Cultural Spotlight
International Best-Seller
For the men and women who chronicle love, loss, jubilation and criticism in the pages of books, the 24th Miami Book Fair International was one of the most important literary events on the annual calendar.
This year’s fair featured Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Russo, Emmy-winning talk show host and actress Rosie O’Donnell, poet and Virginia Tech professor Nikki Giovanni, and President Bush’s daughter, Jenna. “Miami Book Fair is the important book fair,” Giovanni said. “And Miami is important because it’s international, and it needs to stay that way.”
The Fair brought thousands of booklovers from throughout the region to MDC’s Wolfson Campus. More than 300 authors from around the world participated in the “Festival of Authors.” Among them were National Book Award finalist Edwidge Danticat, acclaimed Chinese author Ha Jin, poet and playwright Amiri Baraka and cookbook author Padma Lakshmi.
The Fair remains, as books editor Chauncey Mabe of the Sun-Sentinel wrote, a “celebration of books and reading, writers and readers, played on a grand scale.”
— Staff Report