Cuban and U.S. Editors Meet at Havana's Intl. Book Fair

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 15 (acn) New bridges between the cultural lives of Cuba and the United States were built today at the headquarters of the ongoing Havana's International Book Fair, resulting from the meeting between editors of the two countries.

For two days, 40 Cuban publishers and an equal number of U.S. publishers, as well as specialists and business persons, will take an interest in the peculiarities of the book market in these two nations that allow for planning exchanges, ACN reported on Monday.
Prior to these meetings, two representatives of the U.S. delegation, Jon Malinowski and Cevin Bryerman, highlighted the great possibilities of establishing almost immediate literary ties between the two countries, given the current political context of reestablishment of diplomatic relations.
Malinowski, president of Combined Book Exhibit, one of the largest U.S. companies with experience in organizing events such as the Cuban Book Fair, said the flow of information is very important for recognition, so normalization in the future would also be of great significance for authors and publishers to travel freely between the two countries to present their work.
Although he did not arrive in Havana with a preconceived notion, his short stay has allowed him to perceive a great interest of the Cuban people towards U.S. culture and authors, through the 600 titles brought to the Cuban Book Fair.
Moreover, Cevin Bryerman, EVP of the Publisher Weekly magazine, one of the oldest and most prestigious in the world of literary criticism, also highlighted the great passion for Cuban culture that exists in his country; and as both a businessman and a book lover he thinks that this new openness could allow entry into this market and vice versa.
In addition, Malinowski said that Cuban books and authors could be available to the market and book fairs in the United States with the invitation extended to the Caribbean nation to participate in Expo America, one of the most important book fairs in the world.
The Fair is scheduled for May and organizers hope to have a Cuban stand, which would add to the list of Spanish-speaking countries attending that meeting.
The U.S. businessman pointed out the existence of an online site with several available agents specializing in copyright, through which the publication of 160,000 books by 12,000 writers from around the world has been achieved, so they expect that these possibilities will also be available for Cubans.