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You are here: Home Leisure Arts & Culture A black week for literature spreads joy in Spain

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19/07/2008A black week for literature spreads joy in Spain

A black week for literature spreads joy in Spain Gijón's famous Semana Negra festival celebrates murder, mystery and fantasy for 10 days.

GIJON - "Calamari sandwich: EUR 3.50" and "Books: EUR 1."

Both signs, sitting opposite each other, appear to say it all about Semana Negra, a literary festival specialising in crime, fantasy and graphic literature that has taken place every summer in Gijón since 1987.

Although it prides itself on providing a showcase for genres that are often marginalised by the literati, these days Semana Negra feels more like a popular carnival than a literary event.

Of the 400 stalls set up on Poniente Beach in this Asturian city, a minority are actual book stands, while the rest sell deep-fried food or raffle tickets. There is even a giant Ferris wheel that turns against a backdrop of Shakira's music.

But the laid-back attitude is an asset to some. Juan Salvador, owner of a bookshop that specialises in Sherlock Holmes called Study in Scarlet, has been coming to Gijón for years, although he has only had a stall for the last four.

"The first year you get scared because there are only 36 sales points here. But it is precisely that cosy, festive spirit that I like," he says. "You walk around the grounds and keep running into the writers."

And so it was that during the first days of this 10-day "Black Week," so called in reference to noir literature, residents of the seaside town could easily bump into Anne Perry, the bestselling British author of Victorian mystery murders and a guest of 2008's festival.

Perry, who published her first novel, The Cater Street Hangman, in 1979 and has gone on to write around 50 more books, said at a press conference that "a mystery story is a good way to explore characters' behaviour and actions. When they are afraid is when they really show their inner truth."

The writer should know. Perry, now 69, also happens to be a convicted murderer who at the age of 13 helped her best friend kill her mother by striking her on the head 45 times with a brick.

Being too young to be considered for the death penalty, she was interned for five years and released at age 18, when she moved to the United States before deciding to embark on a literary career.

But that's all water under the bridge now. "I've been writing this type of literature for over 20 years and I do so mainly because I really enjoy the genre. I don't want what happened in my youth to influence my writing," she retorted following an unwelcome question about her past.

While Perry talks, there are several people on the grounds wearing the same black t-shirt with the unsettling message "Martin is coming." Alejo Orellana, a 22-year-old from Madrid, explains that they are all fans of George R. R. Martin, a writer of fantasy, horror and science fiction who has gained global acclaim with his series A Song of Ice and Fire.

Martin was by far the most sought-after writer on the first weekend of Semana Negra, and spoke on several occasions to full houses anxious to see in the flesh the man who has been hailed as the new Tolkien.

"A lot of fans write to me to say that I should stop coming to Spain to drink sangría, that it's time for me to sit down and work on my next book," Martin quipped.

The festival features another US writer, James Sallis, best known for his crime novels set in New Orleans with titles that always include an insect's name, such as The Long-Legged Fly or Eye of the Cricket.

But the bulk of the guest writers are Spanish or Latin American, including Colombia's Mario Mendoza, who has just written Satanás. Perfil de un asesino (Satan: Profile of a Murderer), the story of a former schoolmate and friend of the author who went on a murder spree over 20 years ago, killing 29 people.

But perhaps the best-known of the Spanish-language writers at Semana Negra is Paco Ignacio Taibo II, who also happens to be the festival founder.

Over the years, Taibo II has managed to turn an obscure festival about minor literary genres into a major attraction that draws thousands of aficionados and has hosted guest performers such as Los Lobos, Willie Colón and Georges Moustaki.

However, what was once a unique festival in Spain now has two rivals: Barcelona began BCN Negra four years ago, and October will see the first Getafe Negro, in Madrid. "They're our younger brothers," says Taibo II. "Their presence is positive, because the more debate there is, the more critically we will think."

"It's a sign that these genres are becoming accepted," adds Paco Camarasa, owner of the Barcelona bookshop Negra y Criminal, a pioneer of the Gijón event who still remembers the days when the Japanese writer Masako Togawa sang Bésame mucho in Japanese and dedicated her books with a paintbrush.

"All we need now is for critics, professors, teachers and librarians to realise that these genres are valuable."

The Semana Negra festival will end on 20 July 2008

text by El Pais / S. Alcaide / S. U. / Expatica 2008
photos by Flickr contributors jlmaral and PinkMoose

We invite you to contribute to this article by sending related photos or videos. You can either send them to photos@expatica.com or add them to our newly-created flickr group at http://www.flickr.com/people/expatica/. All contributed material will be credited accordingly.
 


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