding the book (Miguel Munarriz) and a longstanding bookstore (Lola Larumbefrom the historic Alberti bookstore).
After all, this spirit that captivates the literary professions is the same one that has moved since its inception a little over a month ago. April, as Juan Cruz explained as soon as he started. “What we want to do with this appendix is to bring together all these elements, verb, all these people of literature, without distinction of origin, or even distinction of talent,” he said.
Once the creature was found, it was up to Julio Llamazares to answer the first question Cruz asked: what can you expect from literature today. the author yellow rain Leonese came out of the mess with aplomb. “As throughout history: literature is part of the human condition, part of the need to tell, of understanding, of resisting the passage of time and, above all, of saving all that can be forgotten.” The time we live in, said Llamazares, is neither better nor worse than other histories. “For this reason Literature does what it always does: witness its time and try to explain the world.“.
For Olga Merino, a journalist with a long career as a reporter in Eastern Europe and well-versed in the geopolitical rifts that are causing the world to crackle these days, the function of literature is also “to seek and, above all, accompany, writing and reading is always a has been a lifesaver, even with tough opponents like this Netflix and company, the business remains the same as it has always been: telling stories”.
same fair
It was also time to talk about the industrial moment for the book, and thus for the Fair itself, which seemed to have escaped the challenge of the pandemic with an explosion of health and joy. Lola Larumbe, who has run a booth at Retiro since 1980, described it with these words: battiato. “The fair continues to be a permanent center of gravity. The future is here, and we see it in the tails of the current’s phenomena: influencers, books for youth, networking meetings… But basically the Fair is the same and the bookstores are as usual. , other means that help us or complicate our work”.
So, beyond the functioning of the sector, there is what and how to write and write in the coming periods. Palmira Márquez, who runs the Dos Passos literary agency, has a privileged vision because manuscripts by new authors pass through her every day. “There’s a lot of talent out there. We managed to get authors published with first novels that didn’t look like that,” he explained. Miguel Munárriz agreed with him when it came to the realm of narrative, but he did not hide his disappointment with the poetry written in the novel. Spain. “I’m disappointed, even a little confused,” he admitted. “Age does that: you’ve had very interesting times, with high-ranking people, a lot of literary and personal prestige. I don’t meet those important voices today. I think there’s a hole and we’ll have to find them.”
Ray Loriga admitted that he had a hard time knowing whether it was possible to speak of writing, a style of writing that spanned the generations, or a way specific to the current situation. “Authors are an island, and the older they get, the more they grow,” noted the author, an icon of his day. generation xwho, as a reader, has no problem considering himself too selfish. “As I write, I read books at coordinates that will interest me for what I am doing. My reading is very partial”.
When Loriga had to answer the question of who the writers were writing for, for the readers or for themselves, she also referred to a certain loneliness. “Of course we love to have readers. But you are not in it when you write. What drove me to write was passion, not being famous, or being read by many.”there must be something that interests you: you have to spend so much time that if not why would you be involved. And you hope someone is, yes, a hypothetical reader.” Always write “the book I want to read.”
left to talk about the role of reinforcements and criticismfor this caller April. Álex Salmon defended this title’s dedication to the paper as “a definitive and excellent place for readers to meet” and “constructive and at the same time very prescriptive” criticism. But in order for these critiques and appendices to give a voice to the authors, to draw a panorama of the sector, to talk about good or bad books, those pages need someone to hold them, so that these pages play the role they should have. And there, as Juan Cruz argued at the end of the speech, come the book publishers. “Pages of newspapers are devoted to spreading the culture of reading. Publishers hope that this will happen, that their books will be talked about, but they do not invest in newspapers. And journalism is not easy. A literary supplement without the direct intervention of the editors is not a literary supplement.”He complained to the journalist, who also presented a book at the Fair these days. Once the trade was verified, it was time to go back to the Retiro, greet the publishers and bookstores, and re-absorb the books from which it was made. April.
Related news