Organized at the initiative of the National Press of Haiti, the first edition of the National Book Fair which opened its doors this Sunday, April 29 and end on May 1, will be held this year in Jacmel. The writer Laennec Hurbon will be the guest of honor, some thirty writers and twenty publishers are expected to this rendezvous of the literature...

The organizers have set as priorities, to to enhance and make profitable the writing profession, to develop and encourage a certain culture of celebration of the values ​​in the book sector "Work to ensure that writing became a paying professionbut mostly that it is accompanied of a certain culture of celebration is that we also aim through this festival," explained Pierre Robert Auguste the Director General of the National Press of Haiti.

Mr. Augustus indicated that this fair, as part of the decentralization advocated by the Government, will take place each year in a different department. He also announced that the National Book Fair, will be the occasion to inaugurate the "Grand Prix National des lettres" with a budget of one million gourdes, which will reward an author, chosen according to objective criteria, adding that each department will also award a literary prize, accompanied by a amount of 100,000 gourdes.

Beyond this event, the responsibles of the National Press have many projects: "In large cities, it is proposed to build a complex that will include a library and a center digital [...] the National Press also dreams of building libraries in 42 arrondissements of the country and thereafter in the 565 communal sections..."

HL/ HaitiLibre