St. Maarten:--- Every year in February, Havana turns into an interesting scene for Writers, Publish houses, Editors, distributors, literary agents, librarians, illustrators, booksellers and especially readers, lovers of the writing word. Most of them come from Cuba, but so many travels from elsewhere in the world to Havana to experience the greatness of the ‘Feria International del Libro’. So, does, this year a delegation of 12 book writers, poets, novelists, scriptwriters from the Dutch Caribbean countries Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten. Loekie Morales is amongst them also invited by the organizers of the Feria del Libro, to present 3 of her books that are published in the Spanish language, namely: ‘La Mágica Tarta Nupcial’ (The Magic Wedding Cake), ‘Chella y la Mujer Misteriosa’ (Chella and the Weird Woman) and ‘La Sangre Llama’ (Overseas Bloodline).
Havana, the capital of Cuba is celebrating this year its 28th "Fair international of the book in Cuba" (FIL Cuba), from the 7th to 17th of February. It takes place in various locations in and around Havana. It is still headquartered in the fortress of San Carlos de La Cabaña in Havana. It is all by all a big party of letters, words, sentences, to be experienced by families and to acquire works of universal renown literary works at popular prices.
The international book fair in Cuba is conceived as a space for dialogue, and promotion of literature of more than forty countries, with their authors, usually participating in the event. The festival offers to authors, publishers, distributors, literary agents, librarians, illustrators, and booksellers its present main wealth: a mass readers public, prepared in the most diverse fields, and with the ability and willingness to participate in the cultural dialogue. Some of the main activities are meetings, colloquia, tributes, panels, lectures, readings, awarding and book presentations.
Some Dutch Caribbean writers are participating actively to this prestigious festival by interacting with mainly Caribbean and Latin American authors, publish houses and readers, by giving several presentations of their literary works. They will also portray the culture and traditions of the Caribbean islands where they come from. From Aruba, Desiree Correa and Olga Buckley; From Curaçao, Diana Lebacs, Ronny Lobo, Hilda de Windt Ayubi, Francis de Windt, Roselyn Jesserun, Krishna Panday, From Bonaire Denise Request, and from Sint Maarten Loekie Morales. The late Dutch-Curaçao author Roel Jungslager has gotten a commemoration and post recognition for his literary works, especially his Cuban stories for children. His widow Sylvia Jungslager received this Cuban recognition with proud, as well as his other Dutch Caribbean colleagues.
“I am very happy to be invited for the 3rd time to this prestigious festival. I get the chance to meet with several people with ‘creative minds’ of not only the Caribbean and Latin America, but also from some European countries. Those meetings and the nice reactions during the presentations, will be a big inspiration to continue writing, despite the ups and downs that sometimes comes with the writing process and the publishing trajectory of my works.
“We will be visiting the famous ‘Casas de Las Americas’ to deliver a copy of our books to reach the wider Caribbean and Latin American readers with our literary works. Therefore, I am very happy that many years ago I saw the importance of publishing my books in more languages: Dutch, English, Spanish and Papiamentu/Papiamento,” Morales stated in a release.
