Por Redaccion 
The Minister of Culture and Sports, Patricia del Pozo, has informed the Andalusian Parliament that the reading rate in the autonomous community has increased by 5.6 points since 2019, rising from 57% to 62.6%, the most significant increase in this period among the autonomous communities, except for Galicia (6.6). This rise, as reported in the latest Barometer of Reading and Book Buying Habits in Spain 2024, has helped bring the reading habit in Andalusia closer to the national average, reducing the gap from 5.2 points to just 2.9.
«These are encouraging data that show a good evolution, but we must continue working on promoting reading hand in hand with the book sector,» explained Patricia del Pozo, highlighting the results of the measures to promote reading habits and support the publishing sector implemented by the Government led by Juanma Moreno, «reversing the situation of having one of the worst reading rates among all autonomous communities in Spain, as we ranked second to last in 2019.»
To achieve this, the Minister of Culture pointed out that «we are trying to enhance and improve the usual programs, which work very well, such as book presentations or reading clubs – more than 360 in the eight Andalusian provinces – in different population sectors, with the essential collaboration of the Public Library Network and other spaces such as schools of all educational levels, universities, prisons, or cultural associations, while working on new formats of activities.»
Publishing sector
In addition to the growth in reading rates, there is also a 30% increase in editorial production in the past year. Specifically, Del Pozo detailed that a total of 10,548 paper books were published in Andalusia last year by more than 380 active publishers. «Andalusia is the third autonomous community, after Madrid and Catalonia, and far ahead of the Valencian Community, which registers the most books each year with the ISBN agency,» explained the Minister in the parliamentary committee on Culture and Sports.
Undoubtedly, this is «a very relevant sector, generating employment and economic activity, performing a fundamental cultural role,» she explained. Therefore, the Ministry of Culture and Sports carries out a series of actions to boost the sector, such as the acquisition of books for the Bibliographic Funds of the Public Libraries of Andalusia, with an investment of 1.6 million euros for the purchase of books in municipalities and local entities, or the reinstatement of publishing grants, which had not been called for a decade.
In this regard, the Minister of Culture highlighted that «the 2024 call had 600,000 euros and a total of 93 publishing projects were beneficiaries,» while also mentioning that «we are currently working on reviewing and improving the regulatory framework for the next call with the aim of reaching the maximum number of publishers and meeting the demands of this sector, with which a continuous dialogue is maintained from the management centers of the Ministry and the Andalusian Center for Literature (CAL), a reference entity in the promotion and support of literary creation in Andalusia.»
Similarly, Patricia del Pozo emphasized the collaboration of the Ministry in promoting the presence of Andalusian publishers at international fairs and markets, especially at the Guadalajara International Book Fair (Mexico), the most important in the world for the Spanish-language publishing sector. «In 2024, the Andalusian Government returned to this event, leading a delegation of Andalusian publishers after 18 years without attending,» she pointed out, and noted that the call for participation of Andalusian professionals for the next edition is already open.
Bookstores, libraries, and book fairs
Del Pozo also emphasized the role of bookstores, «active cultural centers that play a fundamental role in promoting reading.» «Bookstores, particularly independent bookstores, are essential to guarantee bibliodiversity and bring readers closer to the reading and excellent literary production of our land, so we work with them in organizing activities such as debate forums, which we have organized with the Andalusian Bookstore Federation in the eight Andalusian provinces,» she stated.
She also noted that «another major asset for promoting reading is the public libraries managed by the Junta de Andalucía, which play an absolutely exceptional role, as they are visited for reading, studying, borrowing books, or enjoying reading promotion activities.» In 2024 alone, according to data provided by Del Pozo, the eight provincial libraries received 1.3 million visits and organized 3,542 activities, including reading clubs, book presentations, workshops, and storytelling sessions.
During her speech, she also highlighted the participation of the Andalusian Government in book fairs held in all provinces, both from an economic perspective for organizing these cultural events and for showcasing the Ministry’s own publications or participating in the literary and cultural programming of these cultural gatherings. She also mentioned that the CAL organized fifty activities in the past two years as part of the Andalusian Book Fairs, with the participation of 110 writers.
Support for young literary creation: Schools of Writers and Residencies
Finally, the Minister of Culture referred to the support for younger literary creation through the program New Authors from the Andalusian Center for Literature, which offers boys and girls from all over Andalusia the opportunity to attend the School of Young Writers and publish their texts in the ‘Paper Letters’ collection. «This year, for the first time, we published the call in the BOJA, and we received 149 participation requests. The selected participants will attend the School, which will meet from Sunday, July 6th to Saturday, July 12th in Mollina (Málaga),» she noted.
She also presented a new initiative, the Andalusian Literary Residencies program, which was launched in Malaga and Huelva in 2024 and will expand to the province of Granada in the second edition. «There will be a total of seven spaces, and three of them will be reserved for emerging authors, as we believe in talent and creativity and want to help promote them,» she concluded.