"The regional exhibition of books published in Sardinia no longer exists ." The Sardinian Publishers Association denounces this, acknowledging that "the requests for clarification formulated last June have fallen on deaf ears ." The event, born in 2000 as the main trade fair dedicated to local publishing, has grown over time with the collaboration of Sardinian publishers, 90% represented by Aes, and financed in 2024 with 84 thousand euros of regional funds .

According to the Aes, «the municipal council of Macomer, in preparation for the next edition that has been held in the town since its inception, first identified the Unla Cultural Services Centre as the sole entity for the artistic direction and organisation , excluding the Sardinian publishers , and then, in recent days, changed the organisational structure from regional to inter-municipal , involving the Union of Municipalities of Marghine, also setting the theme and period (13-17 November 2024)».

«On August 29 – continues the Aes – the public notice of expression of interest was published for the bookstores and stationery shops of the territory , called to set up exhibition stands "of books and similar materials", without a mention of the quality and quantity of books to be displayed inside the Tamuli pavilion, already poorly suited to host the actual fair, i.e. the market exhibition of books published in Sardinia, communicating that the program will be made known by September, without any involvement of the publishers and thus distorting their identity».

«Perhaps we were to blame for having highlighted the obvious organizational discrepancies and asymmetries of the past edition», admit the Sardinian publishers "excluded from the organization", aspects that «have often generated the impression of two distinct and poorly communicating programs, both in terms of logistics and content, and that in some cases ended up canceling each other out or even having as an epilogue the official thanks on stage, which incredibly saw the publishers absent, because they were not informed about it».

«It now makes us wonder why, in a profoundly changed cultural scenario, with the presence on the island of about sixty festivals and reviews for the promotion of reading supported by the Library service of the Sardinia Region, the Regional Book Exhibition does not give itself its own identity and a basic coherence, aiming to give value to the normality of local micro-publishing, to its authors and to the entire large supply chain, in dialogue with the world but not in a subordinate key».

(Online Union)

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