The conference Cartonera Publishers: Recycling Latin American Bookscapes took place on October 8th and 9th, 2009 in conjunction with the Wisconsin Book Festival and was a great success.
The event was the first reunion of editors from eight Cartonera publishing houses in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Mexico and Chile culminating in the publishing of a manuscript called 'Akademia Cartonera: A Primer of Latin American Cartonera Publishers'.
The work includes eight manifestos written by the eight Cartonera publishing houses that attended the conference, a prologue explaining the reason for this book, an introduction, nine academic essays, an inventory of cartonera titles, and a bibliography.
The cartonera publishing phenomenon began in Buenos Aires in 2003 and was spearheaded by writers and artists who were interested in reconfiguring the conditions in which literary art is produced and consumed. They came up with a progressive new publishing model that challenges and contests the neo-liberal political and economic hegemony.
Prior to the conference a workshop took place during which attendees had the opportunity to create their own 'Cartonera'.
LACIS’ Director, Ksenija Bilbija, was also featured in an interview for the WPR program 'Here on Earth' which is available online.
For more details about the conference, please visit:http://www.library.wisc.edu/cartoneras/