The traditional London Spanish Book & Zine Fair returns to the British capital on October 2nd with the participation of writers, new voices, fanzine creators, illustrators and more. There will be talks, roundtables, workshops and storytelling for children, and more than 50 publishers present.
Zac Liew
The theme of the sixth edition is ‘Found by words’ and authors including Andrea Márquez, Jasmine Kahli and Laura Riñón Sirera and many others will perform readings of their poetry and fiction in celebration of literature written in Spanish.
The talks will feature three Latin American writers whose worksl grapple with generational conflict and the challenges of contemporary society. They are Virginia Higa, Enzo Maqueira and Diego Sánchez Aguilar.
Higa will be talking with fellow Argentine Graciela Melitsko Thorton, who has lived in the UK since 2021 and has over 20 years’ experience as an expert in climate change and sustainability.
Maquiera and Sánchez Aguilar will, in a separate talk, take aim at the idea that the contemporary novel in Spanish is out of touch with urban society, using their own works as examples. Maquiera’s “Higiene sexual del soltero” and Sánchez Aguilar’s “Los que escuchan” are novels that explore the loneliness and disconnection that can accompany life in modern cities.
Sole Otero and Titihoon will talk through the power that illustration brings to a zine, and explain how and why they use art to help tell stories. Otero is a comic artist and children’s illustrator from Argentina, Titihoon is an architect and zine maker from Venezuela. The talk will be moderated by journalist Flor Coll, founder of femiñetas, an illustrated feminist newspaper in Barcelona.
One of the roundtables will call into question the role of independent publishers. Orianna
Camejo from Lecturas de Arraigo, Clara Inés from Elemento Disruptivo, and Martín Ramón from Espacio Moebius will discuss the value that independent publishers bring to the field of literature and what it is like to run them.
The event will be hosted at Conway Hall on Red Lion Street. Talks and presentations will take place in the Conway Hall Library upstairs. Storytelling for children, zine workshops and other activities for all ages can be found in the main stage and the Green Room.
The sixth edition of the LSBZF has been organised by La Tundra Magazine with the support of Instituto Cervantes London, the Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) School of Advanced Study, University of London, and the Mexican Cultural Centre.
More information: London Spanish Book & Zine Fair.
(Photos: London Spanish Book & Zine Fair Press Office)
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