Gibraltar represented at London Book Fair

By Sophie MacDonald

Gibraltar was recently represented by Gibraltar Cultural Services at the London Book Fair for the first time.

The three-day event at Olympia London encouraged discussions both between Gibraltarian authors, illustrators and others involved with the Rock who joined GCS, and representatives from around the world.

These discussions facilitated the creation of contacts, ideas for residency exchanges and workshops, and opportunities for the Gibraltar Library to liaise with international awards.

Poetical, fictional and dramaturgical works by Gibraltarians were foregrounded on the stand, available for perusal of numerous passers-by, curious about what ‘Llanito’ entails.

From book councils and translators to interested industry workers, Llanito captivated listeners who were glad to see local languages being celebrated.

The idea of Llanito seemed to, above all, capture the curiosity of those who engaged with Gibraltar’s stand and affirm the initiative of GCS to highlight Llanito as a prominent feature of Gibraltarian creativity.

Davina Barbara, Head of Cultural Development at GCS, said: “it was important for us to put the spotlight on our Llanito language as we knew this would be of interest and capture the attention of many visiting professions, promoting further the work being done to ensure Llanito is not lost.”

Ms Barbara recounted her experience attending the Book Fair last year, where “there was a focus on minority literature and language and a lot of work done with the translation centre which had its own section in the seminar programme.”

For her, the Book Fair was a great way to spearhead Gibraltar’s place on “the literary map and show its unique style of Llanito expression, which is now being embraced and is of growing interest as the subject of academic research internationally.”

A literary contact made by Ms Barbara at the Book Fair even said the Gibraltar stand “was their highlight from the 2024 Fair” and found Gibraltarian “enthusiasm infectious.”

Numerous opportunities with book councils were explored, and meetings with other small territories’ representatives with dual languages were held.

“Every occasion to promote Gibraltar and look at ways to broaden our reach and provide relevant platforms for our writers’ was taken.”

A focus for GCS, Ms Barbara said, was to “see how we can add to our ongoing offering as the needs of the community and our writers develop and evolve.”

“Opportunities and contacts that will result in literary collaborations and other benefits to the community” were investigated with publishers, translators, and other literary professionals to ensure that Gibraltar is able to “support creatives with up to date literary advice.”

For Mark Sanchez, who also contributed to promoting Gibraltar’s literature at the Fair, believes it’s important to see Llanito represented at the Fair “because we need to tell people that we are much more than the tired cliches and stereotypes that exist about Gibraltar.”

He made links with other small nations, literary agencies and professionals interested in Mediterranean culture and history; talking to them, he felt “like an ambassador for Gibraltarian culture.”

The prolific Gibraltarian author notes engaging with young Gibraltarian creatives as “one of the nicest things about the Fair.”

He added that none of the Gibraltarians present at the Fair share the view expressed in an opinion piece in the Chronicle a few weeks ago that claimed that Gibraltarian culture was “unformulated”.

Today, he said, “young generations of Gibraltar see Gibraltar with different eyes; they don’t feel the need to apologise [for] who they are.”

It was with such an unapologetic attitude that Gibraltar was, all round, represented at the Fair.

Poet Gabriel Moreno agreed it “was momentous to have Llanito considered and recognised as a legitimate form of literary expression” and saw the Fair as a “milestone in Llanito’s journey as a tongue, though we must validate it ourselves internally as a viable form of expression for poetry and prose.”