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 The winning author, who must write in Spanish and have at least ten unpublished poems or poems published in the last five years that are related to nature, urban sustainability, socio-ecological harmony and environmental conservation, will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
Program Search
One Thousand Young People with Mia Couto, FIL in Romance Languages Award
FIL for Young People
One Thousand Young People with Mia Couto, FIL in Romance Languages Award
Participant: Mia Couto
Presenter: Ave Barrera
Mia Couto
He is considered a central figure in Portuguese literature. He has combined his passion for biology with his literary talent to explore issues of identity, memory and the interaction between cultures. He is the author, among other books, of the novels Sleepwalking Land, The Last Flight of the Flamingo, Confession of the Lioness and Venenos de Deus, Remédios do Diabo as well as from the short story collections Voices Made Night and Every Man Is a Race. He is the most translated Mozambican writer, his work has been translated into more than 27 languages such as Spanish, Catalan, Swedish, French, German and Italian, among others, and published in numerous countries.
Mia Couto is widely recognized for his contribution to literature in the Portuguese language and has been awarded numerous literary prizes throughout his career, the National Fiction Prize (1995), the Vergílio Ferreira Prize (1999), the Camões Prize (2013) and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature (2014). In recognition of his outstanding career, Mia Couto was appointed Commander of the Military Order of Sant'iago da Espada in 1998 and received the prestigious Camões Award in 2013. In 2022, he was honored with the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the São Paulo State University (Unesp).
His unique style, influenced by animist realism and the regional lexicon of Mozambique, has revolutionized the African narrative in the Portuguese language. Since 1998, Mia Couto has been a corresponding member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, occupying chair 5, whose patron is Dom Francisco de Sousa.
Other activities involving the participant:
FIL Literary Award in Romance Lenguages 2024, to Mia Couto
Ave Barrera
Ave Barrera (Guadalajara, 1980) es escritora y editora. Su primera novela, titulada Puertas demasiado pequeñas (Alianza, 2016), obtuvo el premio Sergio Galindo y se encuentra traducida al inglés como The Forgery (Charco Press, 2022). Su novela Restauración (Paraíso Perdido) obtuvo el Premio Lipp en 2018 y fue publicada en España por Editorial Contraseña. Ha publicado cuentos y ensayos en diversas antologías y medios electrónicos. Desde 2019 coordina la Colección Vindictas, de la UNAM. En 2023 recibió la beca de la Fundación Kislak para realizar una residencia de escritura en la Universidad de Florida, en la ciudad de Gainesville.
Other activities involving the participant:
Literature between dogs and cats
One Thousand Young People with Juan Luis Arsuaga
FIL for Young People
One Thousand Young People with Juan Luis Arsuaga
About fifteen kilometers from the Spanish province of Burgos, there is a very special place whose incredible wealth of fossils has made it one of the main sources of information in paleoanthropology. It is here, in the deposits of the Sierra de Atapuerca, where Juan Luis Arsuaga Ferreras has spent most of his scientific career, unraveling and disseminating evidence of our ancestors who set foot on the Earth more than a million years ago.
Paleoanthropologist and writer, since childhood he was interested in the universe of prehistory, especially after reading the novel The Quest for Fire, by J.H. Rosny, and visit the excavations near Bilbao.
Today, Arsuaga Ferreras (Madrid, 1954) holds a PhD in biological sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), where he is professor of paleontology, in addition to being director of the UCM-Carlos III Health Institute Mixed Center for Human Evolution and Behavior, and scientific director of the Museum of Human Evolution of Burgos.
Author of hundreds of scientific texts, including eight articles in Science and ten in Nature, his popular books have been translated into multiple languages, including titles such as The Chosen Species: The Long March of Human Evolution, The Neanderthal's Necklace: In Search of the First Thinkers, Los aborígenes, Green Fire: The Life Force, from the Atom to the Mind, El reloj de Mr. Darwin, El primer viaje de nuestra vida, Breve historia de la Tierra con nosotros dentro, TEl sello indeleble, Vida. La gran historia and Nuestro cuerpo.
Participant: Juan Luis Arsuaga Ferreras
Presenter: Leonardo López Luján
Juan Luis Arsuaga Ferreras
Invitado de HonorArsuaga has a PhD in Biological Sciences from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), where he teaches Paleontology. He is the director of the UCM-Carlos III Health Institute Mixed Center for Human Evolution and Behavior. Most of his scientific career has been dedicated to the sites of the Sierra de Atapuerca, which he co-directs. He is the scientific director of the Museum of Human Evolution in Burgos.
