The Seventh Dominican Book Fair in New York is Announced

The Seventh Dominican Book Fair in New York is Announced
New York, 09/12/2013

The 7th Dominican Book Fair in New York will be held on September 27-29, 2013, at the Boricua College in Manhattan. The Minister of Culture of the Dominican Republic, José Antonio Rodríguez, will lead a delegation of prominent writers who will participate in it.

The announcement was made by the Dominican Commissioner of Culture in the United States, Mr. Carlos Sánchez, who said that this year the Fair will take a new step in consolidating itself as the most important cultural event of the Quisqueyana community based outside of the island. The event will have a wide and varied program of activities, including book presentations, conferences, forums, film screenings, and original plays that will stage patriotic celebrations. Furthermore, the play Hay un país en el mundo (There is a country in the world), directed by Joel Almonó, will be staged at the closing ceremony of the Fair. The director will travel from Lawrence, Massachusetts, to be present.

The Fair will be dedicated to writer René Rodríguez Soriano, winner of the National Short Story Award, for the quality of his narrative, high poetry and his efforts in favor of the dissemination and promotion of Dominican and Latin American literature through the portals: http://mediaisla.net/revista and http://rodriguesoriano.net/

With the slogan “Reading sets you free,” the Fair, which is attended by thousands of people every year, will provide the U.S. Spanish-speaking community the opportunity to come into contact with the rich and diverse Dominican literature.

The Minister of Culture will lead a commission composed by Carlos Salcedo, Chief of Cabinet at the Ministry of Culture, and outstanding literary and artistic figures of the Dominican culture, among them: writers Andrés L. Mateo, who will participate with Franklin Gutiérrez in a panel on the life and work of Ramón Marrero Aristy; Basilio Belliard, who will lecture about Dominican poetry; and León Félix Batista, who will participate in a discussion about Pedro Mir, and will present the winners of the Premios Letras de Ultramar (Ultramar Prizes for Literature).

Other participants are: Miguel Collado, who will launch his work Visión de Hostos sobre Duarte; Pedro Antonio Valdez, who will present the video “Las maletas de papel: escrituras del reeinmigrante (Paper suitcases: writings of the re-immigrant);” Valentín Amaro, will make a poetry reading; Ylonka Nacidit, will make a presentation on Hilma Contreras; Marcio Veloz Maggiolo, winner of the National Award, will launch a new novel; and the President of Patriotic Celebrations will make a presentation through videos on the topics “El nacimiento de una nación (The birth of a nation)” and “El Grito de Capotillo (The Cry of Capotillo).”

This year the Fair will honor Dominican writers living in Illinois. The delegation is led by Rafael Núñez and Jochy Herrera.

The Commissioner’s guest list includes writers Avelino Stanley, Juan Freddy Armando, Rafael Chaljub Mejía, Alejandro Hiraldo, Eugenio García Cuevas, Farah Hallal, and Carlos Roberto Gómez, Director of the Isla Negra publishing company, who will mount an exhibit and book sale and will participate in several book readings. Mateo Morrison, winner of the National Award, and Rosalina Benjamín, will also attend.

The list of writers, cultural activists and special guests includes Abril Troncoso, César Zapata, Eddy Mateo Vásquez, Efraín Marte, Felipe María Morel, Erasmo Lara, and Xiomarita Pérez, among others.

As in previous years, a large number of prominent Dominican writers and cultural activists residing abroad will participate in the Fair with book presentations, readings and lectures. Among them: Rubén Sánchez Féliz, César Sánchez Beras, Irenes Santos, Orisis Mosquea, Osiris Vallejo, Kianny Antigua, Karina Rieke, Ynoemia Villar, Maricela Martínez, Franklin Gutiérrez, Ana Arelys Cruz Carvajal, Sussi Santana, Andrea Villarroel, Xiomara Pérez, Mirelle Palmansa, Gladys Montolío, and Gabriela Gratereaux.

Other participants will be Mary Ely Gratereaux, Carmen Lazala, Yira Pía Sánchez Brugal, Keiselim Montás, Félix García, Marybelle Ferreira, Eduardo Lantigua, Grecia Peña, Marianela Ureña, Elizabeth Balaguer, Medar Serrata (Michigan), Stuard A. McKeever, Yrene Santos, Ana Isabel Saillant, Esteban Torres, Anthony Stevens, Jorge Araujo (Connecticut), Frank Báez, Anastacio Jiménez, Arsenio Zapata, Bernarda Dávila, Betzabé Cifuentes, César F. Peralta, José Leandro Mora, Doria Beatriz Castañedo, Francisco Sánchez, Frank Castro, Gilberto Penzo, José Cabrera, José I. Rodríguez, and Lucila Rutinel Domínguez, among others.

The Fair will feature innovative events such as the Children and Youth Pavilion, by writer Elizabeth Balaguer; the Film Pavilion, by Billy Martin, Mariluz Acosta, and Freddy Vargas, which will include a festival of Dominican short films, in addition to discussions and workshops on cinema; and the Crafts Pavilion, with artisans from the Dominican Republic and other Latin American countries.

The Fair will also include folklore, with presentations by Dominican and Peruvian troupes, and the Honduran Garifuna community.

The event will begin on Friday, September 27th, at the United Palace Grand Theatre, with presentations on patriotic celebrations: the 150th Anniversary of the Restoration of the Republic; the Bicentennial of the Birth of Juan Pablo Duarte; the 50th Anniversary of the Government of Juan Bosch; as well as the Centennial of the Birth of national poet Pedro Mir and of storytellers Hilma Contreras and Ramón Marrero Aristy, and the 50th Anniversary of the armed uprising of Manolo Tavárez Justo and the political group June 14 in Las Manaclas, in San José de las Matas.

According to Sánchez, a hall will also be dedicated to these national celebrations, where symposia and conferences will take place, and there will also be a hall on the Historical Memory in remembrance of prominent personalities of the Dominican Republic, such as Juan Bosch, José Francisco Peña Gómez, Manolo Tavárez Justo, Pedro Mir, Hilma Contreras, Ramón Marrero Aristy, Gregorio Luperón, Amín Abel Hasbún, Homero Hernández, and Jesús Diplán.

“Representatives of the Museum of the Resistance will also participate in the Fair and will make a presentation on their work,” the Commissioner said.

Sánchez revealed that the Book Fair Prize will be awarded for the third time to a work that does not fall in the creative literature category, that is written by a Dominican residing outside the Dominican Republic, and that has been launched at the Commissioner’s Andrés Francisco Requena Events Hall.

The winners of the literature contest for high school students, under the direction of Miguel Aníbal Perdomo, the Commissioner’s literary manager, and under the coordination of writer Rubén Sánchez Féliz, will also be announced.

“Our goal is to encourage those high school kids to nurture the wonderful world of literature and to visit the Fair and participate in it and to meet the professional writers,” Sánchez said.

During the month of September, the Commissioner will conduct pre-Fair activities, which include two events at Professor Juan Bosch square on Sunday, the 8th and the 15th of September, respectively; a conference on September 21st in Lawrence, Massachusetts, by the President of Patriotic Celebrations, Juan Daniel Balcácer, on the Bicentennial of Juan Pablo Duarte; another conference at the Cervantes Institute on the work of Pedro Mir, which will take place on the 26th of this month, by José Rafael Lantigua; and, a film series coordinated by the organizers of the Fair’s Film Pavilion.

“I invite the community to massively support the Fair and the pre-Fair activities in order to continue enhancing this event that continues to grow year after year,” Commissioner Carlos Sánchez said in his closing remarks.