Italy will participate as guest of honor at the 40th edition of the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL) with a delegation of 61 writers and a centerpiece tribute to Umberto Eco, marking ten years since his death. The fair runs from November 28 to December 6, 2026.
The Italian program was presented this week by the Italian Publishers Association. Innocenzo Cipolletta, the association's president, said the delegation will showcase contemporary Italy in Mexico, as reported by Milenio. FIL director Marisol Schulz described the participation as one of the most diverse the fair has received, "very well represented across genres and generations." For the Latino reading community in North America, Italy's presence at FIL Guadalajara, the world's largest publishing platform in Spanish, opens a direct window onto an editorial market whose primary destination for translation rights is precisely the Spanish language.
The tribute to Umberto Eco will be organized around the phrase "The world speaks to us like a great book," from his novel *The Name of the Rose*. Novelist Alessandro Baricco, author of *Silk* and *Novecento*, will inaugurate the literary program with a *lectio magistralis*. Among the 61 confirmed authors are Aldo Cazzullo, Mario Calabresi, Viola Ardone, and senator and neuroscientist Elena Cattaneo, who will deliver a lecture on the limits of scientific knowledge.
The program includes ten exhibitions, among them a show dedicated to Caravaggio at the Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara and another on Etruscan culture at the Museo Cabañas. Comic artist Milo Manara will present his illustrated adaptation of *The Name of the Rose*. The cultural offering is rounded out by concerts from Mario Biondi and the Paolo Fresu Devil Quartet, a film cycle, and an Italian gastronomy festival. The FIL Niños pavilion, which expects to receive 200,000 children, coincides with the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Carlo Collodi, creator of Pinocchio.
FIL president José Trinidad Padilla noted that Italy was already a guest of honor 18 years ago and indicated that Brazil, Argentina, or Panama are among the possible next guests. The 40th edition of the fair expects to bring together nearly one million visitors, more than 900 writers, and 18,000 publishing professionals from 60 countries.
This article was written with the assistance of artificial intelligence from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.