Online events

Literary tourism is a growing segment worldwide. A phenomenon valued at $2.3 million globally in 2024, and growing in 2025. A true strategic window for Latin American countries, where spaces like the Macondo Route in Colombia; Pablo Neruda's house museums in Chile; the Borges and Cortázar tours in Argentina; or the Pueblo Mágico of Comala in Mexico have become true pilgrimage routes, and in Castilla y León, where the houses of Antonio Machado and Miguel de Cervantes are located... and Miguel Delibes's house will open soon.

Ángel Cárdenas, one of the leading experts and manager of Infrastructure for Development at CAF (Bank of Development of Latin America and the Caribbean), will have a conversation with writer and journalist Carlos Aganzo.

Event in Spanish

Rubens Paiva, a Brazilian congressman and staunch opponent of his country's dictatorship, was arrested and disappeared in 1971. Only 40 years later, thanks to the efforts of his wife, Eunice, was it confirmed that he had been tortured and murdered by military forces.

Decades later, his son, the writer, playwright and journalist Marcelo Rubens Paiva, captured this experience in Ainda Estou Aqui ('I'm Still Here'), a memoir that intertwines the Paiva family history after the father's disappearance with Brazilian politics in the last decades of the 20th century. The work was adapted for the cinema by director Walter Salles Jr. and, in 2025, the film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Paiva will talk with Portuguese actress, director and singer Maria de Medeiros, whose artistic career is defined by a deep commitment to historical memory and human rights. Moderated by Iôna de Macêdo, Vice Dean of IE University and expert in communication, audiovisual production and creative talent development. The event will be introduced by Catalina Tejero, Dean of IE School of Humanities.

Event in Portuguese with simultaneous interpretation into Spanish

The world of art and antiques —its creative process, the interest of collectors, and the unpredictable journeys of artworks— forms a kaleidoscopic universe full of possibilities, though not without risk. At its center stands the figure of the art dealer, capable of elevating forgotten pieces and, above all, sharing a passion for objects that carry fragments of our past.

Portuguese dealer Mário Roque has been doing exactly that for years. He left a career in cardiology to dedicate himself to antiques, founding São Roque Antiguidades e Galeria de Arte, a gallery with a strong focus on Portuguese art from the Age of Discoveries. Roque is a regular at major international events and collaborates with numerous museums and institutions, loaning works for both national and international exhibitions. Roque’s expertise has inspired a new generation of young art dealers from around the world, turning him into a reference point and mentor in the field.

He will be joined by Lorenzo de’ Medici, a descendant of the iconic Medici family — one of the most renowned names in European collecting, from the Renaissance to the present day. The conversation will be introduced by the ambassador of Portugal, the honourable Don Jose Augusto Duarte.

Event in French with simultaneous interpretation into Spanish

What can Dante teach us about leadership and the human condition in the 21st century? This conversation features British philosopher A.C. Grayling, founder of the New College of the Humanities and author of over 30 books on ethics and reason; Santiago Iñiguez, president of IE University and a leading global voice in higher education and author of Dante in the Workplace; and Fabio Corsico, an Italian essayist and executive known for his work at the intersection of power, culture, and economics.

From philosophical ethics to corporate leadership and strategic decision-making, the speakers will explore the enduring relevance of Dante’s thought in today’s world. Moderated by Anna Bosch, a leading international journalist at TVE and former correspondent in London and Washington.

At the end of the event, the author will sign copies of his books

Event in English with simultaneous interpretation into Spanish

In a Europe marked by uncertainty, populism, and a future too complex to calmly plan for, culture can give us the resilience we need. Because culture is another form of politics—it creates spaces for dialogue and helps us understand "the other." Where there is culture, there is always hope. This is how Teresa Grøtan, director of the Bergen International Literary Festival, sees it. A journalist and writer, she has published several books, the most recent being Før øya synker. She will speak with Miquel Molina, deputy editor of La Vanguardia and writer.

The event will be introduced by Nikola Pantelić and Vanessa Ileana Chioaru, Editor-in-Chief of the IE European Union Journal and the Vice President of the IE European Union Club.

