Porto Book Fair back to Crystal Palace Gardens

The Porto Book Fair, which will take place between 7 and 23 September, in the gardens of Palácio de Cristal.

Debates, lessons, spoken word, exhibitions, cinema, special sessions, workshops, animation, and an educational program make this year’s edition. It also brings the new project of the literary residence of the writer Bernardo Carvalho which resulted in a written tale about the city.

In a press conference, Porto city Mayor Rui Moreira announced another project aimed at creating “an ephemeral summer pavilion, whose architectural design will be launched in a public contest, and should serve as a space for culture and meetings before, during and after the fair period”.

The “Cabine de Escalas” is a novelty project dedicated to hosting small scale publishers free of charge. “The project created a shared space that allows free participation of small publishers and bookstores at the book fair,” said Rui Moreira.

The set of debates scheduled on memory and literary reinvention, on sex as an insurrection, on the construction of a novel and the construction of a writer, will join together names of the literary Portuguese writers universe like Mário de Carvalho, Mia Couto, Afonso Cruz and Bernardo Carvalho with younger, national and foreign authors.

As it was announced in March, the 50-year-old singer and producer, José Mário Branco, was the chosen figure to pay homage in this year’s Porto Book Fair. His name will be engraved on a plaque in the Avenida das Tílias, in the Gardens of the Crystal Palace, similar to figures such as Vasco Graça Moura, Agustina Bessa Luís, Mário Cláudio or Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, says the Observador newspaper.

More information here