Bernardo Atxaga at the FIL Guadalajara (Mexico): the language is not static, is gets transformed with the use and it can cross borders

With an audience of 400 young curious students: the Basque writer Bernardo Atxaga could not have started in a better way his first day of activities at the FIL, Feria Internacional de Librobook fair inGuadalajara (Mexico). The FIL is the most important literary event in Latin America, and this year celebrates its 28th edition with the participation of 43 countries.

As part of the ´Ecos de la FIL´ program, Atxaga chatted for an hour with students of the High School No. 7 on his approach to writing, the mobility of language and the importance of reading. He said that both writing and reading are techniques to be developed personally, even if they are influenced by technological change. But he said that whatever the approach, the exercise of writing and reading always transports us to another world, which undoubtedly enriches the one of our own. And he reminded the young people that language is not static, it is transformed with the use and it is able to cross borders.

In the afternoon, the Basque author took part in the round table “El Placer de la Lectura” (“The Pleasure of Reading)  in one of the main halls of the fair, along the writers José Manuel Sánchez Ron, Luis Goytisolo, Eduardo Lago,  Rodrigo Fresán and Alberto Manguel, under the moderation of Jorge F. Hernández. After bringing about the laughter of the audience when recalling a personal story about his first encounter with the exercise of writing, Bernardo Atxaga said the school is definitive both to encourage reading and to develop writing: it is essential to achieve a pleasant approach to both –he said-, so it is important that this is not out of obligation. About why or how a work can impact the reader, he said that the reader has a fragmentary relation with literature; the reader interacts with pieces of the work, paragraphs and individual stories that leave their track and remain in his or her memory. Finally, all the writers agreed that the digital age has transformed the way people approach to reading and hence writing, which is witnessed as a paradigm shift as important as the advent of printing.

With an audience of 400 young curious students: the Basque writer Bernardo Atxaga could not have started in a better way his first day of activities at the FIL, Feria Internacional de Librobook fair inGuadalajara (Mexico). The FIL is the most important literary event in Latin America, and this year celebrates its 28th edition with the participation of 43 countries.

As part of the ´Ecos de la FIL´ program, Atxaga chatted for an hour with students of the High School No. 7 on his approach to writing, the mobility of language and the importance of reading. He said that both writing and reading are techniques to be developed personally, even if they are influenced by technological change. But he said that whatever the approach, the exercise of writing and reading always transports us to another world, which undoubtedly enriches the one of our own. And he reminded the young people that language is not static, it is transformed with the use and it is able to cross borders.

In the afternoon, the Basque author took part in the round table “El Placer de la Lectura” (“The Pleasure of Reading)  in one of the main halls of the fair, along the writers José Manuel Sánchez Ron, Luis Goytisolo, Eduardo Lago,  Rodrigo Fresán and Alberto Manguel, under the moderation of Jorge F. Hernández. After bringing about the laughter of the audience when recalling a personal story about his first encounter with the exercise of writing, Bernardo Atxaga said the school is definitive both to encourage reading and to develop writing: it is essential to achieve a pleasant approach to both –he said-, so it is important that this is not out of obligation. About why or how a work can impact the reader, he said that the reader has a fragmentary relation with literature; the reader interacts with pieces of the work, paragraphs and individual stories that leave their track and remain in his or her memory. Finally, all the writers agreed that the digital age has transformed the way people approach to reading and hence writing, which is witnessed as a paradigm shift as important as the advent of printing.

Today, December 2, Atxaga will offer a second conference at another school, and will also present at the FIL "Nevada Days", the work awarded with the last Euskadi Literature Prize, one of the literary news from the show this year. At the same time, the Etxepare Basque Institute continues promoting the international dissemination of the Basque literature at the stand of the Basque publishers at the fair, with more than twenty appointments with publishers around the world.

And tomorrow December 3, the International Day of Euskera, Bernardo Atxaga and Mari Jose Olaziregi, director for the Promotion and Dissemination of the Basque Language at the Institute, will move to Mexico City, where the author will deliver a lecture-talk in the emblematic Palacio de Bellas Artes. He will offer this conference along with the journalist Javier Aranda at an event titled "Conversation with Bernardo Atxaga". To end your tour, on December 4 visit the UNAM National Autonomous University of Mexico and the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, where he will hold meetings with teachers and students, in order to discuss Basque literature and his own work.

In the photos: Bernardo Atxaga in the High School No 7; a moment of the roundtable "The Pleasure of Reading"; signing books at the FIL


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