Culture celebrates Book Day 2024 with a wide-ranging programme of activities around the Cervantes Prize

Image of the Book Day 2024 poster

Through the Directorate General for Books, Comics and Reading, the Ministry of Culture has prepared a wide range of literary activities for the celebration of Book and Copyright Day, which will take place from 15 to 26 April, during the so-called 'Cervantine Week'.

The programme of events will feature the poster designed by Luci Gutiérrez, winner of the National Illustration Award 2023. The work was inspired by a phrase by Luis Mateo Díez, the current winner of the 'Miguel de Cervantes' Prize for Literature in the Spanish Language, awarded annually by the Ministry of Culture, Luis Mateo Díez: "I live by telling and I tell by living; fiction is an essential part of existence".

Once the banners have been hung on the façade of the Ministry of Culture on Monday 15 April, the programme of events will kick off in the evening with an event organised by the Directorate General at the Ateneo de Madrid. This is an evening of homage to the latest Cervantes laureate, who will talk with Antonio Monegal, winner of the National Essay Prize 2023, and Aurora Luque, winner of the National Poetry Prize 2022, on the theme 'Rethinking the world'. The evening is organised in collaboration with the Trobades & Premis Mediterranis Albert Camus. The event is broadcast live.

Presentation of the Cervantes Prize

The main event of the 'Semana Cervantina' will be the award ceremony of the Cervantes Prize 2023 to the writer from León. The event will take place on Tuesday 23 April at the Paraninfo of the University of Alcalá and will be presided over by the King and Queen of Spain, with the participation of the Minister for Culture. In the afternoon, the award-winner himself will begin the 28th Continuous Reading of Don Quixote, at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid. The day before, Mateo Díez will hold a meeting with the media, moderated by the Director General of Books, Comics and Reading, María José Gálvez, at the headquarters of the National Library of Spain.

The activities will continue on Thursday 25 April with the inauguration of the exhibition 'Vivir contando' (Living by Telling) on the life and work of Mateo Díez, co-organised by the University of Alcalá and the Ministry of Culture. Afterwards, 'Los días y las cosas', a photobook in homage to the author, will be presented at the Cervantes Institute. To wrap up, on Friday 26 April, the writer will hold a colloquium with students from the Complutense University.

The ephemeris in public libraries

The network of public libraries is also joining in the Book Day celebrations with a variety of activities designed for all types of readers, from thematic exhibitions and meetings with authors, to workshops to encourage reading and activities for children. With these actions, they seek not only to honour the richness of literature, but also to "foster a lively and continuous dialogue between books and book lovers".

On the agenda for the anniversary, organised by the State Public Libraries in different parts of Spain, are the walk through the city of Santiago de Compostela on 23 April, and the puppets for the youngest readers in Seville, both organised by the cities' public libraries.

All the information about Book Day 2024 is available on the web portal, where you can also download the official poster free of charge in all the languages of Spain and consult the activities that other units of the Ministry of Culture have prepared for this event, especially the State Museums.

Book Days at State Museums

State Museums are joining in the celebrations with a programme of activities, the aim of which is to highlight the value of books to bring the public closer to their collections and to get to know them in depth. The Museo Casa de Cervantes in Valladolid will hold its annual institutional event in which the Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramírez, winner of the 2017 Cervantes Prize, has been invited to read a passage from Don Quixote.

Highlights among the activities of the different museums across the territory are the creative writing workshop 'Entretiempos' at the Museo Cerralbo in Madrid; the illustration workshop 'Imágenes de imágenes' at the Museo Nacional de Escultura in Valladolid; the 'bookcrossing' of museums and art centres at the Museo Sefardí in Toledo; the storytelling 'El rapto de Europa' at the Museo Nacional de Arte Romano in Mérida; and the meetings 'LEETRAS: Ethnographic Experiments for Social Transformation' at the National Museum of Anthropology, among many others.

On Book and Copyright Day

World Book and Copyright Day is celebrated every 23 April, the reason being that it was on 23 April 1616 that Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega died. Other eminent writers such as Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo were also born or died on 23 April. This symbolic date for world literature was chosen by the UNESCO General Conference in 1995 as a way of encouraging reading, recognising the figure of the author and strengthening the publishing industry in each country.

Non official translation