Between April 21 and May 4, the 38th edition of the Bogota International Book Fair (FILBo) will take place at the traditional Corferias venue, with a program that includes more than 2,300 cultural, academic, and professional activities across 23 pavilions. This time, the guest country of honor is India, and the guest department is Boyaca.
The delegation from the Asian country will include 35 authors, 3,000 titles, more than 100 events, seven exhibitions and artistic presentations, 75 speakers, and the screening of more than 30 films and documentaries. “Literature, at its core, is about building bridges to bring people together,” said Ambassador Shri Vanlalhuma.
India’s presence will be in Pavilion 4 of Corferias: a space carefully designed under the motto ‘Come, read, and explore India’, which recreates the cultural richness and diversity of that nation. According to Vanlalhuma, “our participation will include the presence of a delegation of distinguished authors, thinkers, and professionals, who will share with Colombian audiences through dialogues, discussions, and reflections, because literature, at its core, is about building bridges to bring people together.”
Objective: to continue promoting a culture of reading
To this are added the words of Vinnet Kumar, first secretary and head of culture of the diplomatic mission, who states that the India Pavilion will be a reflection of its rich tradition. “It is said that a person is not the same after finishing reading a book; that same effect is what we want each visitor who walks through this space to experience, where there will be literature, art, gastronomy, film screenings, spaces for children, among other experiences.”
For his part, Andres Lopez, president of Corferias, stated that there is not a single event in the region, in Latin America, capable of bringing together 2,000 events in 14 days. “What do we expect from this edition? To continue promoting a culture of reading.” Something that will be possible, he said, thanks to India’s participation, because “when we talk about ‘Listening to each other is reading each other’, the Indian nation is an example of this; we are strongly curious about what they will show and share.”
On the other hand, Adriana Angel Forero, director of FILBo for the Colombian Book Chamber, pointed out that “Bogota becomes an epicenter of international business in the first half of the year, as agents from different countries come to participate in various activities during the 14 days. Thus, Bogota is transformed into a meeting place for publishing business, and into a space for the exchange of ideas, training, and updating thanks to the professional sessions.”
For this to be possible, the fairgrounds, the home of the Fair, is transformed into a vibrant place in which each space is part of the cultural narrative. In this sense, Tatiana Rudd, FILBo project manager for Corferias, stated that “we reinvent ourselves year after year, we have more publishers and more personalities from the book industry.”
The participation of India as Guest Country of Honor at FILBo 2026 reaffirms the Fair’s commitment to cultural diversity and international exchange, consolidating it as one of the most important stages in the publishing world in Latin America. To learn about the entire delegation of the country and the program, visit feriadellibro.com.
The Minister of Cultures, Arts, and Knowledge, Yannai Kadamani, highlighted the importance of FILBo. “We will participate, from the National Government, with what we have called ‘Our common home’: an initiative in which people will find the 68 languages in which the different stories of this country have been written, told, and narrated,” she said.
“We understand that reading does not occur only in the written word, but also in the silences that pass through us. With Pavilion 5A ‘LEO: symphony of silence’, we propose an immersive experience where reading is listening, feeling, and inhabiting the territory from other sensibilities. There we will have more than 100 activities and the launch of 38 publications from the culture sector, in addition to the FILBo Ciudad segments that will decentralize the Fair across all of Bogota,” said Santiago Trujillo Escobar, from the Secretariat of Culture, Recreation, and Sport of Bogota.
As in previous editions, the public is expected to make the Corferias venue come alive during the days of FILBo, where, year after year, the most important cultural and publishing gathering in the country has strengthened the book ecosystem.”**