A double bass player decides to start a small poetry publishing house. He tells a friend, who frowns in puzzlement. His curiosity is aroused, and he pokes around bookshops, libraries and the Net to learn if there might be more people like his friend. He discovers a new concept, at a rather emerging stage back then: the independent publishers. He scans their catalogues and realizes they are absolutely wonderful, a cultural treasure for any country. They make really good books to suit all tastes. Some of them will not even be profitable, and they know it, but still they do it because they believe in them. The musician’s friend is astonished that he didn’t know that reality before. He talks about it with his other friends and together they decide that a change is needed. They have to attract attention, to design a showcase. They resolve to set up a fair. Where? Well, near home, in Besalú, and they will name it LIBERISLIBER (“the book which will set you free” in Latin… roughly). Things in Latin -they believe- last longer, and that adventure had everything to last a very short time: “Independent publishers? What? And where did you say it is? In Besalú? Can you get there by train?”.
On the 9th of October 2010, that bunch of friends assembled fifteen planks on top of their corresponding trestles, since there were fifteen independent publishers coming to the fair (from Catalunya, València, Zaragoza, Málaga, Gijón…). It rained, and they had to move those planks inside the arcades on Plaça de la Llibertat. The publishers, and no one asked them to do so, rolled up theirs sleeves and helped the gang. It was a perfect metaphor for what was coming. With those people and those books, nothing could go wrong. And along came the other people: the audience, a very small one. They were delighted to have someone telling them about books in such a unique way. They said good bye but promised to come back the next year. And so they did. The publishers too. And of course the willful bunch of friends. Along came poets, bards and musicians. And loads of other people. They all made and still make Liberisliber what it is today: the country’s independent publishing fair with the highest number of allies. Will you join us?