Event in english with simultaneous interpretation into Spanish

Dolores Redondo is the author of the Baztán Trilogy, a true literary phenomenon. The three novels—, The Legacy of the Bones, and Offering to the Storm—have reached over three million readers, and all three were successfully adapted into films between 2017 and 2020. The trilogy was followed by All This I Will Give to You (Todo esto te daré), winner of the 2016 Planeta Prize and the award’s best-selling novel in recent years. Her most recent work is Las que no duermen NASH.

Her novels delve into a world of tradition where buried secrets emerge from the folds of evil and human contradiction. She will be in conversation with Laura Ventura, PhD in Hispanic Philology and professor of Literature at Universidad Carlos III. Ventura is also a contributor to the Argentine newspaper La Nación.

At the end of the event, the author will sign copies of her books

Event in Spanish

This conversation brings together influential women collectors and arts supporters whose engagement spans local and international cultural landscapes. From building significant collections to championing emerging artists and institutions, these women play a vital role in shaping the future of the arts. Through personal stories and shared insights, we will explore what drives their commitment, how their practices reflect identity, values, and community, and the impact of their patronage in times of change.

Princess Alia Al-Senussi, PhD, is a globally renowned member of the contemporary art world with a focus on cultural strategy and patronage systems. She is an active cultural strategist, writer, patron, public speaker and academic recognized for her deep knowledge of the global art world and its systems and members.

She has served as Art Basel's UK and MENA Representative for over a decade, and is also currently Senior Advisor, International Outreach for Art Basel. In 2019 she was appointed Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Culture, Saudi Arabia, where she focuses on developing international partnerships whilst working on a variety of projects in Saudi Arabia, for Misk Arts Institute, the Ministry of Culture and the Diriyah Biennale Foundation..

Dr Al-Senussi is currently the founding Chairperson of the K11 International Council, a member of the Tate Modern Advisory Council (London), the Board of Trustees of the ICA London, the Strategic Advisory Panel of the Delfina Foundation (London), the Board of Trustees of The Showroom (London), the Board of Trustees of FUNTASIA/Elisa Sednaoui Foundation (UK / Egypt / Italy) among others.

She will talk to Catalina Tejero, the conversation will illuminate the intersection of gender, power, and cultural influence, offering a compelling look at how women are redefining what it means to support and steward the arts today.

Event in English with simultaneous translation into Spanish

Absence as Stimulus is a new creation by National Photography Prize winner Alberto García-Alix.Conceived as a visual lecture, the author reflects on how absence —its presence and its vital force— shapes and permeates his work, acting as both guiding thread and catalyst in his photographs. Accompanying his spoken reflections, García-Alix presents 68 images, most of them unpublished and taken over the last 15 years. He explores how absence is embedded in everything around us: in nature, architecture, objects, and even in portraiture, "because something always escapes us from the subject." In his own words: "absence is a stimulus."

The event will be introduced by Sema D’Acosta, an independent curator, art critic, educator, and researcher, considered one of Spain’s leading visual arts specialists.

Event in Spanish

In 2023, Spanish writer Javier Cercas received an unusual invitation: to accompany Pope Francis on a trip to Mongolia, with complete freedom to speak with him without restrictions. The unusual part? Cercas openly identifies as an atheist and anticlerical. Upon returning, he claimed he came back "even more atheist and more anticlerical" and went on to write El loco de Dios en el fin del mundo ('God’s Madman at the End of the World'). Just one of those Catholic Church oddities, he says..>

But Cercas is much more than his latest book. A staunch Europeanist, he has built a solid body of narrative and essayistic work, translated into more than 30 languages. His major works include El vientre de la ballena ('The Belly of the Whale'); Soldados de Salamina ('Soldiers of Salamis'); Anatomía de un instante ('Anatomy of a Moment'); El impostor ('The Impostor'); El monarca de las sombras ('The Monarch of the Shadows') and Terra Alta. At the heart of Cercas’s work lies a belief in the need for culture to move beyond ideological trenches and assert itself in the face of institutional power.

He will discuss his life and work with Montserrat Domínguez, journalist and current Director of Content at Cadena SER. Domínguez was previously deputy editor of El País and head of El País Semanal. Between 2012 and 2018, she was editor-in-chief of the digital news outlet HuffPost España.

