The Porto Alegre Book Fair is held annually since 1955, between late October to mid-November, in the downtown Porto Alegre, Brazil. It is the largest outdoors book fair[1] in Latin America and the most important cultural event in the city. Nowadays, the Fair sprawls itself between the Alfândega Square, the Sepúlveda Avenue and some docks at Porto Alegre Harbor.
History
editThe Porto Alegre Book Fair was an idea from Say Marques, then manager of the Diário de Notícias newspaper. Marques wanted to make books available to the majority of the citizens, as bookshops were deemed to be snobbish. The first edition of the Book Fair had 14 book stands and it was inaugurated on November 16, 1955.
Patrons
editThere is a patron for the Fair since 1965. Selection[2] of the Patron has two phases. In the first phase, each bookshop associated to the Rio-Grandense Book Chamber submits five names. In the second phase, the 10 most voted persons list is submitted to 88 persons arising from the cultural scene. The most voted shall be the Patron of the Porto Alegre Book Fair; in case of tie ballot, the eldest one shall be chosen.
- 1965 - Alcides Maya
- 1966 - João Simões Lopes Neto
- 1967 - Alceu Wamosy
- 1968 - Caldas Júnior
- 1969 - Eduardo Guimaraens
- 1970 - Augusto Meyer
- 1971 - Manoelito de Ornellas
- 1972 - Luís Vaz de Camões
- 1973 - Darcy Azambuja
- 1974 - Leopoldo Bernardo Boeck
- 1975 - Athos Damasceno Ferreira
- 1976 - Erico Verissimo
- 1977 - Henrique Bertaso
- 1978 - Walter Spalding
- 1979 - Augustin Saint-Hilaire
- 1980 - Moysés Vellinho
- 1981 - Adão Juvenal de Souza
- 1982 - Reynaldo Moura e Monteiro Lobato
- 1983 - José Bertaso
- 1984 - Maurício Rosenblatt
- 1985 - Mario Quintana
- 1986 - Cyro Martins
- 1987 - Moacyr Scliar
- 1988 - Alberto André
- 1989 - Maria Dinorah
- 1990 - Guilhermino César
- 1991 - Luis Fernando Verissimo
- 1992 - Paulo Fontoura Gastal
- 1993 - Carlos Reverbel
- 1994 - Nelson Boeck, Edgardo Xavier, Mário de Almeida Lima e Sétimo Luizelli
- 1995 - Caio Fernando Abreu
- 1996 - Lya Luft
- 1997 - Luiz Antonio de Assis Brasil
- 1998 - Patrícia Bins
- 1999 - Décio Freitas
- 2000 - Barbosa Lessa
- 2001 - Armindo Trevisan
- 2002 - Ruy Carlos Ostermann
- 2003 - Walter Galvani
- 2004 - Donaldo Schüler
- 2005 - Friar Rovílio Costa
References
edit- ^ "Feiras do Livro em Porto Alegre." Terragaúcha. 6 August 2006 Archived 31 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Patrono." Feira do Livro - Porto Alegre. 6 August 2006 Archived 5 November 2006 at the Wayback Machine