‘Ler é Uma Festa’: Foundation highlights Mozambique’s leadership in PALOP publishing as book fair opens

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‘Ler é Uma Festa’: Foundation highlights Mozambique’s leadership in PALOP publishing as book fair opens

12:54 CAT | 25 Nov 2025

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Cameramen]

The Fernando Leite Couto Foundation highlights Mozambique’s vibrant publishing sector, leading literary production among the Portuguese-speaking African countries (PALOP), in the run-up to the seventh edition of the book fair “Ler é uma Festa”.

“Just to give an idea, a few days ago the 2025 LeYa Prize was announced in Portugal, and the three countries with the most entries competing for the prize were Portugal, Brazil and Mozambique,” explained the foundation’s editorial coordinator, Celso Muianga, in an interview with Lusa.

“These ten Mozambican publishers demonstrate that Mozambique indeed occupies first place editorially among the PALOP,” he added, referring to the 31 original works by Mozambican authors submitted for the 2025 LeYa Prize, won by Carla Pais. The jury also included Lourenço do Rosário, a Mozambican and former rector of the Polytechnic University of Maputo.

The Fernando Leite Couto Foundation, which is also a cultural centre in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, was established in 2015 and named after the author Fernando Leite Couto by Mia Couto, one of Mozambique’s best-known writers. Its mission is to promote the arts, culture and literature of Mozambique.

One of its initiatives, now in its seventh edition, is the book fair “Ler é uma Festa”, which will run from 25 November to 9 December, this year joining the Foundation’s tenth-anniversary celebrations.

The event gathers ten independent publishers and one distributor, focusing exclusively on Mozambican publishing and continuing literary events started in 2016, a year after the foundation’s opening.

READ: ‘Ler é Uma Festa’: a book fair and vibrant literary festival at Fundação Couto, Maputo

Celso Muianga explained that the fair will showcase “hundreds of authors”, including works by Portuguese-speaking authors published by Mozambican houses.

“We will have Mozambican publishers who publish Portuguese or Brazilian authors. This is to show the best that Mozambican publishers have produced,” he added.

In celebrating the Foundation’s first decade, Muianga highlighted the institution’s role in consolidating Mozambican literature.

“When we started in 2015, we managed to bring together several dispersed literary movements, such as Café Debate, Poetas d’Alma, or Noites de Poesia. In ten years, we have published 15 new authors, many with their first book,” he said, emphasising that several self-published works have already been published in Portugal, Spain and Brazil.

The programme includes hourly book signings, debates, launches and musical performances.

“We want to suggest new formats of social interaction and bring publishers and readers closer together,” he said.

Asked about the expected impact, Muianga said the Fernando Leite Couto Foundation aims “to develop new readers” and encourage the circulation of books in the country. They also plan to expand the fair to other provinces.

The 2025 edition follows significant national instability amid post-election protests that marked the 2024 book fair. “We held it over three days, at the public’s request, in a completely uncertain context, but it still happened,” he recalled.

Source: Lusa