Indie Book Fair

From today until the 28th, a group of 50 Independent Publishers will take part in their second annual book fair. The venue of the Feria del LibroIndependiente, FLI2011, will be at FCE bookstore Rosario Castellanos, Mexico City.

Among this we will find Almadía and Ediciones El Naranjo, both of which I have posted news of. The FCE, which also I have posted some of it earlier, is the biggest Publisher in Mexico, and it is subsidized by the Government.

This is an excellent way for them to go out and establish them selfs in the reader’s mind. As the bookstores market is slowing due to economic crisis and eBooks, the best way for them to strive is to join forces and show what they have, which, from the ones I know, are excellent material.

The FLI2011 is the second event and I can anticipate that it will be a success, because the venue is an excellent place, where people meet, not only La Condesa people, but of all the city (I am one of those, my Wife and me take the kids there to see and buy books and also to a “Cuenta Cuentos” (story-teller) event. THe Rosario Castellanos Bookstore was a Movie theatre, so you can imagine the space it has.

So for all of you that did not know about this event and for those of you abroad and will be in Mexico City through those dates, you could go to the Libreria Rosario Castellanos look to the Indie Publishers products, buy some books and also drink a coffee at their Coffee Shop. I will do so, see you there saturday.

Mexico’s National University (UNAM) as a publisher

The UNAM is known to be one of the largest university in Latin-America and also one of the largest in the world.

It is the house of the education in Mexico, it is a public school and it is free (almost) subsidized by the Mexican Government and with an extensive program of funds collection.

The students of this institution came from all the social levels. With its free tuition gives opportunity to all of the people in Mexico.

The UNAM has an in-house in-print which is one of the largest in Latin-America, printing more than 1,000 no titles a year. And also it publishes yearly between 1,200 and 1,500 of re-runs.

The categories of the publishing include literature, essays, specialized among others, must which will never see light on a commercial publisher, but are of paramount importance for the university.

To follow the ideology of the UNAM this publishers sell their books at very low prices.

The Literature Direction of the University is in charged of all the literature publishing of the University. They have created diverse anthologies of the most diverse writers through its “Material de Lectura” (reading material) brand. This brand includes two main categories: short story and poetry. The Material de Lectura has been around since 1977, and the current price of this anthology are around the 14 pesos (like 1.20 usd).

Where you could get, print copies of anthologies of great writers world-wide, this is part of the UNAM, part of the reason why there is a place in the University solely dedicated to the print of literature. Reading help the mind, the soul and the body to be human. Reading is the main tool that helps us to regain our humanity, as I have stated in past posts.

One more an exiting thing, if you cannot go to any of the UNAMs bookstores, the Department is so magnificent that they are starting to upload PDFs files of this material, so anybody can go download for free and read whenever you want. Yes you read correctly, it is FREE.

But not only there is the Material de Lectura, the Literature Department also manage three other sites, important and good micro sites regarding literature, which include, “Punto de Partida” which is a print and digital magazine which started almost 40 years ago and is known as “student’s magazine” one of the main objective of this magazine is to show all the new literature creations in spanish language; as a complement to this magazine was created the “Punto en línea” site, where you can find a more broad categories and selection of works; also the Literature Direction has a site solely dedicated to poetry, the “poetry newspaper” where as his director says, that the internet gives poetry the option to give, again, a way to interact with this, sometimes forgotten genre.

If you are interested in the printed material, well you could also buy it though its online store, which you could access here.

Yes I know that it is in spanish, well, remember that you could know someone who speaks the language and could be interested and he/she could translate you the marvelous material you could find here. And to all my spanish speaking friends, this might be new to you, so go to the links provided and use this extraordinary tools that Mexico´s National University give us for FREE.

Enjoy and have fun.

Mexico a Leer

Next Sunday May 29th, in Mexico City the organization Mexico a Leer will have a massive event starting at 10:00 a.m local time at the newly renovated “Monumento a la Revolución” (Revolution’s Monument).

There will be several events, all regarding reading. Mexican artists, sports personalities, rock stars, writers among others will attend the venue and read out loud their favorites books.

One of the main objectives that the organizers want to achieve with this event is to boost the yearly read book index in Mexico, which currently stands in a very low 2.9. This number includes all the textbooks read, if they are not counted in the equation the number lowers to a shocking 1.0. Just 1 book read per capita in Mexico. Unbelievable.

Mexico a Leer is part of a campaign of the Public Education Secretary (SEP in Spanish) named “Diviertete Leyendo” (have fun reading). Campaign that started January this year and has cost, so far, more than 500 million pesos (around 42 million USD).

Diviertete leyendo objective is to achieve that the mexicans modify their reading habits, starting with the parents, because their kids copy all fathers do, with this the Mexican children can learn more in school. How? Well, with this reading habit well embedded, will be more easy that kids will read for school matters.

The results of the Diviertete Leyendo campaign will be announced every six months and it is intended that the campaign last at least ten years.

Being a Mexican, and a person that reads more than one book per year, this news is motivating, because I do believe that reading helps getting a better life and also a reading habit in kids do help at school, I see that with my kids, they love books. But also, being a Mexican I am used to all this kinds of campaigns and promises that are almost always with political views.

