It is one of the most important literary events in Latin America, attended by over half a million visitors every year. The action takes place in the north of the city with venues including the Botanic Gardens, the Municipal Planetarium and the Explora Park, an event eagerly awaited by thousands of people who believe in the power of the word and thought.
AC/E has sponsored the presence of the following Spanish authors at the Medellín Book Event :
Pep Molist (Manlleu, 1965). A writer and librarian, he is currently responsible for the Manresa children's library. Aged 47, he has published 45 books, most of which were written for children, although he has also written two essays on children’s literature. He is a member of the editorial board of the journal Faristol: children’s literature review, and critic of the literary section of El Pais newspaper. Since 2014, he has been part of the De Capcalera project, which is designed to forge links between writers and Catalan public libraries.
Diego Arboleda (Stockholm, 1976) was born in Sweden where his parents moved at a young age to study and work. While still a child, his family returned to Madrid where he later studied for a degree in Spanish Language and Literature at the Autonomous University. His work as a bookseller in one of Madrid's most important bookshops engendered a passion for the classics, which in turn led him to the world of narrative. In 2008, he published his first work "Tic-Tac" which was awarded the illustrated short story award from the Badajoz Government, and which is included in the List of honour of the OEPLI. In 2014, he won the National Children's and Young Adult literature prize for "Prohibido leer a Lewis Carroll" (Reading Lewis Carroll is forbidden) for which he also received the Lazarillo Prize before it had even been published (2012) and that of the Cuatrogatos Foundation in Miami.
Beatriz Martín Vidal (Valladolid, 1973) studied Fine Arts at the University of Salamanca and went on to study illustration at the Valladolid School of Art. In 2008, she published her first book as an author and illustrator which was followed by several publications published in a number of countries, with several collaborations and new editions. Aside from her facet as illustrator, Beatriz also writes and works with the communications media as well as creating comics. She has won a number of prizes and grants for illustration, posters and comics, and works as an illustrator for several national and foreign publishing houses. Her work was selected for the 51 exhibition by the New York Society of Illustrators.
Noemí Villamuza (Palencia, 1971). She studied fine arts, specialising in Graphic Design at the University of Salamanca. She began her career working for educational book publishers. She subsequently specialised in children's book illustration. In 1998, she moved to Barcelona, where she continues to live, and that year also saw the rise of the growing reputation of her published work. Now one of our best known illustrators, she enjoys both national and international prestige, particularly in Latin America. She has published over forty books in Spanish and her works have also been published in USA, Korea, Japan and Brazil among other countries. She has been awarded a number of prizes such as the National Children's and young adult literature prize (1999), the National Publishing Prize (2005) and listed for the National Illustration Prize of the Spanish Ministry of Culture.
Ana Cristina Herreros (León, 1965) is a linguist and specialist in traditional literature, a writer, publisher, oral narrator, and author of books of short stories and articles on promoting reading and narrative methods. As a publisher she began working at Ediciones Siruela in 1989 where she also edited a collection: the Library of Popular Stories and published seven of her books. As a story teller she is known under the name of Ana Griott. In 2014 she founded the publishing house Libros de las Malas Compañias where she continues to work as an editor and publishes her books. Her work has been translated into Catalan and French and will shortly be published in Japanese and English. Her career has been acclaimed, having won a number of awards, including the Mediterranean Diet Foundation's Diploma of Honour (which she shared with Michele Obama in 2012), and she has twice won the prize awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Culture for outstanding editing of a work.