Buenos Aires Book Fair opens with Nobel laureates, Peru as guest of honor

Buenos Aires is preparing for the opening of its International Book Fair this week—the fiftieth anniversary edition—and the city has assembled something ambitious. Two Nobel Prize winners in literature will be there. More than a thousand separate events are scheduled across three weeks. Peru has been named guest of honor, sending a delegation of sixty authors, musicians from its national symphony orchestra, and dancers to the fair and beyond. Tickets cost eight thousand pesos Monday through Thursday, twelve thousand on weekends, though students and retirees enter free on weekdays.

The opening ceremony this afternoon will depart from tradition. Instead of the usual formal proceedings, three Argentine writers—Selva Almada, Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, and Leila Guerriero—will sit down for a public conversation moderated by journalist María O'Donnell. The two Nobel laureates anchoring the fair are J.M. Coetzee and Mo Yan. Coetzee will participate in dialogues with Argentine writers and will present a book he wrote with Argentine author Mariana Dimópulos called Gift of Tongues. Mo Yan's schedule includes interviews and shared conversations with other authors. Their presence signals the fair's ambition to position itself as a space of global literary significance.

The international roster extends well beyond the Nobel winners. Leonardo Padura from Cuba, Héctor Abad Faciolince from Colombia, Nona Fernández from Chile, Horacio Castellanos Moya from Honduras, Daniel Saldaña París from Mexico, Kim Ho Yeon from South Korea—whose book The Wonders of the Cheongpa-dong Store has become a bestseller in the healing literature category—María Fernanda Ampuero from Ecuador, Francisco Cerdá from Spain, whose novel Present made an impression, and Brazilian musician and writer Adriana Calcanhotto, who has indicated she will perform songs. The list continues beyond these names.

Peru's role as the first-ever guest of honor marks a shift in how the fair structures its international relationships. The Peruvian delegation of sixty authors will not remain confined to the fairgrounds. They will move through Buenos Aires and into the province, reaching toward the more than three hundred thousand Peruvians living in Argentina. The musicians and dancers will perform alongside the literary programming, making the presence felt across multiple forms of cultural expression.

The anniversary itself has its own dedicated space. A special pavilion will house exhibitions tracing fifty years of the fair's history, displaying photographs and records of the international figures who have passed through it, and honoring Roberto Fontanarrosa. At the center sits an exhibition on books that were banned or censored during Argentina's military dictatorship, curated by Judith Gociol. This historical thread runs through other programming as well: the Reading Marathon will focus on books that were prohibited or censored during those years; a series of dialogues titled "Fifty Years of Reading and Writing" will bring together María Negroni, Clara Obligado, María Rosa Lojo, Luisa Valenzuela, Liliana Heker, Juan Sasturain, Martín Kohan, Carlos Gamerro, Claudia Piñeiro, and Guillermo Martínez, among others. The cycle will close with an interview of legendary editor Guillermo Schavelzon, conducted by journalist Verónica Abdala.

Forty years have passed since Jorge Luis Borges died, and the fair will mark the occasion with an immersive exhibition, an interactive labyrinth, and programming centered on his work. The exhibition will trace his presence across multiple languages, his appearances in literary journals, and his reach into popular culture. The interactive elements aim to bring his world to readers who might not otherwise encounter it.

The fair maintains its practical accessibility. Students and retirees receive free admission on weekdays. Banks are offering discounts and interest-free installments. A system called "book checks" allows visitors to reinvest their ticket cost in bookstores after the fair closes. Clarín and the magazine Ñ will host their own space with conferences and interviews featuring major cultural figures and artists. The fair opens Thursday and runs for three weeks, positioning itself as the country's most widely attended cultural event.