City Hall announces Rio de Janeiro World Book Capital at event at Lisbon Academy of Sciences

The Literary Box will be delivered on April 11, the date of the official launch of the Rio de Janeiro World Book Capital brand - Disclosure

The Rio de Janeiro City Hall, through the Municipal Department of Culture, will hold the Rios da Palavra event at the Lisbon Academy of Sciences on April 8, in partnership with the Brazilian Academy of Letters (ABL). The ceremony marks the beginning of Rio's celebrations as the World Book Capital and will be attended by the municipal secretary of Culture, Lucas Padilha. Also participating in the event will be the president of the ABL, Merval Pereira, and the president of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences, José Francisco Rodrigues, as well as representatives of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP).

The event will feature the presentation of a Literary Box. Inside it, there will be books of classic and contemporary works selected by Portugal, East Timor, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea and Mozambique. After the event, the box will be sent to Rio de Janeiro, where it will be received by Mayor Eduardo Paes at the Royal Portuguese Reading Room, at the official launch ceremony of Rio de Janeiro as the World Book Capital. The event symbolizes the diversity and richness of Portuguese-speaking literature.

Throughout the year, Brazilian works will be selected through competitions, festivals and awards and added to this collection. The proposal is that the creation of this Literary Box will be incorporated into the official program of UNESCO's World Book Capitals, with Rio assuming the role of catalyst and disseminator of literary production in Portuguese to the world. The title, granted by UNESCO for the first time to a Portuguese-speaking city in recognition of the excellence of the city's reading promotion programs, was announced by Mayor Eduardo Paes in 2024, and will encompass an extensive agenda of events and actions aimed at formulating new public policies for Books and Reading.

Rio World Book Capital: Upcoming Events

The Literary Box will be delivered on April 11, at an event that will also mark the launch of the official Rio de Janeiro World Book Capital brand, at the Real Gabinete Português de Leitura. During the event, the official brand, created by a Rio de Janeiro designer who won a competition promoted by the ABL, with support from the City of Rio, will be revealed, as well as details about the official Rio de Janeiro World Book Capital program. The ceremony will feature authorities, members of the Academy and representatives of the cultural sector, in addition to the screening of a promotional video with records of the event in Lisbon.

On April 23, Rio de Janeiro City Hall will hold the opening of Rio de Janeiro's World Book Capital at the Carlos Gomes Theater. A show will officially mark the beginning of the city's literary year. The show will celebrate, through artistic performances, the lives and works of great Brazilian literary authors and will highlight works from the literary treasure chest. The ceremony will be attended by authorities, UNESCO representatives and prominent figures from Brazil's cultural scene.

About Rio World Book Capital

The title of World Book Capital was granted by UNESCO to Rio de Janeiro in recognition of the excellence of the city's reading promotion programs, and announced by Mayor Eduardo Paes in 2024. The city will have an extensive schedule of events and actions aimed at formulating new public policies for books and reading, with the support of the main entities in the Brazilian publishing market. Also part of the Rio World Book Capital agenda is a series of events and actions aimed at the economic development of the sector and the formulation of new public policies for books and reading. Since August 2024, the City of Rio has already allocated approximately R$5,1 million in public notices for holding literary fairs, training writers, promoting actions aimed at the dissemination of Brazilian literature and promoting authors from Rio de Janeiro.