I hope (in Mexico we always hope, because with politics down here everything is like a mirage) that this campaign last and also that it helps kids to find in books the escape some in times needs.

If you are next Sunday in Mexico City, come on to The Monumento a la Revolucion and participate in this massive event. By the way, if you come, do not forget to bring a book, a book that will be donated to the needing kids.

Everybody enjoy books, no matter the format, paper or digital, enjoy reading.

Nostra Editores, three years with it’s “Inventions” contest.

Keeping up the series on Mexican Indie Publishers, I present here Nostra Ediciones. A publisher that this year achieves its third year with the “Invenciones” (Inventions) contest, for picture book and Young Readers.

Nostra Editores has been around since the 2000, publishing books with two major lines of products: Picture Books and Young Readers, both of which include: poetry, fiction, graphic novel and picture books; and the other product line are Essays of cultural and legal matters.

Since the 2009 they have installed it “Invenciones” contest, with a good response from authors and illustrators. The winners of the previous years are: 2009 for Picture Book was deserted, in the novel category Spanish writer Javier Sáez Castán for La venganza de Edison (Edison’s Revenge); in 2010 for the Picture Book Category the winner was Spanish writer and illustrator Teresa Novoa for La Pluma Roja (The Red Pen) and in the novel category the winner was Mexican writer Jose Montelongo with Mi abuelo fue agente secreto (Grandfather was a secret agent).

This award has an excellent support as the prize is announced and awarded in Latin-American’s most important Book Fair, which is the #FIL, International Book Fair in Guadalajara (Feria Internacional del Libro), which this year reaches its first 25 years and also by IBBY Mexico.

Nostra Editores has a wide array of writers, which include: Laura Varela, Antonio Santos, Javier Sáez Castán, Valentín Rincón, Carlos Montemayor y Miguel León-Portilla, among others.

Some of illustrators in their roster are: Miguel Castro Leñero, Boris Viskin, Manuel Monroy, Felipe López de la Peña, Juan Carlos Palomino, Mariana Osorio, Alejandro Magallanes, Julián Cicero and Linda Wolfsgruber.

Nostra as El Naranjo and Almadía are three excellent Indie Mexican Publishers which are doing very interesting things in Mexico. A country which it’s Reading per capita Index is very low at 2.9.

Do not forget the contest of Nostra Ediciones, is backed by FIL and by IBBYMexico, which translate that the winners of both categories will be present at the #FIL and will have an excellent exposure, Latin-American and European, as this year the country invited to the Fair is Germany and Novel Prize Winner Herta Müller will come to Guadalajara.We, as writers or aspiring writers (like my self) have to increase the participation in the contest, with this we can assure that the winner will be the best and with this boost the quality of books in Mexico.

And it is a perfect way to boos this quality I speak here with this kind of contests, let’s hope that more and more publishers, Indie publishers do contests like this. Is a cheep way to achieve new talent and to get known around the world.

Editorial Almadía, six years in the business and shaking the market

This next Publisher I want to talk about is “Editorial Almadía“. This Indie Publisher was founded in 2005, in the beautiful city of Oaxaca. The mission of the company is to print books and authors that are, in some way, left behind or are having trouble to enter the mainstream, of the Spanish language Legacy Publishers. Almadía has a main objective: to produce beautiful books at a very reasonable price. Looks like they are achieving it.

Almadía main publishing themes are: Poetry, short story, novel, young readers and essay. In 6 years they have achieved several good critics and also some awards. The Essay National Award “Carlos Echánove Trujillo” in 2006 for Heriberto Yépez’s El Imperio de la neomemoria (Neomemory empire). In 2007 the international “Antonin Artaud” prize for Juan Villoro‘s Los Culpables (The guilty ones). In 2008 the young reader’s novel by Bernardo Fernandez BEF, Los ladrones de sueños The dream snatchers),won the CAMIEM award on Editorial Art. In 2009 the poetry book by Tedi Lopez Mills won the Xavier Villaurrutia award, this being the most important prize so far won by authors of the publisher.

The Editorial Art award won on BEF’s novel is no casuality. As we have said, the publisher want to print beautiful books, and they are. We could see that they are stepping away from the traditional way of covers. They are showing us some minimalistic in design covers, but full of colour, giving the reader, a new experience in book Editorial Art, that for me, is an excellent and incredible new proposal, that in time, I think, will become the trend.

Almadía authors include: Juan Villoro, Bernardo Fernandez BEF, Francisco Hinojosa, Jorge Volpi, Julio Scherer Garcia, Sergio Pitol, Le Cièzio, among others.

With the last post about a Mexican Indie publisher, Ediciones El Naranjo, I recommended a book I have read, with Almadía is different, I just bought my first book publish by them, today I will start reading it, but it is a very good read.

Los ladrones de sueños (The dream snatchers)
By Bernardo Fernandez BEF
Illustrations by Patricio Betteo

Bernardo Fernandez won in 2011 the Grijalbo novel award for its novel “Hielo Negro” (Black Ice) soon to be published.

This is other Mexican Indie Publisher that it is doing an excellent work, more that 65 titles in 6 years. We have to support Publishers like this and hope they continue their work and also start publishing digital work.

Congratulations Editorial Almadía.