(by Marzia Apice)
The eighth edition of BookCity,
an event dedicated to books and reading, will open Wednesday in
Milan.
The fair wraps up on November 17.
Nearly 1,600 free events - including meetings, reading
sessions, laboratories and exhibits - will involve over 300
authors in 300 different locations, including 1,400 school
classes.
Some 400 volunteers will be working for the five-day fair.
Promoted by Milan's culture councilor and the association
Associazione Bookcity Milano - created by Fondazione Corriere
della Sera, Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, Fondazione
Umberto e Elisabetta Mauri and Fondazione Arnoldo e Alberto
Mondadori - the fair is organized with initiatives across the
city.
Events will take place "at Castello Sforzesco, in Milanese
theaters, museums, universities, various cultural institutions,
bookstores, schools and homes", said Piergaetano Marchetti,
president of the Associazione BookCity Milano at the
presentation of the event in Rome.
"Each year we ask for proposals from publishers, but many
take the initiative and ask us to participate".
Inclusion will be a central theme of the event not only in
the organization's approach - every district in the city will be
involved - but also in its perspective, by looking at the whole
world, organizers said.
The focus of this year's event will be Africa will all of the
continent's different contexts: speakers will include Nobel
laureate Wole Soyinka, Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi
Adichie and Leonora Miano, along with the other protagonists of
over 130 events.
The international calling of BookCity will mark this edition
of the event, starting with the inaugural night on Wednesday
titled "Convivenze" (Cohabitations) with Paolo Giordano and
Michela Marzano.
Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala will award Basque novelist Fernando
Aramburu with the Sigillo della Città (seal of the city).
The many foreign writers who will be attending the fair
include Nobel winner Svjatlana Aleksievic, writers Cees
Nooteboom, Gilles Kepel, Amin Maalouf.
Four British stars will also participate as part of the
project "The Friendship Tour" - Ken Follett, Lee Child, Jojo
Moyes and Kate Moss.
Follet, Child, Moyes and Moss will be in the city to discuss
their relationship with European culture in the Brexit era.
Moreover, under the project Barcelona-Milan, the two Unesco
Creative cities for Literature will collaborate to bring to the
Milanese fair Catalan writers and publishers.
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