Feature Bogotá39
a variet of voices and stles that define contemporary Latin American narratives.” The inaugural Bogotá39 was a hit, immeasurably helped by the organisers having a keen eye for talent spoting, a bit of good luck, or a litle of both. It deliv- ered a group of the region’s soon-to-be superstars such as the Dominican/American Junot Díaz, Colom- bia’s Juan Gabriel Vásquez and Cuba’s Wendy Guerra. Hay then rolled the project out to other areas, with 2009’s Beirut39 celebrating Arab world writers, 2014’s Africa39 featuring sub-Saharan authors and 2016’s Aarhus39 concentrating on children’s and Young Adult authors from across Europe. Fuentes La Roche explains that creating these lists
fits neatly into Hay’s international strategy. She says: “The aim is to create a road map that gives readers and publishers an idea of what is going on in literature in a specific region, or within a specific group of writ- ers or genres. It also helps us, as a festival, to iden- tify guests and partners, and to understand interests, themes and issues that may be relevant at a particular moment in time. As a cultural organisation that creates programmes of events that appeal to the general public and touch on current issues, it’s useful for us to cele- brate the best in the field of international literature.”
A weight of responsibility The most recent “39” is a second Bogotá edition, launched last year. An event at today’s London Book Fair will use the 2017 list as a starting point to discuss current hot-buton topics in Latin American literature and issues around translation, led by one of its hono- rees, Costa Rica-born, Puerto Rico-raised novelist Carlos Fonseca. Fonseca called inclusion into Bogotá39 “a great happiness and a great responsibilit”. He added: “In a way this selection will only become meaningful retro- spectively: through the works we [as a group] produce from now on. In a continent where book distribution is so problematic, where it is hard for a Peruvian author to have access to the books published in Ecuador, just to give an example, the list provides an alternative road through which to gain access to the literary production of the region. It’s a region that must be reimagined, by us, through literature and writing. In a way, we become ambassadors and, as everyone knows, diplomatic tasks are oſten hard.” The current crop of Bogotá39 members are not
easy to group together. They come from 15 countries over a massive land-mass and write in four different languages. But Fonseca says there are generational commonalities: “Latin America is very hard to concep- tualise as a unit precisely due to the extension of its territory and the specific concerns of its many regions. However, I would say that in a way we are all struggling with the same concerns: we all grew up aſter the collapse of the Berlin Wall, were once tempted by [Francis Fuku- yama’s] idea of the end of history, but have recently seen the need for a return to politics. As a result, I think many of us are trying to figure out how to reconcile the micro-political intimacy of the narrative voice with the macro-political landscape of the region’s history. We
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Above and right events featuring writers from the initiative have been a staple of Hay-branded events across the globe, including at Cartagena de Indias, the festival held in the Colombian coastal city every January
are all trying, in our own way, to figure out the role of the narrator and its place within a continental political history that refuses to setle down.” Translation is of particular concern for Fonseca. He says: “Without translation, we risk falling into the tpe of cultural insensitivit and xenophobia that has sadly become predominant in the recent past. Much has been done in this regard in the past couple of years. Much, however, remains to be done. Translators should also remain aware of the market forces that tend to favour countries with bigger markets—Mexico, Argentina or Colombia—at the expense of smaller countries, like those in the Andean region, Central America or the Caribbean. Bogotá39 is great in this respect, as it brings into visibilit literary voices from regions that other- wise may remain invisible, as well as the voices of many female authors producing excellent work.” Fuentes La Roche has seen a marked development in the market: 11 of the new, 2017 tranche had already been published in English before the list’s launch, compared to just two writers from the original batch. She adds: “Interestingly, when we got together the first Bogotá39, the authors hardly knew each other. It was a very impor- tant to connect them. For the second list a high percent- age of the writers know each other: they have travelled to other Latin American fairs and their books are avail- able in countries other than their own. This shows that Latin America is much beter connected in literary terms than it was 10 years ago.”
The 39-er at LBF
Carlos Fonseca will be speaking today at Bogotá39: Translating Latin America’s New Voices (11.30 a.m., Liter- ary Translation Centre) with translators Christina MacSweeney, Daniel Hahn and Sophie Lewis
10th April 2018
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