LITERATURE-COSTA RICA: A Cyber-Book Club Is Born

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Néfer Muñoz

SAN JOSE, Feb 12 2002 (IPS) - A group of book-lovers is launching the first Internet website of literary material produced in Costa Rica this month, an effort to show off this country’sand the entire Spanish-speaking world’sbest writing.

. The positive response to the project, presented in a test site in January, is a result of the fact that it is directed at the general public, utilising a simple and useful language for students and parents, as well as for experts in literature, say the website’s creators. “This humble initiative is the first step in a larger cultural plan we have for disseminating the art of literature,” Manuel Delgado, editorial director of this pioneering effort in Central America, told IPS. Delgado, a journalist who foments reading through his work at Costa Rica’s leading television network, joined forces six months ago with his colleague Evelyn Ugalde to design an Internet site with literature-related reports, news and recommendations, and publications of new works. “Our objective is to put the literature of Costa Rica and of international Spanish-language production within more people’s reach,” through the website found at www.clubdelibros.com, said Delgado. The test edition of the book club, ‘Club de Libros’, went on-line Jan 7, and since then there has been a deluge of messages from within Costa Rica, but also from Argentina, France, Mexico, Nicaragua, Spain, Sweden and Uruguay, among other countries. The creation of the website, which is a non-profit effort, has coincided with a book boom in Costa Rica, proof of which is found in the seven new major bookstores that opened in the capital last year. Furthermore, the Costa Rican Distance-Learning State University publishing house is currently the top publisher, as far as number of titles, in Central America, with an average of a half-million pages printed daily. “We are surprised by the positive response to the site, and we have to point out that what is published on the Internet is just a sample of what we have to offer,” Delgado said. The Club de Libros launches its first official edition Feb 18, replacing the test edition and becoming an on-line weekly literary journal. Delgado and Ugalde did some prior research on the content of other literature websites on the Internet, some of which provide straight information, others are dedicated to providing space for unpublished authors and still others that seek interaction with the readers. “We decided to integrate those three concepts into one Internet site,” Ugalde, executive director of the Club, told IPS. The website includes main sections, such as one that focuses on reports, providing information about new literary trends and about regional authors, and “Books of the Week”, in which different types of books receive a recommendation. There is also a side section known as “Libro Tico” – or Costa Rican book -, highlighting local works, while another section features study guides for young adults, and another which Internet- users can launch a virtual publication of their own works. “What we are attempting to do, in this world that produces tons of information, is serve as a literature guide for the general public, and as a link between the common reader and experts,” said journalist Delgado. Ugalde said the project is receiving support from well-known authors, philologists, librarians and literary personalities from Costa Rica and from other countries, who have already committed to writing for the Club de Libros. The site also offers parents suggestions on how to encourage their children to read and information on the various poetry, short story, novel and essay contests being organised in different countries. For the curious, it provides the complete lists of winners of Spanish literature’s top honours, such as the Cervantes, the Planeta and Alfaguara prizes – and a list of Spanish-language writers who have won the Nobel Prize for Literature. “You have my applause for the wonderful initiative of launching a new digital journal for the pleasure of literature lovers,” a cybernaut from Stockholm wrote to the book club. Similar comments have been received from Internet navigators from throughout the Americas and Europe. Internet users can subscribe to the club free of charge as of Feb 18 and will receive a weekly bulletin by e-mail with the latest news from the literary world. Delgado and Ugalde’s site offers book buying and selling opportunities, allowing visitors to post titles they are seeking or the volumes they are willing to sell. “We are very excited about this project, and we are doing it for the love of art,” said Ugalde.