Santiago del Estero celebrates its 15th Book Fair with free entry and major literary figures

Nearly a thousand kilometers north of Buenos Aires, where Argentina's cultural machinery typically concentrates its energy, Santiago del Estero is hosting its own literary celebration this week. The province's 15th Book Fair opens today and runs through September 28, transforming two downtown venues—the Forum Convention Center and the Bicentennial Cultural Center—into stages for readings, conversations, performances, and debates. Everything costs nothing to enter.

The opening ceremony tonight at 7:30 p.m. will feature Liliana Heker, one of Argentina's most respected writers, delivering the inaugural address. She held the same role at Buenos Aires's international book fair last year. Joining her are Cabinet Chief Elías Suárez and Christian Rainone, president of the Book Foundation, the organization co-hosting the event with the provincial government. Over five days, the fair will draw writers, journalists, philosophers, and performers whose names carry weight in Argentine cultural life: Selva Almada, Martín Kohan, Iván Noble, Santiago Speranza, and others. Darío Sztajnszrajber, known for his popular philosophy lectures, will speak about love—a topic that reliably draws crowds.

What distinguishes this edition, Rainone told Clarín, is its ambition and reach. "Celebrating a round number is always cause for pride and joy," he said, noting that while Buenos Aires will mark fifty years of its international fair in 2026, Santiago del Estero is consolidating itself as one of the north's most important literary gatherings. The programming spans serious literary work alongside accessible entertainment: there will be comic book and zine workshops, origami classes, debates on critical thinking, readings of fables and regional legends, and an immersive experience called "Jurassic World" designed for families. The actress Cristina Banegas will perform James Joyce's "Molly Bloom" monologue. Martín Oesterheld, grandson of the legendary comic artist Héctor Germán Oesterheld, will discuss the Netflix adaptation of Eternauta, the Argentine superhero that has endured for generations.

The fair's most concrete investment in readers comes through book vouchers. Seven thousand students will receive checks worth 7,000 pesos each—money they can spend on any book they choose, building their own libraries and discovering reading as an act of personal selection rather than obligation. Rainone called this "a powerful tool" for cultivating the next generation of readers.

Federico Jeanmaire, a writer who has maintained ties to Santiago del Estero since 2005, embodies the fair's federal character. He began visiting two decades ago to teach weekend literary workshops organized by the municipality, working with young writers on Friday nights and Saturdays. Some of those students have since published their own work; one, Andrés Navarro, is now a poet Jeanmaire will present this Friday. "It's finding myself with a lot of friends, people I care about," Jeanmaire told Clarín. "It's a city I love. Right now I'm also going to be able to teach a reading workshop at a newly opened teacher training college. The Santiago fair is a great fair, one of the most complete—all the poets from the greater north come together. It's beautiful to spend a few days there, walking around and talking with people."

That sensibility—connecting national literary figures with regional voices, bridging generations and geographies—runs through the entire event. The fair is organized by the provincial government alongside the Book Foundation, with support from the provincial Culture office, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the National University of Santiago del Estero, the Federation of Community Libraries, and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo. The journalist Alejandro Bercovich will present his book about ownership and power in Argentina while broadcasting his radio program live from the fairgrounds. A blood donation campaign, coordinated by the Provincial Blood Bank, adds a dimension of civic participation to the cultural gathering.

For a province often overshadowed by Buenos Aires in the national cultural conversation, this fifteenth edition represents something more than a book fair. It is a statement that literature, reading, and intellectual exchange belong everywhere—not just in the capital, not just in major cities, but in communities across the country where people gather to think together, listen to writers, and choose their own books.