BEA's Global Market Forum Country of Honor: MEXICO

Mexico has a thriving scene of publishers, represented by the small and big, the new and those of long standing tradition – it is an expanding book market, reflecting Mexico’s robust emerging economy, producers of world class literature whose authors are and have always been a fixture in New York’s cultural hotspots. The United States in return has a huge Spanish readership, and a strong tradition of hosting Mexican (and Latin American) writers.

But when it comes to the book business, the talk is more about hurdles than the flow of books and success stories. This mission of BEA 's GMF is to bring positive change that remove those hurdles and initiating this conversation with a terrific line up of top speakers from both the Mexican and the US book industry in a day of exchanges, insights and connections.

The speakers include the Mexican cultural sponsor, Conaculta – BEA’s partner for the event, the Mexican Publishers and Booksellers Association Caniem, and the Association of American Publishers (who will highlight the mutual benefit of the joint Mexican US effort), houses like Random House Mondadori, Planeta, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster, Overdrive (highlighting the importance of the library segment for any substantial cultural exchange), new independent publishers from both countries, like Sexto Piso and Almadía (Mexico) or Deep Vellum and Gray Wolf (US), wholesalers like Ingram to share insights in how to technically engineer such trades across borders, Kobo as well as Copyright Clearance Centre for the digital dimension of crafting out strategies for the future, or translation specialists like Three Percent’s Chad Post.

This is a hands on approach on how to get across the Rio Grande, from both sides, for the benefit of what books can achieve: A mutual exchange of ideas and knowledge,  entertaining through reading about a wonderful, yet not always familiar neighbor’s life and inspirations.