He has received numerous awards, including: Prince of Asturias for Scientific and Technical Research; Castile and León; Community of Madrid; Sent Soví; Sociedad Geográfica Española; Ciudad de Alcalá; COSCE a la Difusión de la Ciencia; Cruz del Mérito Medioambiental de España; Medalla de Plata de la Comunidad de Madrid; GHR von Koenigswald Lecture (Senckenberg Museum, Frankfurt); “Drago de Oro” from the Ateneo de Cádiz; Zilarrerezko Luma from the Bilbao Book Fair.
He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, the Board of Directors of the Institut de Paléontologie Humaine in Paris, the Real Academia de Doctores de España, and the Reales Academias de Medicina de Zaragoza y de Andalucía Oriental.
He has been awarded honorary doctorates by the universities of Burgos, Polytechnic of Valencia and Zaragoza.
He has written hundreds of scientific publications, including eight papers in Science and ten in Nature. He has directed twenty-one doctoral theses.
His popular science books have been translated into multiple languages: Chosen species: the long march of human evolution, Neanderthal's necklace: in search of the first thinkers, Los aborígenes, Al otro lado de la niebla, Amalur. Green fire: the life force, from the atom to the mind, El reloj de Mr. Darwin, El primer viaje de nuestra vida, Breve historia de la Tierra con nosotros dentro, El sello indeleble, Vida. La gran historia, Life as told by a Sapiens to a Neanderthal, La muerte contada por un sapiens a un neandertal and Nuestro cuerpo.
Other activities involving the participant:
If I were a Neanderthal
Leonardo López Luján
Es arqueólogo. Director del Proyecto Templo Mayor desde 1991, ha dedicado su vida al estudio de la política, la religión y el arte de las sociedades prehispánicas del centro de México, y a la historia de la arqueología en este país. Es miembro de la Academia Mexicana de Ciencias, la Academia Mexicana de la Historia y la British Academy, así como miembro honorario de la Academia Estadounidense de las Artes y las Ciencias. En 2015 recibió el Shanghai Archaeology Forum Research Award. Ingresó a El Colegio Nacional el 15 de marzo de 2019.
Other activities involving the participant:
Journey to the origins of Mexican archeology
Organiza: FIL Guadalajara, con el apoyo del Ministerio de Cultura de España y Acción Cultural Española (AC/E)
One Thousand Young People with Jorge Volpi
FIL for Young People
One Thousand Young People with Jorge Volpi
What advice would Jorge Volpi give to young people who hesitate whether or not to enter the universe of writing? “I would tell them to do it, to dare, yes, with a lot of tenacity and discipline,” said the Mexican writer in an interview granted in 2022 to Campus America of the University of La Laguna, in Spain.
Just that year, his name was resonating on the Internet because a documentary based on his book had just been released on Netflix Una novela criminal [A Criminal Novel](2018), which won him the XXI Alfaguara Prize, in which he masterfully narrates the Cassez-Vallarta case that shocked Mexican society back in 2005.
This was the most read novel in Mexico in 2018 and it is part of a vast work translated into more than 30 languages, which also includes novels and short stories as well as essays, which have made Volpi as one of the most important authors of contemporary literature, undoubtedly a long way since he began writing at the age of 16.
In addition to A crime novel, some of his other notable works include In Spite of the Dark Silence (1993); the twentieth-century trilogy made up of In Search of Klingsor (1999), The End of Madness (2003) and Season of Ash (2006); La tejedora de sombras (2011, Planeta-América Award); Oscuro bosque oscuro (2010); Memorial del engaño (2013); Las elegidas (2014); and War Dispatch (2022).
Precisely because of the whole of his work, Volpi received in 2008 the José Donoso Prize and in 2016 the Medal of the Order of Isabel the Catholic of Spain, in addition to being a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters of France, among many other recognitions.
Participant: Jorge Volpi
Presenter: Rosa Beltrán
Jorge Volpi
(Mexico, 1968) is the author of 15 novels, including In spite of the dark silence (1993); the 20th-century trilogy consisting of In search of Klingsor (1999, Biblioteca Breve Award), El fin de la locura (2003) and Season of ash (2006); La tejedora de sombras (2011, Planeta-America Award); Oscuro bosque oscuro (2010); Memorial del engaño (2013); Las elegidas (2014); Una novela criminal (2018, Alfaguara Prize), which led to the Netflix documentary series of the same name, and Partes de guerra (2022).
He has also written the essays La imaginación y el poder (1998), La guerra y las palabras (2004), Mentiras contagiosas (2008, Mazatlán Award), El insomnio de Bolívar (2009, Debate-Casa de América Award), Leer la mente (2011) and Examen de mi padre (2016), and the play Las agujas dementes (2020). His most recent book is the book of stories Enrabiados (2023).
In October, Alfaguara will publish the essay La invención de todas las cosas, a history of fiction.
In 2008, he received the José Donoso Award for all his work, and the Medal of the Orden de Isabel la Católica de España. He is a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters of France. His books have been translated into 30 languages.
