Miami Book Fair Brings Life And Literature To Downtown Miami
Wolfson Campus hosted its 39th rendition of the Miami Book Fair from Nov. 13-20. The eight-day literary event featured more than 100 authors, musicians and artists.
Rows of colorful tents lined the streets of Downtown Miami surrounded by food trucks, lemonade, arepa, hot dog and empanada stands.
“I’ve loved reading all my life,” said Katherine Di Puglia, a local pre-school teacher who attended the Book Fair for the third year in a row. “These events are very important because they incite the public to read more and learn more about authors and culture.”
The Book Fair kicked off its popular Evenings With event series on Nov. 13 by featuring Colombian singer Juanes, who spoke about his career and personal life.
Other speakers featured in the popular series included actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein, former Dallas Cowboys, Miami Dolphins and University of Miami Head Coach Jimmy Johnson, and award-winning writer Sandra Cisneros.
“I was really pleased to see [Cisneros],” said Bianka Bermudez, a fourth-year English student at Florida International University who aspires to become a writer. “She made me feel a lot of pride in my culture, my people and what we can do as storytellers.”
The in-person festivities brought famous musicians such as punk rock legend Patti Smith and renowned artists DJ Khaled and Jose “Fat Joe” Cartagena.
“It was really interesting to hear Fat Joe’s story,” said Zain Mithani, a nephrologist working at the University of Miami Health System who attended the event featuring DJ Khaled and Jose “Fat Joe” Cartagena. “It’s good to know everything he’s been through in his life.”
This year’s fair also hosted the newly created ReadingEast program, which explored Asian culture through conversations about fiction, non-fiction and poetry spotlighting authors such as Iranian-American scholar Reza Aslan and Palestinian-American novelist Etaf Rum.
“It was interesting to me that three Palestinian women were going to be on the panel,” said Genie Habib after attending the Palestinian Lives: Past & Present event, which featured four authors discussing women’s lives in the Middle East. “We need more of these types of panels because it’s a different perspective.”
The Book Fair culminated Nov. 18-20 with its staple event—the Street Fair—highlighting events such as the ReadCaribbean series, Children’s Alley and the Off The Shelf music festival.
Despite strong winds throughout the three-day Street Fair and heavy rain on the last day, hundreds of guests attended events, readings, talked with authors and purchased books.
“A few people came over saying ‘oh I saw your book!’ so that was pretty cool,” said Roberto Jimenez, who had a tent at the Street Fair to sell his book, Where is Benji, which was published last August to show children how to accept new siblings. “Next time I hope to be here the whole weekend.”
Staff writer Jaime Blanco Pinto contributed to this story.
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