Uruguayan literature takes centre stage at the Guadalajara Book Fair

The Guadalajara International Book Fair is the foremost meeting point for the Spanish-language publishing industry. Over nine days — including three dedicated exclusively to professional activity — it brings together readers, publishers, agents, authors and industry practitioners from across Ibero-America.

Within this framework, Uruguay is strengthening its internationalisation strategy through renewed participation in the Salón de Derechos (Rights Fair), the main marketplace for rights negotiations and a key driver of the global circulation of literary content.

In this setting, Uruguay XXI will promote the IDA Translation Programme, which provides grants to foreign publishers interested in translating works by Uruguayan authors. Developed jointly with the National Directorate of Culture and named in honour of Ida Vitale, the programme seeks to expand the international reach of Uruguayan literature and deepen its presence in new languages and markets. Vitale — poet, critic, essayist and translator — is one of the most influential figures in contemporary Uruguayan literature. Winner of the 2018 Cervantes Prize and many other international honours, she embodies the global projection of Uruguay’s literary voice and the cultural dialogue that the country aims to foster through translation.

As part of this strategy, Uruguay will present in Guadalajara a catalogue featuring the works distinguished at the Bartolomé Hidalgo Awards, one of the country’s most prestigious literary recognitions. Presented since 1988 by the Uruguayan Chamber of Books, these awards annually honour the best in Uruguayan publishing across multiple genres — narrative, poetry, history, essays, journalistic chronicles, children’s literature, graphic novels and more — and have become a benchmark of quality and relevance for the sector.

See the catalogue here. 

The catalogue that Uruguay will bring to Guadalajara includes the finalists and winners of the most recent edition of the awards, held in October 2025 at the Montevideo International Book Fair. It features titles such as Sobre esta tierra by Lalo Barrubia (fiction); Cordón Soho by Natalia Mardero and Lucía Álvarez (graphic novel); Un mar en madrugada by Silvia Guerra (poetry); and Ganar la guerra by Magdalena Broquetas (history), among many others. The selection offers an up-to-date portrait of the country’s literary landscape and serves as a key tool for negotiating rights with international publishers.

A key prelude: the international publishing mission to Montevideo

Uruguay’s participation in Guadalajara is strengthened by an important event held weeks earlier: the international publishing mission organised by Uruguay XXI in Montevideo in September. During this visit, the city welcomed Santiago Tobón of Sexto Piso (Mexico–Spain) and Sandro Aloisio of Grupo Escala (Brazil), who explored both historical and contemporary spaces that shape Uruguay’s literary identity.

“We wanted them to get to know not only today’s publishers, authors and illustrators, but also the living history behind them — the places where our literature was forged,” explained Omaira Rodríguez, specialist in the promotion of creative industries at Uruguay XXI, who led the tour.

The agenda combined professional meetings with a cultural itinerary that included the National Academy of Letters — housed in the former residence of Julio Herrera y Reissig — the Casa de Susana Soca, the Zorrilla Museum, the Mario Benedetti Foundation, and the iconic tables of Café Brasilero, where the voices of Onetti, Vilariño, Galeano and other leading figures once resonated. Each stop revealed a piece of the fabric that has sustained the uniqueness of Uruguayan literature for more than a century.

For Tobón, the experience was “a fascinating journey” that illuminated the dialogue between tradition and contemporary creation; for Aloisio, it offered “a fundamental immersion” and the chance to rethink regional circulation: “We have a cultural debt between our peoples. We need to look more closely at those who are close to us.”

Read here: A journey through Uruguayan literature: the publishers who read Montevideo like a book 

The current landscape — marked by dynamic independent publishers, acclaimed illustrators and emerging voices in full expansion — confirmed to both visitors the strength of Uruguay’s literary ecosystem. “The effervescence that exists in Uruguay is not common in other countries,” Tobón noted.
In March, as part of this mission, Carolina Orloff of Charco Press will travel to Montevideo for meetings with Uruguayan publishers, authors and illustrators.

A sector projecting itself to the world

This landscape of solid literary production, a distinguished historical legacy, a diverse and vibrant creative present and strong institutional commitment to internationalisation is what Uruguay brings to the FIL Guadalajara Rights Fair. The IDA Programme, together with the presentation of the Bartolomé Hidalgo Awards catalogue, forms a strategy that seeks to stimulate the acquisition of Uruguayan copyright, promote translations and deepen ties with publishers in the region and around the world.