By Andres Hax Over the course of each year, there are many important literary prizes in Latin America and Spain, and as this newsletter progresses we will note each as they arrive. But a recent news item from Venezuela gives us an appropriate excuse to mention the Romulo Gallegos prize for the novel. The news is that Blanco Nocturno by …
Will Censorship Ultimately Become Impossible in the Digital Age?
Digital media makes it easier for people to circumvent censorship, but are the corporations that control access to the internet willing to play along?
Hugo Chávez’s Color Coded “Revolutionary Reading Plan”
By Emily Williams No friend to publishing (see our earlier coverage here) Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez has nevertheless started to implement his four-part color coded “Revolutionary Reading Plan.” Announced in May, the goal of the project as stated by the Venezuelan government, is “the democratization of books and reading, with a new conception of reading as a collective act under …
Bonus Material: One Bright Spot in Venezuelan Publishing
By Emily Williams The ideologically tinged reading initiatives announced by Chávez’s administration in Venezuela have caused alarm and economic hardship among many of the country’s publishers and booksellers, but there is one program — run with government support though not under its full control — that has won praise inside and outside Venezuela. Biblioteca Ayacucho is a 35-year-old publishing foundation …
Venezuela Strangles Book Imports, Bankrupting Bookstores and Publishers
By Emily Williams CARACAS: In bookstores all over Venezuela the bookshelves are emptying. Readers’ hunger for new and classic titles is as strong as it ever was, but a policy change that the government made over a year ago is gradually choking off the flow of imported books, which make up 80% of the market in Venezuela, resulting, naturally, in …
Bonus Material: El Perro y la Rana, The Venezuelan Government’s Literary Voice
By Emily Williams El Perro y la Rana is the heavyweight champion among the national publishers and booksellers the Venezuelan government has set up with funding from the Cuban government. Established as an “editorial foundation,” it administers an ambitious and growing network of 57 bookstores as well as the National System of Regional Presses, spread across Venezuela’s 24 states. The publishing …
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