Project
Internationalization of Chilean literature
The collaboration of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through ProChile and Dirac, in the Internationalization Program of the Book and Reading Fund of the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage, has been decisive in contributing to the professionalization of book agents, allowing a variety of actors from the book and reading ecosystem to attend important international events. This joint effort between the three public institutions has been made possible through cooperation agreements that enable each institutions’ areas of expertise to be leveraged and enhanced.
Book fairs are important spaces for communication among the players in the publishing sector in order to promote reading, analyze sector trends, and develop relationships between creators, publishers, and book sellers. Book fairs are held in the market of a cultural environment and are aimed at fostering meetings between the different actors; they are a key event in the development of the industry as a business and in advancement of publishing houses.
Chile has maintained a stable presence at the book fairs in Frankfurt, Buenos Aires, Bogota, Lima, and Guadalajara. It has also participated as the Guest of Honor at the Oaxaca International Book Fair and the Medellin Book and Culture Festival, and other special events such as those dedicated to Graphic Narrative, including Chile’s participation in the Bande Dessinée d’Angoulême Festival since 2017. Our country will also be the Guest of Honor at the Eñe Festival held in Madrid and Málaga in 2024. The Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage has participated by sending delegations of authors in 2022 and 2023.
Book fairs are important spaces for communication among the players in the publishing sector in order to promote reading, analyze sector trends, and develop relationships between creators, publishers, and book sellers
As a tool to broaden access to international events, the Book Fund’s Support Line for the Dissemination of Books, Reading, and National Creation, implemented by the Executive Secretariat of the Book, carries out consistent work to disseminate national authors and publishers at trade fairs in Chile and around the world. This line has facilitated the development of important internationalization strategies. Between 2019 and 2020, it awarded a total of CLP 400mn to nearly 300 projects.
Between 2004 and 2023, approximately one hundred translation projects have taken shape, mainly for purposes of dissemination, of works by authors including Gabriela Mistral, Gonzalo Rojas, Efraín Barquero, Raúl Zurita, Violeta Parra, Paloma Valdivia, María José Ferrada, Enrique Lihn, Diamela Eltit, Pablo Neruda, and Elicura Chihuailaf, among others. In addition to these publications in the field of literature, there are others related to heritage, history, and science. Moreover, there were the catalogs of various exhibitions held in Dirac’s different artistic areas, such as visual arts, handicrafts, performing arts, and heritage.
These projects are associated with milestones in foreign policy and/or events of historical importance, anniversaries, etc., which Dirac has carried out in conjunction with Embassies and/or Ediciones Biblioteca Nacional, within the framework of the Program for the International Dissemination of Bibliographic Heritage. These initiatives have been undertaken with the collaboration of local institutions such as ministries, NGOs, universities, and foundations, among others.
Likewise, it should be noted that several projects have involved translations into indigenous languages, which it is relevant because of UNESCO’s recent inauguration of the Decade of Indigenous Languages. To date, publications have been produced in Guarani, Quichua (Ecuador), Nahuatl, Quechua (Peru), Te reo Māori, and Swahili.
These books have been distributed through the network of embassies and consulates to cultural institutions, universities, and libraries and schools/colleges sponsored by Chile and/or that teach Spanish as a second language.
Chile at the Frankfurt Book Fair
Since Chile first participated in the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2014, we have had a cultural program that has enabled outstanding projects, such as the publication of a special issue of ALBA magazine dedicated to Chilean narrative. That edition showcased the work of the outstanding contemporary authors Alia Trabucco and Óscar Barrientos. Subsequently, the event was attended by renowned authors such as Raúl Zurita and Óscar Hahn, both winners of the National Literature Prize, while Zurita also won the Pablo Neruda Ibero- American Poetry Prize. At that event they presented their works translated into German.
En la versión 2016 se contó con la presencia de Andrea Jeftanovic, una de las voces más destacadas de la narrativa actual y quien luego de su participación fue traducida al sueco. Mientras que en 2017, la presentación de la reedición bilingüe y actualizada del libro Canciones de Chile (Lieder aus Chile), del profesor Manfred Engelbert, fue en el marco del cierre del programa de conmemoración del centenario del natalicio de Violeta Parra, proyecto impulsado por Dirac en el extranjero, y que contó con la destacada participación de Raúl Zurita, quien además fue el autor del prólogo del libro.
Since 2014, the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage has been financing delegations of professionals attending the fair. In 2018, to commemorate the Chilean prize for Best Literary Works, which is awarded by the Ministry, there was a launch event for the 25- year catalog of the Best Literary Works Award in trilingual format (German-English-Spanish). The presentation included several of the winning authors, and was led by Mike Wilson (Best Literary Works Award 2017 for Leñador (Lumberjack)). In addition, he also presented the German translation of his novel Rockabilly, published by Diaphanes.
Since 2014, the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage has been financing delegations of professionals attending the fair.
The 2019 fair was attended by María José Ferrada (Best Literary Works Award 2018 for Kramp), who inaugurated the Chilean stand with a reading of her work. Carlos Franz was also there, presenting his book Si te vieras con mis ojos (Das Quartett der Liebenden), winner of the Vargas Llosa Biennial Novel Prize, which was published in German by Gutenberg Publishers with funds from Dirac’s Translation Support Program. In addition, the Goethe Institut Chile paid tribute to Gabriela Mistral and women creators with the presentation of its Entrelíneas project, in a cultural exchange between emerging creators from Chile and Germany.
After two years of virtual participation in Frankfurt, our country returned to the Fair in 2022. Chile’s stand was designed by illustrator Carola Josefa as part of The Year of Reading and the Environment, promoted by the National Reading Plan. The fair was attended by the illustrator Sol Díaz, author of works such as Pancha la chancha, Bicharracas, and ¿Cómo ser una mujer elegante?, and the writer Sergio Missana, author o El invasor (The Invader), Movimiento falso (False Movement), and Las muertes paralelas (Parallel Deaths).
At the 2023 edition, the Cultural Program revolved around the concepts of memory and human rights, in the framework of commemorating of the 50th anniversary of Chile’s military coup. Jorge Montealegre, author of Frazadas del Estadio Nacional (Blankets at the National Stadium), recounted his experience as a political prisoner, and Vivian Lavín presented Pisaremos las calles nuevamente (We Will Walk the Streets Again) a book that compiles the testimony of two former political prisoners.
En la versión de 2023, los conceptos del Programa Cultural giraron en torno a la memoria y a los derechos humanos, en el marco de la conmemoración de los 50 años del Golpe Militar en Chile. Jorge Montealegre, autor de Frazadas del Estadio Nacional, relató su experiencia como prisionero político y Vivian Lavín presentó Pisaremos las calles nuevamente, libro que recoge el testimonio de dos ex detenidas políticas.
internationalization of Chilean creative industries
Creative industries in our country are characterized by rapid adaptation to changes and trends in the circulation of various goods, services, and rights that are traded in the creative sector at the global level.
In the past decade, the high quality and professionalism of this national industry has been lauded internationally on many occasions. In the film industry, Bear Story won the 2016 Oscar for animated short film, and in 2018, A Fantastic Woman won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. An Eisner award went to the comic book artist Gabriel Rodríguez in 2015 for his work Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland. In 2021, The Mole Agent was the only Latin American documentary to be nominated for the Oscars, after being shortlisted for Best International Feature Film. These awards are in addition to the emblematic Nobel Prizes obtained by Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda in the literary field, in the mid-20th century.
