São Paulo Book Biennial Begins This Week

By Hannah Johnson

The International Book Biennial in São Paulo, Brazil begins this Thursday. The Biennial is organized by the Brazilian Book Chamber in partnership with Reed Exhibitions Alcantara Machado. The organizers of this ten-day book fair (August 12-21) predict over 700,000 visitors. With only one exclusively professional day on August 12, most of these visitors are from the general public and come to take part in the Biennial’s vast cultural program.

In addition to the thousands of books and authors featured at the Biennial, the cultural program will focus on specific topics like cooking, education and literacy, children’s books, transmedia storytelling, digital reading and the Portuguese language.

The “Hall of Ideas” program features events with Azar Nafisi (author of Reading Lolita in Tehran), Dacre Stoker (the great grandnephew of Bram Stoker), PP contributor Benjamin Moser, John Boyne (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas author), and others.

The year, the Biennial also features events and exhibitions that honor Brazilian authors Monteiro Lobato and Clarice Lispector.

The 350 exhibitors come from Brazil, China, Colombia, Cuba Germany, Mexico, Portugal, and Spain and represent over 900 publishers, according to the website of the Biennial.

More information is available on the Book Biennial website, or check out the Frankfurt Book Fair’s report on the publishing industry in Brazil.