Hay Festival Querétaro 2023 – Poetry

Two contemporary poets talk about being a poet in 2023, about style, content and the links between language and other artistic disciplines. At the end of the discussion there will be a short reading. With Hanan Issa (Wales/Iraq), a Welsh writer and filmmaker of Iraqi origin, and 2022/23 Cymrawd Rhugwladol Hay Festival / Hay Festival International Fellow; and Querétaro poet Dalia Larisa Juárez (Mexico). They will talk to Luz María Lepe about their literary work, in which language and cultural heritage mix, come into conversation and sometimes disagree.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

The playwrite and performer Alberto Cortés (Spain) invites us to a very special performance. Let’s imagine a night of camping. You can come with your sleeping bag, food and drinks. Get comfortable to see the stars. Imagine a show where we return to the original approach to storytelling. We come together to listen, not to see each other. Imagine a forest that is a room, a hall, a passageway, where there is no front because what is needed is a way in. Because the viewer is a danger at this performance. This event is like a reading, but what it really seeks is to bring an end to the idea of the dramatized reading, because here there is no reading nor is there dramatizing. Los montes son tuyos is a live performance for unconventional spaces, designed and performed by Alberto Cortés, based on the texts of the book Los montes son tuyos, which contains the texts of the works El Ardor and One night at the golden bar.

Duration: 90 minutes

Benito Taibo has been engaging readers with his stories for over four decades. As a writer he creates poetry, novels, comics, advertising and television programmes. Apart from Persona normal, the unforgettable story of the adventures of Sebastian and his Uncle Paco, Benito Taibo has written Corazonadas, the trilogy Mundo sin dioses and Cómplices: Esta vez, la aventura es leer (2022), a book about the love of reading. Today he will delight the audience with a selection from his celebrated poetry book, Pasar inadvertido (2022).

To close the eighth edition of the Hay Festival Querétaro with a flourish, we present of the book La errática vigilia, which brings together the collected poetry of Paula de Allende (Monterrey, 1938 – Queretaro, 1979), published by Letra Capital, the Queretaro Municipality Press. De Allende, recognized for her unique voice and the exquisite value of her poetry, was ahead of her time and explored the depths of the human soul in a unique way. As well as being an outstanding poet, she was an important figure on the cultural scene, since, through her promotional work, de Allende promoted culture in our city and opened the way for young talents. This anthology, meticulously compiled by her son Francisco, pays homage to the intimate and mysterious voice of Paula de Allende. With Carlos Campos and Juan Antonio Isla.