Shoppers during Miami Book Fair International. Miami Book Fair opens Nov. 16, and for the 31st year in a row, the streets of downtown Miami will fill with books and the people who love them. With more than 600 authors in town, our city, for the next eight days will be not just “The Magic City,” but a magical city where stories and ideas are celebrated, and where everyone – young and old, black, brown and white -- can come together and find literary common ground. Thirty-one years ago I believed a fair of this kind was possible, and I wanted to prove that Miami was a literary city. And I was right. And the fair is still here, growing and maintaining vitality because the people of South Florida, and the many who travel here to enjoy it, keep coming—more and more of them each year. Just as Knight Foundation’s goal is to make art general in our city, my goal, the fair’s goal, Miami Dade College’s goal, has always been to make books (and reading) ubiquitous. Such closely aligned values have led to this year’s powerful new partnership between the fair and Knight Foundation. Their investment of $440,000 will fund programs that will continue to bring new audiences to the fair, and the fair to new audiences.