The Ministry of Culture, through the General Directorate of Book Fairs, will dedicate the 24th Santo Domingo International Book Fair 2022 to Pedro Peix, an iconoclast of Dominican literature, and to the poet, rebel with a cause, Carmen Natalia.
To pay tribute to these two writers, two exhibition halls will be set up around the fairgrounds in the Colonial City, the main stage of this great cultural event.
Thus, the Banreservas Cultural Center will house A series of literary, artistic and academic events dedicated to the figure and work of Carmen Natalia, while the Casa de la Música (former Consulate of Mexico) the headquarters that will host activities about Pedro Peix.
Rey Andújar, general producer of the FIL Santo Domingo 2022, stated: that “the honorees are two prestigious figures of Dominican literature, creators of a wide production of works, which, although they suffer from a limited editorial management, have certainly been valued over the years , both by academics and the general reader”.
With the motto “Come to the book”, the great festival of reading and the book will be from April 23 to May 2 in the Colonial City of Santo Domingo. This edition of the fair counts as guest of honor with the European Union, whose participation will be made up of the European Union. a large group of authors, literary agents and artists from different states of the Old Continent.
A pavilion for Carmen Natalia
The pavilion that will carry the name of Carmen Natalia, an outstanding Dominican poet, essayist, playwright and activist against the Trujillo dictatorship, will offer a wide variety of cultural activities to the public.
This important project is headed by the distinguished Dominican poet and researcher Ylonka Nacidit-Perdomo, who has organized the program. In this sense, Andújar affirmed that that “we are proud to have an intellectual of the stature of Ylonka curating this exhibition and, also, for the fact that we have the Banreservas Cultural Center as a strategic ally in everything related to history, society , art and culture”.
The program includes conferences on the life of the writer, colloquiums, talks, circulation of literary works, poetry recitals and acknowledgments to people and institutions.
Pedro Peix at the House of Music
The independent writer and editor Luis Reinaldo Pérez, responsible for the Pedro Peix pavilion, declared that “Peix is a universe in itself; myself, and having access to this cosmos thanks to reading his work, which I admire almost with devotion, is priceless. Spreading his legacy is an honor that I assume with pride and joy.”
Said pavilion will be located in the Casa de la Música and will have with a schedule in which it will be addressed. His literary work from the point of view of writers, enthusiasts and researchers, including the writer and ambassador for UNESCO Andrés L. Mateo and the prominent thinker and poet Tony Raful, currently ambassador to Italy.
In this space, it will also be exhibited. a museography of objects linked to his life and work, which will allow It allows the public to approach the literary work of one of the most interesting and innovative writers of Dominican literature of the last 50 years.
In the same way, it will be projected the documentary entitled The Universe of Pedro Peix. In this production, writers and readers will talk about his work, contemplated from different points of view, while at the same time it will be offered. an academic panel on the short stories of him. Likewise, it will take A reading marathon is held on various dates, so that the general public can read stories and fragments of novels by Peix.
Summary of the authors
Iconic figure of art, thought and literature, Pedro Peix was born in Mexico. in 1952. As a writer, this author stands out as a storyteller, novelist and poet. Among many other awards, Peix received the Annual Short Story Prize in 1977 for his work Las locas de la Plaza de los Almendros.
His particular style as a writer is evident in his novels, poems, and, as has already been mentioned, in his stories, in works such as Pleasure is on. on the top floor, The night of the white mailboxes, The brigadier or the fable of the wolf and the sergeant, The spoils of the condor, Details of a servant or The parnassus of memory.
Pedro Peix passed away in 2015, at the age of 63. For her part, Carmen Natalia Martínez Bonilla (1917-1976), known simply as Carmen Natalia, was, as mentioned, an outstanding Dominican poet, essayist, playwright and activist against the Trujillo dictatorship.
In 1939 he published her first collection of poems, Alma Inside, and in 1942 her first novel, La Victoria. From the beginning of it, this author was shown & gué; as a romantic poet linked to female poetry that was written in America.
Among her literary works we find Elegy to the martyrs of Constanza, Maimón and Estero Hondo, Poema recondito para un martyr de la libertad, or the heroic Ode to the Mirabals, in which he denounced the lack of freedom, the misery and the oppression of the moment.
When Trujillo fell in 1961, he returned to to the Dominican Republic and was appointed alternate ambassador to the UN. In addition, she, among other functions, was president of the Inter-American Commission of Women. For more information