Other activities involving the participant:
The mystery of the imagination that creates (and destroys) worlds
Rosa Beltrán
Es novelista, cuentista, ensayista, editora, fundadora de varias colecciones literarias. Ha escrito las novelas La corte de los ilusos (Premio Planeta 1995), El paraíso que fuimos (2002), Alta infidelidad (2006), Efectos secundarios (2012), El cuerpo expuesto (2013) y Radicales libres (2021). Es autora de los volúmenes de cuentos Amores que matan (1996 y 2019) y de Verdades virtuales, ensayos (2019). En colaboración con otros autores ha escrito El edén oscuro (crónicas sobre Acapulco), El nacimiento del monstruo y El Cuerpo femenino y sus narrativas.
Es autora del podcast Convers@s. Ha sido traducida al inglés, francés, italiano, holandés y esloveno y sus cuentos aparecen en numerosas antologías de distintos países. Ha recibido el reconocimiento de la American Association of University Women (AAUW), el Premio Universidad Nacional para Jóvenes Académicos en el área de creación, el Reconocimiento Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz por la UNAM, el Premio Excelencia en las Letras José Emilio Pacheco 2022 y el Distinguished Scholar por UCLA donde cursó el doctorado en Literatura Comparada.
Organiza: FIL Guadalajara, con el apoyo del Ministerio de Cultura de España y Acción Cultural Española (AC/E)
One Thousand Young People with Care Santos
FIL for Young People
One Thousand Young People with Care Santos
She started writing at the age of eight, won her first literary contest at fourteen and published her first book at 25. That's Care Santos (Barcelona, Spain, 1970), one of the most emblematic figures in children's and young adults literature, who will visit FIL Guadalajara to share her love for letters with the new generations.
It is this love that has led her to publish a vast work composed so far of fourteen novels, six books of short stories, two books of poetry, a book of aphorisms and a large number of novels for young people, among which the saga formed by Mentira, Verdad, Miedo, Ben and Los Medina.
Precisely because of her extensive and successful literary career focused on this audience, in 2020 she was awarded the Cervantes Chico Prize for Children's and Youth Literature, highlighting the originality of her themes, the treatment of the characters and the careful architecture in the structure of her stories, not to mention her unwavering commitment to promoting reading among the youngest through workshops and literary meetings.
Her work, translated into more than 20 languages, also includes titles such as Closed rooms (2011), which was adapted into a TV miniseries in 2014; Desire for chocolate (Ramon Llull Award 2014), Media Vida (2017 Nadal Award) and All Good and All Evil (2018).
Participant: Care Santos
Presenter: Chiki Fabregat
Care Santos
Invitado de Honor(Barcelona, Spain, 1970) is primarily known for her work as a novelist, but she also dabbles in short stories and poetry. She also has a very important career as the author of novels aimed at young readers, a field in which she is one of the most read authors in her country.
Her works include Media Vida (2017, Nadal Award), Habitaciones cerradas and El loco de los pájaros (2023, Destino). Her best-known novels for teens include the saga consisting of Mentira, Verdad, Miedo, Ben, Los Medina and Éric (Edebé), the novel Inbox (SM México) and the kids' novel Se vende mamá (Barco de Vapor Prize).
In 2020, she received the Cervantes Chico Award in recognition of her career. Her work has been translated into 23 languages.
Other activities involving the participant:
Fresh blood: the crime novel for young people
Chiki Fabregat
Invitado de Honoris the daughter of a children's story writer and grew up listening to stories in which she and her siblings were the protagonists. She has a degree in Hispanic Philology from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and coordinates the Children's and Young Adult Literature department at the Escuela de Escritores. She teaches in-person courses and specialized subjects in the Master's program in Fiction and the Specialization Course in Teaching Creative Writing. She balances her work at the Escuela de Escritores with writing, promoting reading among children and adolescents, and training teachers.
She has published the Zoila collection of young adult fantasy literature with Edebé, and the novel Cuando la luna llora, which was a finalist for the XXVII Edebé Prize. With Diquesí, she published the children's novel Trece días para arreglar a papá, and with DNX, El año de la guarida. She is the co-author of the books Cuentos para educar II, Cuentos para prevenir, Cuentos para coeducar, Cuentos para fomentar la autoestima, and Cuentos sobre el ocio activo from the Spanish Confederation of Associations of Parents and Mothers of Students (CEAPA), as well as the Los superhéroes collection under the collective pseudonym Isaura Lee. In 2021, she won the Premio SM Gran Angular with El cofre de na
Other activities involving the participant:
The Pleasure of Reading Gala
Teaching writing in Spain and America
Organiza: FIL Guadalajara, con el apoyo del Ministerio de Cultura de España y Acción Cultural Española (AC/E)