Librarian Constanza Mekis. Image: Fundación Palabra
By Eric Dupuy | @duperico
‘Promoting the Bond With Reading Through Joy’
The Chilean librarian Constanza Mekis addresses the Frankfurt Kids Conference on Frankfurter Buchmesse’s opening day, presenting innovative reading-promotion methodologies as her country prepares for its role as Frankfurt’s guest of honor in 2027.
Mekis, a librarian at the University of Chile and chief of Fundación Palabra, will participate in the conference’s Light in the Darkness panel during Wednesday’s conference, which runs from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Her appearance in the conference marks her first visit to Frankfurt.
The foundation has developed what it calls “expanded reading,” a methodology that “transcends the text, integrating the visual, oral, bodily, sensory, and participatory” elements. The approach builds on research linking childhood reading for pleasure, cognitive development, and well-being. This is based in a 2024 study in the journal Psychological Medicine.
“We promote the bond with reading through joy,” Mekis says, “cultural participation, and a sense of community. “We believe our innovation lies in transforming reading into a joyful, experiential, and interdisciplinary practice.”
The methodology she’s referring to operates through BILIJ—an acronym for Biblioteca Interactiva Latinoamericana Infantil y Juvenil—the Santiago-based Latin American Interactive Library, which combines reading, play, nature, and Latin American heritage. The foundation also runs Nido, a program bringing reading, music, and play to Santiago kindergartens.
Chile’s 2027 Preparations
Chile’s preparation for its 2027 guest of honor role, she says, “involves multiple institutions and of course the ministry of foreign affairs, which helps support my presence here in Frankfurt this year.
“The ministry of cultures, arts and heritage is leading the coordination in association with the Chilean Book Chamber; the Corporation for Books and Reading; La Furia del Libro; the Association of Independent Publishers; IBBY Chile; and CLIC Editoras, a women’s cooperative of 10 publishers.”
Mekis’ own background ensures the close and experienced integration of her own efforts with some of the key organizations she mentions. She holds a master’s degree in reading, books, and children’s and young-adult literature from the University of Zaragoza. She was president of IBBY (the International Board on Books for Young People) for Latin American and the Caribbean in the years 2020 through 2022.
In conversation, Mekis identifies key contemporary works she finds are of special merit for translation consideration: Las rayas del tigre (The Tiger’s Stripes) by Marcelo Simonetti and Sebastián Ilabaca; La tortilla corredora by Laura Herrera and Scarlet Narciso; and 9 kilómetros by Claudio Aguilera and Gabriela Lyon. Additional titles include Ahí by Claudio Aguilera and Vicente Cociña; Kramp by María José Ferrada; and Mapocho by Nona Fernández.
“I dream that for this great event,” Chile’s guest of honor program at Frankfurt, she says, “there will be a large number of Chilean books translated into German, as a luminous bridge between cultures,” she says.
The Evolution of a Publishing Market
Constanza Mekis works with kids in a library setting in Santiago. Image: Fundación Palabra
The Chilean book market has expanded significantly, Mekis tells Publishing Perspectives, primarily by strengthening of the book and reading chain. The country now comprises approximately 370 publishers. They’re driven by independent houses enabled by low-cost digital printing.
“The boom of independent publishers is closely linked to the advance of low-cost digital printing,” Mekis says. “This has enabled small print runs, even as small as 100 copies, and that has made space for books with a wide thematic diversity.”
Current trends, she says, include environmental and naturalist themes with sustainability as a guiding principle.
Intergenerational ties, particularly with older adults, represent another emerging focus. And young readers themselves are entering the creation space, notably through Editorial Cabeza Hueca, which has been founded by Emilia Aravena Díaz as “a publishing house of children, for children.”
Format shifts include cloth and board-book editions for early childhood. Digital offerings, virtual book clubs, hybrid fairs, and interactive catalogues now complement print books. Publishers are expanding value chains through author workshops, game development, and social media engagement.
Mediation and Visual Language
Image: Fundación Palabra
Reading mediators have emerged as specialized professionals within the book chain in Chile, Mekis says.
“Publishing is not enough. Books need mediators who can open pathways to enjoyment, understanding, and dialogue.”Constanza Mekis
“Publishing is not enough,” as she puts it. “Books need mediators who can open pathways to enjoyment, understanding, and dialogue.”
Chilean visual language has had pronounced development over 25 years. “The unique quality of the visual language that has emerged over the last 25 years,” she says, “is simply outstanding. Chilean artists showcase the country’s natural, cultural, and emotional richness.”
Mekis says it’s urgent to strengthen Latin American children’s and youth literature network. “Today there is little awareness,” she tells us, “of what is being produced in each country, and this limits the circulation of our works.” While publishers like Ekaré Sur and Amanuta include regional authors, she points out, regular distribution circuits remain insufficient.
“Latin America has immense wealth,” Mekis says, “both in its tradition and in its current production, and it’s urgent to share and value it in all its magnitude.”
For early childhood, Mekis highlights the importance of book toys, through which she says children participate actively with all their senses—touch, sight, hearing—thus facilitating learning and cognitive development. In this, she cites the work of Brazilian researcher Ana Paiva’s inn transitional spaces uniting reading pleasure with play.
An International Library Model
Fundación Palabra draws inspiration, Mekis says, from the International Youth Library in Munich, which was founded by Jella Lepman in 1949.
She refers to Chilean Nobel laureate Gabriela Mistral as “Chile’s first librarian” for her work with children and teachers, and talks of the most valuable development being “a library that involves an entire community, offering cultural opportunities, hospitality, shelter, imagination, creativity, and love. Frankfurt 2025 will be like walking through the paradise of books,” she says, comparing the experience to “standing for the first time before the grandeur of Machu Picchu.”
In identifying a need for publishers to integrate “cycles of expanded reading mediation,” Mekis says, “The future of the Chilean publishing market will depend on its ability to offer diverse, innovative, and meaningful experiences, in tune with international trends, forming critical citizens committed to their communities.”
The Frankfurt Kids Conference 2025 theme is Children’s Books in a Fragile World.
In a reading group with teens. Image: Fundación Palabra
More from Publishing Perspectives on children’s publishing is here, more on publishing conferences is here, and more on Frankfurter Buchmesse, its events and people, is here.
A version of this story originally appeared in our Publishing Perspectives 2025 Show Magazine.
If you can’t be with us in Frankfurt this year, be sure to download this PDF of the full magazine here, free of charge.
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