Miami Book Fair Goes Virtual This Year

MIAMI, FL — For 37 years, the Miami Book Fair has connected South Florida’s readers with authors and others in the publishing world. Typically, the event takes place in person over two long weekends in November.

This year’s free event looks a little bit different as the book fair goes virtual, said Lissette Mendez, director of programs. The MBF partnered with the National Book Foundation to build a new website to deliver this year’s virtual events.

More than 200 authors, critics, journalists, publishers and others will participate in this year’s virtual book fair. All events will be available for streaming live and on demand for eight days starting Sunday. The fair runs through Nov. 22.

“If you’ve been to the book fair, then you know that, for us, it’s really about it being part of this community. It’s very much about bringing people together,” Mendez said. “It was a big disappointment when (the pandemic) first happened. But what can you do? It’s not some manmade situation keeping us from having this. All we can do is move forward. It’s a good thing, I think, that we decided to move the fair into the virtual world. I think it’s going to be helpful to a lot of people.”

When the pandemic first started, MBF staff, board members and volunteers were concerned they might not be able to host the book fair this year,” she said. “But we know what this means to our community. We knew how important it was to find a way.”

As always, even in the virtual realm, the MBF strives ensure that “everyone in the community feels welcome to attend and feels like they can access literary culture,” Mendez said.

She recalls her childhood growing up on Miami Beach. The book fair was something she began attending at a young age. And despite coming from a single-parent, immigrant, poorer household, she always felt welcome at and inspired by MBF.

She reflects on these experiences as she leads the organization today. Accessibility remains integral to the event, and even as it goes virtual this year, “we want everyone to feel like they’re part of this universe,” she said. “because it was so accessible and so low stakes, I was able to just go, and I think a lot of people over the years have told me similar stories of feeling super welcomed. We want that to continue.”

Diversity has always been important to MBF programming as well, and that’s no different this year, as a variety of voices – Black, Latinx, Haitian, Jewish, LGBTQ and others – are represented in the programming, Mendez said. Programs will be offered in several languages, as well, including English, Spanish and Haitian Creole.

This year’s event also turns its focus to Florida writers. While there are Florida writers represented each year, Mendez said that this year the fair had “a responsibility to not forget the rest of the state. We’re beginning to concentrate on Florida writers in a way that maybe we haven’t in the past. This year, we were able to train a lens on them. When it’s part of the bigger, in-person festival, it’s not as easy to do.”

Attendees will be able to create a playlist of programs they want to watch throughout the week, “similar to Netflix,” she said.

Register for the book fair and find a full schedule of virtual literary programming online here.