Desenzano Reads: New Book Fair Celebrates Small and Medium Publishers
Forty stalls representing as many small and medium-sized publishing houses: a 160-meter stretch of books to browse, and if desired, to buy. This is how Piazza Malvezzi will present itself next weekend. On Saturday and Sunday, in fact, the debut of the “Book Fair” organized by the Comune di Desenzano’s Department of Culture will take place, with the hope of making it a regular event for the coming years.
The event and the participating publishing houses
It will not be the Buchmesse of Frankfurt, nor the Salone del Libro of Turin. But if a good start is seen from the beginning, the Desenzano fair could become, in the future, a cultural event of notable prestige. Evidence of this is the large response received from the publishing world.
In Piazza Malvezzi, outdoors, the participating publishers will number over forty. Small, medium, or even very small, local or of national prestige. There will be stalls from Morcelliana publishing, Stampa Alternativa, Astrale Time, Kellerman, Demetra, and De Vecchi. There will also be local publishers, small but passionate and rooted in the territory, such as the Desenzano-based Podavini, Castelli, Dipende, and Prospettive.
Organization and objectives of the fair
“Organizing this event took several months of preparatory work, but the response exceeded our expectations,” recalls the enthusiastic Emanuele Giustacchini, municipal Culture assessor. Our wish? Besides the success of this inaugural edition, we hope that in the coming years the Book Fair can be held regularly, eventually gaining prestige and recognition at the national level.
“We want the event to establish itself as a specialized fair dedicated to small and medium-sized publishers, as an opportunity for promotion for them and also as a draw for our city.” Because we are targeting a broad audience – continues the assessor – we have chosen the format of a trade fair: in addition to discovering and engaging with publishers, visitors will also be able to purchase individual volumes directly from the stalls.
Related events and themes addressed
Among the events linked to the Fair, two seminars will be held at Palazzo Todeschini. The first on Saturday morning, starting at 10 a.m. and continuing into the afternoon, will focus on “The Future of the Book in the Multimedia Age.” The second is scheduled for Sunday, also from 10 a.m. onwards, and will be dedicated to the activities and prospects of small publishing houses.