The University of Guadalajara, through a project created by the Environmental Sciences Museum as part of the University’s Cultural Center, and with the support of the Guadalajara International Book Fair, has established the José Emilio Pacheco City and Nature Award. The prize, which will be given for the first time this year, will be dedicated to poetry. The winning author, who must write in Spanish and have at least ten unpublished poems or poems published in the last five years that are related to nature, urban sustainability, socio-ecological harmony and environmental conservation, will be given a purse of US $10,000. The award is dedicated to poet José Emilio Pacheco, whose work explores the duality between cities and nature.
Created by the University of Guadalajara, and with the collaboration of the National Institute for Indigenous Languages, the Culture Ministry, the National Commission for the Development of the Indigenous Cultures and Jalisco’s Department of Education, the American Indigenous Literature Award is granted to enrich, protect and promote the legacy and richness of Mexico’s indigenous peoples through literature in all its forms, and to and acknowledge and further develop the careers and works of indigenous authors. The award, which carries a purse of US $25,000, will be given for the fourth time at the 2016 FIL Guadalajara.
The SM Ibero-American Award for Literature for Children and Young People was implemented in 2005, the year of Ibero-American literature, with the goal of promoting literature for children and young people throughout Ibero-America. The award is given out each year during the Guadalajara International Book Fair to recognize writers of literature for children and young people and carries a purse of US $30,000.
Juan Carlos Quezadas
Karime Cardona Cury
With the goal of creating a network that helps to encourage the work of illustrators of books for children and young people in Ibero-America, the SM Foundation and the FIL Guadalajara invites illustrators to submit their work to be included in the Annual Ibero-American Illustration Catalog. The 45 works selected will be displayed in an exposition at the Guadalajara International Book Fair. In addition, illustrators will have the opportunity to work on an illustrated book with Ediciones SM and the winner will be given US $5,000. You can find more information at: www.iberoamericailustra.com
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FILustra
Activities for Professionals
FILustra
Illustrating, Narrating: From Comics to Film
Creative Reflections: A Two-Way Journey
The Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL), in collaboration with the Professional Association of Illustrators of Euskadi and the Irudika International Meeting, will celebrate the eleventh edition of FILustra. Both events have established themselves as key references in the field of illustration, providing a vital space for professional development and creative exchange on an international scale.
FILustra and Irudika will highlight the diversity and depth of contemporary illustration, as well as the importance of building bridges between cultures and diverse artistic visions. Through panel discussions, talks, and workshops, the events will encourage dialogue and creative exchange among illustrators from various fields, strengthening the global community of creators and illustration enthusiasts.
This year, both meetings will be drivers of change and transformation in the world of illustration, reaffirming their commitment to art, culture, and the professional development of the sector.
Participants: Javier Mariscal, Bea Lema, Lale Sonja Westivind
Moderator: Raisa Álava
Javier Mariscal
Invitado de HonorWho, in 2050, will turn 100 years old, is a creator who has worked across various disciplines and on a wide range of mediums without showing any particular preference. Graphic design, furniture design, painting, sculpture, interior design, urban landscape, gardening, horticulture... all are part of his professional and personal activities. He enjoys just as much looking at a painting by Klee as riding an escalator or driving his scooter along a coastal road. Sometimes, he cannot distinguish between an appliance, a person, or a chair; everything has volume, and they are images that think, laugh, and cry. Each image that appears on his retina, each daily experience, is processed without prejudice in his visual memory, and then emerges in his work.
His first comic strip was published in the mid-seventies in several fanzines of the time. He played a very active role in the Movida and the visual revolution of Spanish comics with his characters Los Garriris (1974). He is known for creating Cobi, the mascot of the Barcelona '92 Olympics, and for the sculpture Gambrinus, located at the Moll de la Fusta.
In 2008, he co-directed with Fernando Trueba the animated film Chico & Rita, which was internationally recognized, won Goya Awards, and was nominated for the 2012 Oscars. In 2023, they released their second animated film, Dispararon al pianista.
Bea Lema
Invitado de HonorShe is an illustrator and comic author. She uses embroidery and weaving as mediums to transfer her images. Her work, generally autobiographical, addresses themes related to madness, trauma, family relationships, religion, and popular rituals.
In 2018, she published O Corpo de Cristo, which won the XII Premio Castelao from the Diputación de A Coruña. El cuerpo de Cristo (Astiberri, 2023), based on the previous edition, has been published in France and Italy, and will be released in Portugal soon. The project was awarded a grant for a graphic novel residency at the Maison des Auteurs in 2022, thanks to Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) and the Cité Internationale de la Bande dessinée et de L’image, with the collaboration of the French Embassy in Spain. In 2024, she received the France Télévisions Public Award for this work at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, a globally recognized event.
Other activities involving the participant:
Arpilleras Workshop
Lale Sonja Westivind
Lale is an animator/illustrator based in Pennsylvania, USA. Her work has been published internationally in Kramers Ergot (USA), Strapazin (CH), Lagon Revue (FR), La Cruda Negra (ES), The Lifted Brow (AU), Hidden Champion (JP), and many others. Her animated music video for Lightning Bolt's "Metal East" won an award at LIFF in 2015. She has self-published over a dozen comics and two anthologies. Her comic Hot Dog Beach #2 won an Ignatz Award in 2012. She received a Koyama Provides grant in 2022 to create her comic series Void Packer. Her book Grip has been published in four languages and received critical acclaim. Original artwork from her pages was exhibited at the Formula Bula festival in Paris in 2023 and at the Leonard Pearlstein Gallery in Philadelphia this year. Perfectly Acceptable Press in Chicago published a collection of her work titled Grand Electric Thought Power Mother this year. Her solo art exhibition in Treviso, Italy, with Strane Dizioni during this year's TCBF coincided with the release of a new book titled Becoming Being. Next year, a mural she designed will be exhibited at Philadelphia Airport, and Breakdown Press will publish a new art book titled Hax Memora.