At the end of the event, the author will sign copies of his books

Event in Spanish

For decades, the relationship between Europe and the United States, founded on common principles and shared strategic objectives, has been an essential pillar of Western stability. In recent times, the rise of clashing identity politics, cultural misunderstandings and shifts in the balance of global power have challenged this historic partnership. Do Europe and the United States still share the same ideological language, or has a silent separation already occurred? David Rieff, one of the most lucid global analysts of our time, will talk with Santiago Herrero and Pablo Gil about how the evolving relationship between Europe and the United States can help liberal democracies, in the face of polarization and populism, to reconcile security, prosperity and social inclusion of their citizens.

Reiff is a political analyst, journalist and cultural critic. Member of The New York Institute for the Humanities, his articles have been published in important media such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Le Monde, The Atlantic Monthly, Foreign Affairs or El Pais. He is the founder of the American University's ‘War Crimes’ project, which aims to report truthfully on war crimes. He is the author of several essays on international conflicts. His latest book is Desire and Fate (Debate, 2025).

Career diplomat Santiago Herrero, director of Cultural and Scientific Relations at AECID, is a true cultural agitator who has explored with notable success the influence of culture in the diplomatic sphere. And he has done so in different diplomatic representations of Spain in Oslo, Islamabad, Tokyo and New York. He was director of programming at Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) and a vocal advisor in the cabinet of the Secretary of State for International Cooperation for Ibero-America.

Both will talk with Pablo Gil, head of Culture of the newspaper El Mundo. Collaborator of Radio 3 with the program Multipista and Radio 5 with the program Debut, he is the author of three books on music: 10 horas con Kiko Veneno (2024), El pop después del fin del pop and Guía de música independiente en España (1998).

The event will be introduced by Filip Matic and Gabriela Ioana Tarmure, Vice President and Head of Segovia Chapter of the IE Public Speaking Club.

At the end of the event, the authors will sign copies of their books

Event with simultaneous interpretation from English into Spanish and vice versa

Does a writer need routines for creation? It seems that no two formulae are the same. There are those who stray into the realm of the extravagant, others who rely on strict schedules, and even those who write their ideas on the back of laundrette tickets. Álvaro Colomer brings together his articles on how writers tackle the blank page - or screen - in Aprende a escribir. One of his main conclusions is that ‘writers of the past are in danger of extinction’.

He will discuss writers and their quirks with Sara Barquinero, who was named by Woman magazine’s breakthrough author in Spanish literature in 2021. She published Los Escorpiones, the 'Best Novel in Spanish in 2024' according to El Mundo and named 'Best Fiction Book of the Year' by the Madrid Booksellers Association.

There will be a book signing after the event.

Event in Spanish

Epic tales of the everyday, told from a deeply personal universe that transcends reality. Human relationships pushed to the very edge of language. A sense of time that both anchors and disorients. In his writing, David Uclés deconstructs truth and perception, drawing from the roots of magical realism while forging a powerful voice of his own. His literary path treads in the footsteps of Gabriel García Márquez, Günter Grass, and Jaroslav Hašek, offering new perspectives on the Spanish Civil War —beyond simplistic notions of heroes and villains— and exploring the emotional and existential bond between two men.

Uclés will discuss his work with Montserrat Domínguez, a highly respected journalist who has served as Head of Content at Cadena SER, Deputy Editor of El País, Editor-in-Chief of El País Semanal, and Director of the Spanish edition of HuffPost.

At the end of the event, the author will sign copies of his books

Event in Spanish

The Paris-based Italian writer Andrea Marcolongo is one of the leading figures in European thought today. A profound connoisseur of ancient Greece and Rome, her works have been characterised by the recovery of classical teachings and knowledge that, even today, can illuminate our present. As a staunch advocate of drawing threads between that period and the present day, there is no one better than her to reflect on Europe today and how it is not only intimately related to these two classical civilisations, but also how it should not forget to return to them to find the answers to its present. Because, as Marcolongo herself states, "everything that is happening now in Europe has already happened".

