On the opening morning of the Lima International Book Fair, a column of readers walked along the verge of the Panamericana Sur motorway. They had followed organisers’ advice to take shuttle buses from nearby landmarks, but the vehicles failed to materialise; the improvised pedestrian route became the prologue to a 30th edition that returned to the Surco district after a 17-year absence. Once inside, the 14,000-square-metre venue—with 170 stands and six auditoriums—gradually filled, as some stalls hurried to complete last-minute setup.

Such scenes of determined attendance recur across Latin America this month, where a cluster of literary festivals and book fairs are drawing audiences not only with new titles but with public reflection on history, memory and the health of the written word. In Paraty, Brazil, the 24th Festa Literária Internacional (Flip) unfolds through 26 July around the work of poet Orides Fontela, yet much of the attention has settled on two generational touchstones: the 70th anniversary of João Guimarães Rosa’s ‘Grande Sertão: Veredas’ and the presence of United States philosopher and activist Angela Davis.

Leonêncio Nossa, author of the first biography of the Brazilian writer, told Agência Brasil that the novel’s supposedly difficult language found an immediate readership because of its musicality. ‘It is a book that should be read aloud,’ he said, noting that Rosa once protested that critics who accused him of inventing a tongue had simply never listened to the vaqueiros of Minas Gerais, Bahia and Goiás. A Saturday panel at the Casa Brasil de Histórias will bring together writer Conceição Evaristo, Supreme Court justice Cármen Lúcia and journalist Miriam Leitão to discuss how the work still speaks to ethics, justice and memory.

Davis herself is scheduled for a Saturday evening conversation on transatlantic solidarity under the Sesc Caborê tent, a venue built for 700 people and equipped with outdoor screens for overflow crowds. The encounter, moderated by journalist Flávia Oliveira, is part of a sprawling parallel programme that also features Brazilian authors such as Tati Bernardi and Drauzio Varella in talk-show and café settings, alongside discussions on artificial intelligence, media literacy and mental health. Further south, the Feria de Editores (FED) prepares to open its 15th edition in Buenos Aires in the coming weeks, expecting to surpass last year’s 30,000 visitors. The theme chosen—‘Editar el pasado para gobernar el presente’ (Editing the past to govern the present)—frames a programme that includes historian Camila Perochena on how historiography is rewritten, an interrogation of gentrification and the right to the city, and a conversation on Borges between literature and philosophy. The fair arrives at a politically charged moment: organisers have joined a chorus of publishers and booksellers repudiating the Argentine government’s attempt to repeal Law 25.542, which fixes book prices and is widely credited with preserving a diverse publishing ecosystem.

In Bogotá, the Festival Gabo marks the 30th anniversary of the Fundación Gabo this weekend with 150 activities across 40 spaces. The focus is fixed firmly on the fragility of democracy and journalism in the region, featuring figures such as historian Diana Uribe, former president Juan Manuel Santos and poet Piedad Bonnett. The programme turns the city into a literary map: a conversation at the Gimnasio Moderno, a masterclass at a public library, a party at the Galería Café del Libro where a singer channels Celia Cruz. Back in Lima, after the early hiccup, the buses began circulating and the fair assumed its rhythm. By mid-afternoon, the aisles were thick with school groups and elderly visitors taking advantage of free admission, while outside, the same motorway verge that had served as sidewalk now shimmered under winter sun. The region’s fairs, each in its own register, appear to be asking a shared question: how to read the past in a present that feels increasingly illegible.