The Ministry of Culture of Colombia is continuously developing strategies to create viable conditions for circulation of Colombian Culture abroad. This includes, as a priority, the cultural industries and their integration with international markets and other productive sectors. The two editions of the project Reading Colombia: A selection of contemporary Colombian authors, has had a notoriously positive impact on the editorial sector.

For the 2019 open call, Colombian publishers presented 210 tittles of national authors to be considered for the catalog of the Project that features 50 books and offers up to 10 translation grants to promote and co-finance their publishing abroad.

The Colombian contemporary authors featured in this catalog, will take highlight at international publishing events and the translation of their tittles (into English, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Arab, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and the Nordic Countries languages, invited to the 2020 Bogotá International Book Fair), will enable and renew the networks between Colombia´s publishers and those abroad, who are opening the doors to our literature, fiction and non-fiction towards new horizons.

May this be a new opportunity to spread Colombian literature and introduce new and avid readers around the world to the fifty different visions of our country portrayed on these books.

In order for the books to reach the hands of readers, they must travel through multiple paths; some paths are shorter than others, but in each of them there is a team of professionals who seek to guarantee the quality of that production that we usually see on the shelves of bookstores, libraries, schools, universities, unconventional reading spaces, etc.

In recent years the growth of the publishing sector in Colombia has been quite stable, as evidenced by the most recent study presented by the Colombian Book Chamber, in which we point out that the commercial edition in Colombia grew 2.5% in 2018. In that year, 44.5 million copies were printed, out of which 44% corresponded to books of general interest (novel, short story, poetry, essay, etc.). This shows the strength of the sector in terms of publication. While Colombian book exports have declined, the domestic book market has grown significantly.

Therefore, every action we take together, the publishing industry and the State, in order to make our country’s editorial production more visible, will result in better and larger business and outreach spaces. Here lies the importance of this second edition of the Reading Colombia Catalog: it shows what is being produced, its contents, its authors and the publishing power that grows substantially in our country. At the Colombian Book Chamber, we are aware of the need to create and consolidate alliances that allow us to continue internationalizing both the sector and each of the actors in the book production chain.

In addition, this catalog brings together publishers with a long career in the market and independent publishers; consolidated authors and new talents presenting their first works that address different types of issues and demonstrate the plurality of our industry and its potential growth.