Book World’s Reigning Queen

Literary doyenne Liz Calder, co-founder of Bloomsbury Press and nurturer of such talents as Salman Rushdie, Anita Brookner, Julian Barnes and J.K Rowling, has continued her success with the establishment of the Festa Literaria Internacional de Parati in Brazil. Founded in 2003, FLIP is the first literary festival to be held in South America. It drew 12,000 people in its first year and earned Calder an Order of Merit for services to culture from Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Calder was born in Middlesex and educated at Palmerston North Girls’ High and Canterbury University. Her love affair with Brazil began after working as a model and journalist there in the 1960s. Calder may have stepped down from the directorship at Bloomsbury but her influence still resonates in the publishing world. Says good friend, Virago Press founder Carmen Calill, “[she is] probably the most magnificent of the generation of women who changed things; who moved the centre of the universe, of vision, and gave it a jolt.”