Someday we’ll make it up to Brazil to attend the Festa Literária Internacional de Parati, which surely must be one of the world’s great literary festivals. The festival, August 9 -13, will open with a concert by Maria Bethânia. According to the just released festival program, it looks like a great few days. The main international star of this year’s festival is Toni Morrison.

I’m mentioning the festival on the Baires blog because one of the participating authors is Ricardo Piglia, who will speak at a talk titled The Last Reader:

Can literary criticism be a form of autobiography? This is what Argentine writer Ricardo Piglia asks in his exquisite reflections on the great works of literature. “Writing fiction changes the way we read, and a writer’s criticism raises a secret mirror to his own work,” he claims in Formas breves. For this extraordinary event, Argentina’s most celebrated novelist and literary essayist, author of Respiración artificial and El ultimo lector, will consider the extent to which his forays into literary criticism are a reflection of his own very private reading history.

The festival is actually quite affordable. No doubt thanks to festival president Liz Calder, one of the founders of the publisher Bloomsbury. Costs for the opening concert and each of the author’s readings is 17 reais, which is about 8 dollars.