Book Party Independent returns to Arroyos with more than 120 participants

A Festival of the Independent Book of the Freguesia de Arroios (FLIFA) returns to the Market of Arroios, in Lisbon, from 23 to 25 October, with more than 120 independent publishers, bookstores and collectives.

In its fifth edition, FLIFA will gather editorial projects with decades of activity and more recent ones, in a free entry program, which includes presentations of books, conversations, staged readings, workshops and music, announced the organization in a statement.

Among the participants are Example Books, Planet Tangerina, Bad Publisher, Zigurate, the Insurgent Bookshop and Film Library Editions, among many others.

The program includes a staged reading by the United Artists in honor of the British playwright Harold Pinter on the 24th, with texts by Pinter himself, by Enda Walsh, Juan Mayorga and Spiro Scimone, played by Américo Silva, João Meireles, Pedro Carraca and Inês Pereira.

Also on Saturday, editor Carlos Silva and sociologist António Brito Guterres will talk about the relations between fiction and reality from the novel “The City and the City”, from China Miéville, and its relationship with the city of Lisbon.

The program also includes a conversation dedicated to the German playwright Heiner Müller, regarding the publication of the anthology “Not Enough for All. Texts on Capitalism”, and another on the colonial photographic archive, from the book “The Photo Impulse – (Un)Arrange the Colonial Archive”, emerged following the research project “Photo Impulse” of the Institute of Communication of the New University, and the exhibition with the Museum of Natural History and Science of the University of Lisbon.

Literary festivals and their relationship with reading habits will be debated at a round table with João Concha and Maribel Mendes Sobreira, moderated by Joana Markus Neves.

On Sunday, the discussion focuses on the best-selling market, a conversation that brings together Ella Sher and Rosa Azevedo, moderated by Joana Markus Neves.

Among the planned presentations is that of Angolan poet Zetho Cunha Gonçalves, who will make known two recent publications, the reissue of “The Vertical Night” and the “fanzine” of unpublished poetry “15 poems”, in a conversation with writer João Melo.

Sunday programming also includes the celebration of the ten years of the editorial project The Death of the Artist, with a conversation and reading staged that will count on the participation of Fernanda Cunha, João Eduardo Ferreira, Manuel Halpern and Paulo Romão Brás.

For children and families, creative writing workshops, illustration and construction of ‘pop-up’ books are planned, as well as an activity of Planet Tangerine inspired by the collection “Always Return!”.

Among the proposals of the fair is also the launch of the book “Deuses na Borda do Mundo”, by Susana Rosa, accompanied by a culinary demonstration of the species, a sweet typical of the island of São Jorge, in the Azores, which can be tasted in the end, accompanied by Arabic coffee from the restaurant Mezze.

The party begins on Friday, the 23rd, with a performance of the Alarido, feminist choir and LGBT that interprets arrangements ‘a cappella’ of pop songs.

Created in 2022, at the Largo do Cabeço da Bola Headquarters in Lisbon, FLIFA keeps among the participants some of the publishers and bookstores present in the first edition, such as Snob, Miosótis and Piena.

Organized by the Junta de Freguesia de Arroios, this initiative aims to bring together editors, booksellers and readers, promoting contact between editorial projects of different dimensions.