She will be in conversation with journalist Irene Hernández Velasco. She worked for El Mundo as a correspondent in New York, Rome, London and Paris until 2023, when she joined El Confidencial, where she is head of Culture.

At the end of the event, the author will sign copies of her books

Event in Spanish

The literature of Leonardo Padura is populated by characters who draw the reader in through their raw humanity, yet whose lives are shaped by forces beyond their control. Such is the case of Mario Conde, the detective hero of his crime novels; of Ramón Mercader, the man trained to kill a leader of the Russian Revolution; and now, of the protagonist in his latest work, Dying in the Sand ('Morir en la arena'). Much of Padura’s writing revolves around Cuba’s recent history — a failure without consolation, from which only individuals manage to survive.

He will be joined in conversation by Santiago Herrero, Director of Cultural and Scientific Relations at AECID. A career diplomat and committed cultural advocate.

At the end of the event, the author will sign copies of his books

Event in Spanish

The Conduit Club, 6 Langley St, London WC2H 9JA

Can our stories help us build a better world? As global wars rage around us, a trio of award-winning writers join Ukrainian Institute London director Olesya Khromeychuk to explore the role of culture, identity and belonging in understanding history and shaping the future. Drawing on their latest work, Ukrainian writer Tanja Maljartschuk, British-Turkish novelist Elif Shafak, and American-British-Libyan author Hisham Matar, share stories of redrawn borders, displaced peoples and broken identities to offer lessons for the future from the shatter zones of empires.

Tanja Maljartschuk is a Ukrainian writer and essayist based in Vienna. She has published several short story collections and novels, including A Biography of a Chance Miracle and Forgottenness (widely translated), the children's book Mox Nox, and the German-language essay collection Gleich geht die Geschichte weiter, wir atmen nur aus. She has received several awards, among them the BBC Book of the Year (Ukraine, 2016), the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize (2018) and the Usedom Literature Prize (2022). The English edition of Forgottenness was shortlisted for the EBRD Prize in 2025.

Hisham Matar was born in New York to Libyan parents, spent his childhood in Tripoli and Cairo and has lived most of his life in London. His memoir The Return received a Pulitzer Prize in 2017. He is also the author of In the Country of Men, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Anatomy of a Disappearance and A Month in Siena. His most recent novel, My Friends, won the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2024, was longlisted for the Booker Prize, and nominated for the National Book Award. His work has been translated into over 30 languages.

Elif Shafak is an award-winning British Turkish novelist, whose work has been translated into 58 languages. The author of 20 books, 13 of which are novels, she is a bestselling author in many countries around the world. Shafak’s novel 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the RSL Ondaatje Prize. The Island of Missing Trees was a Sunday Times bestseller, and was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and the Women’s Prize for Fiction. There are Rivers in the Sky, which won an Edward Stanford Award for Fiction, is her latest novel.

Olesya Khromeychuk is a historian and writer. She is the author of The Death of a Soldier Told by His Sister (2022) and Undetermined Ukrainians (2013). Khromeychuk has written for The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, Prospect and The New Statesman, and has delivered a TED talk on ‘What the World Can Learn From Ukraine's Fight for Democracy’. She has taught the history of East-Central Europe at several British universities and is currently the Director of the Ukrainian Institute London.

What does it mean to belong —to one’s home, to language, to memory— in a world shaped by migration and diaspora?

Pulitzer Prize–winning author Junot Díaz joins us for a conversation on identity, race, language, and the emotional complexities of immigrant life. His acclaimed novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao has become a landmark of contemporary literature, praised for its linguistic inventiveness and bold engagement with Dominican-American experience. His short-story collection This Is How You Lose Her was a finalist for the National Book Award and further cemented his place as one of the most distinctive literary voices of his generation.

Díaz’s work —ranging from fiction to essays and children’s literature— interrogates masculinity, memory, and exile. A recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and the PEN/Malamud Award, he currently teaches at MIT and continues to write about diaspora and the politics of narrative from multiple angles and forms.

This event will delve into the stories that shape us and the cultural histories we carry, as Díaz reflects on three decades of work at the intersection of art, activism, and imagination.