Interior Literary Festival returns in June to 10 municipalities in Coimbra and Leiria

The International Literary Festival of the Interior, which will take place in mid-June, will take books and writers to ten municipalities in the districts of Coimbra and Leiria that were affected by the fires of 2017, revealed the organization.
In a statement sent to the Lusa agency, the creator and coordinator of the International Literary Festival of the Interior (FLII), Ana Filomena Amaral, highlighted the innovative character of this intercity event.
“It will take place in ten municipalities in the region affected by the fires, with the aim of taking books and writers to the most unusual and unpredictable places, such as factories, fields, beaches, churches, markets, pilgrimages, places where people work and live together. In other words, the books reach out to the public because they also miss them”, he informed.
The 6th International Literary Festival of the Interior (FLII) – Palavras de Fogo will take place from the 15th to the 18th of June and has different activities throughout the month.
It is carried out by Arte-Via Cooperativa, headquartered in Lousã, in partnership with local authorities, public institutions, associations and companies in the region, in honor of the victims of the 2017 forest fires, under the motto ‘Art and culture as reanimators of a region and a people’.
The festival also has the President of the Republic as its patron and as associated partners the Regional Directorate of Culture of the Centre, the University of Coimbra, the Directorate-General for Books, Archives and Libraries (DGLAB), the Portuguese Association of Writers, the School Libraries Network (RBE) and the National Reading Plan (PNL).
According to the organization, the writers Eduardo Lourenço, Eugénio de Andrade, Mário Cesariny, Natália Correia and Urbano Tavares Rodrigues will be honored at the festival, in a tribute that “marks the centenary of their births and the 50th anniversary of the Portuguese Writers Association”.
“With the transversal theme ‘Thought, words, poetry, tongue of fire in the immense mouth of this anguish’ and because it is a festival of causes, it is intended to address burning issues for the future of the world, always keeping the environmental emergency as a of the privileged discussion nuclei”, he highlighted.

Opening session takes place in Ansião
The highlights of this edition go to the opening session, on the 15th of June, in Ansião; while on the 16th, the cooperation protocol between the National Reading Plan and Arte-Via Cooperativa will be signed at the Hotel Palácio da Lousã.
On the same day, the Coimbra Prison will receive several writers, who will be on a panel with the participation of inmates, who will recite poems.
On the 17th, the writer Filipa Martins will present the biography of Natália Correia ‘The duty to dazzle’, at the Municipal Library of Arganil; and, in Góis, in the chapel of Casa da Costeira, Álvaro Amaro will present his book ‘The interior is a source of life’.
In the evening, in Alvaiázere, in the parish of Pelmá, there will be a performance of poetry ‘Floresta Vermelha’, by Marina Kasakova and Sara Maino.
“The literary residents of this edition will be Cristina Robalo Cordeiro and Mónica Serra, who will be in all municipalities in conversation with students, namely, on the 5th and 7th of June, in Condeixa-a-Nova”, indicated the organization.
The exhibition ‘Eduardo Lourenço et al: no mundo como devir’, belonging to the Centro de Estudos Ibéricos, will be on display in the municipalities of the consortium, from May to the end of July, where there will also be lectures on the honorees, by academic specialists from the University of Coimbra and the University of Évora.
This edition of FLII also counts with the presence of the writer for children and youth José Vaz, nominated for the Astrid Lindgren 2024 prize, and “has more than 50 activities taking place simultaneously in a territory of 1600 km2 and a population of more than 200 One thousand people”.
The FLII Palavras de Fogo consortium brings together local authorities and various institutions from the municipalities of Alvaiázere, Ansião, Arganil, Coimbra, Condeixa-a-Nova, Góis, Lousã Miranda do Corvo, Pedrógão Grande and Tábua, in the districts of Coimbra and Leiria.
FLII Palavras de Fogo also has the partnership of several international counterparts: Jaipur Literature Festival (India), FLIPoços (Brazil), Book Worm (China), Chepén Chepén Poetry Festival (Peru), Ake Festival (Nigeria), and Literary Festival (Dubai), among others.