Online Events

The award-winning French writer and film and television director Philippe Claudel is the author of 16 novels, translated into at least 11 languages. His most recent book, which has already sold 200 thousand copies around the world, is La petite fille de Monsieur Lihn (2020), the story of a man who, fleeing war, arrives on the French coast with his granddaughter in his arms: he does not know where he is and has no knowledge of the language. Claudel talks to Gabriel Hörner about his writing and his cinematographic vision.

Valerie Miles, writer, translator and editor of Granta, is the curator of the Correspondence section of the magazine Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos in which two writers explore the epistolary form and its function as a philosophical parenthesis in everyday life: a remote conversation that is projected in the imagination, where the interior and sequential voice invites us to enter a strange intimacy. Miguel Ángel Hérnandez is the author of award-winning novels such as El dolor de los demás and Anoxia, as well as an art historian and Berta Ares, a journalist and cultural researcher, author of Joseph Roth, Legacy and Testament.

Event in spanish

What happened that night? The question that prompts the narrator of the animated film They Shot the Piano Player sets off an investigation into the fateful event that took the life of Francisco Tenório Cerqueira Jr, a musician destined to change the course of Brazilian music forever. Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal talk to the Head of Culture of Cadena SER, Pepa Blanes, about what led them to undertake this passion project, which will be released in theatres on October 6, and whose graphic novel adaptation has just been published by Salamandra Graphic.

Mariscal is an internationally renowned illustrator and designer who won the National Design Award in 1999. He is best known for being the creator of Cobi, the mascot of the Barcelona ’92 Olympic Games. He has exhibited his work at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the MOMA, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the IVAM and the MACBA. Trueba (Madrid, 1955) is a world-renowned Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer. His most critically acclaimed films include Belle Époque (The Age of Beauty), winner of nine Goya awards and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and La niña de tus ojos,(The Girl of Your Dreams) also a multi-award winner at the Goya Awards. The collaboration between the two artists was already reflected in Chico y Rita, an animated film also adapted to a graphic novel that won the Goya for Best Animated Film, received an Oscar nomination in the same category and won the European Film Award.

Event in Spanish

The fiction writer, dramatist and journalist Sabina Berman has, for some time, been an important presence on the Mexican cultural scene, having created plays that have become milestones for our time. These include Entre Pancho Villa y una mujer desnuda and Feliz nuevo siglo, doktor Freud. She has also won prizes, including the Frankfurt International Book Fair award for her novel La mujer que buceó dentro del corazón del mundo, translated into numerous languages. This time she presents her most recent novel, HDP, in which a businessman by the name of Hugo David Prado, who lives in the upper reaches of wealth and power, decides to use a global pandemic for his personal benefit. In conversation with the journalist Gabriela Warkentin.

Although just a few years ago it would have seemed impossible, there now exists a considerable consensus around the idea that Western democracies are in serious danger, faced with the rise of authoritarianism, nationalism, autocracy and the extreme right. The writer and historian Anne Applebaum (United States), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction for Gulag (2004), presents her most recent book, which tackles these and other themes: Twilight of Democracy. The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism (2020). Applebaum argues that through poisonous, simplistic and seductive messages, authoritarianism uses the media, the social media, political polarization and conspiracy theories to set up a worrying attack on democratic values, values that are defended in her book. She will talk to the jurist and academic Ana Laura Magaloni.

Four women deeply interested in women's leadership, from women in business to coaching for —and by— women. All four of these leaders understand the transformational change needed to unlock women's presents and futures, and the critical collaboration needed between women to see that this is realised.

Cece Helgesen is the one representig this afternoon Sally Helgesen, the world's leading Forbes-cited expert on women's leadership and author of the best-selling leadership books worldwide, with a place in the Thinkers 50 Hall of Fame; Julie Finch, CEO of the Hay Festival, leader and expert in the culture and creative sectors and in private and public not-for profit organisations such as the Arts Council England; and Maria Antonia Elliott, coach and yoga trainer share their views and experiences in a discussion moderated by Marta Williams, IE University professor, and expert in executive leadership and coaching for women leaders.

Event in English with simultaneous translation to Spanish

Javier Cercas (Ibahernando, Cáceres, 1962) has been saying things since he published his first novel in 1987. Nothing in his fiction is alien to his environment, to the society and circumstances that surround him. They are contexts that help us understand the characters in his works and their stories. But there is also the article writer and essayist Javier Cercas, where reality takes centre stage, and he is the protagonist, as in his latest book No Callar. Crónicas, ensayos y artículos 2000-2022. Author of novels such as El vientre de la ballena (The Whale’s Belly, 1997), Soldados de Salamina (Soldiers of Salamis, 2001), Anatomía de un instante (Anatomy of a Moment, 2009), Terra Alta (a Planeta Prize-winner in 2019) and Independencia (Independence, 2021). His books have been translated into more than 30 languages and have won the most prestigious awards, such as the Premio Nacional in Spain, the United Kingdom’s Foreign Fiction Prize, the Mondello Prize in Italy, the Malraux Prize in France, and the Prize for the Best European Novel awarded by the European Parliament. He has also been awarded major awards for essays and journalism, such as the Francisco Cerecedo and the Mariano de Cavia awards in Spain.

He will talk about his latest work and his career with the journalist Vicente Vallés, who currently presents and directs the news programme Noticias 2 on Antena 3 TV channel. He is the author of the essay Trump y la caída del imperio Clinton (Trump and the Fall of the Clinton Empire, 2017) and the novel Operación Kazán (Kazan Operation, 2022).

At the end of the event, the authors will sign their works at the bookstand in front of the IE University.

Event in Spanish

The Queretaro publishing house, Gris Tormenta, presents a beautiful collection of texts in which different authors from different countries reflect on something that is necessary to us in order to be fully human: silence, something that is becoming ever rarer in our world. The writer, theologian, priest, practitioner of Zen meditation, and founder of the Amigos del Desierto association, Pablo d’Ors (Spain), and the publisher and writer Mónica Nepote (Mexico), talk to the book’s editor, José Manuel Velasco.

On the 25th of July this year, the city of Santiago de Queretaro will celebrate its 490th anniversary: almost five centuries of history involving indigenous peoples, colonialism, the city’s crucial role in Mexican independence, and contemporary culture. For these reasons, Queretaro has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1995. However, there are a series of myths and legends regarding the prehispanic origins of the city, who were its first peoples who came in contact with the Spaniards and how its founding took place. Fiorella Fenoglio, a research archaeologist at the INAH Queretaro Centre, a heritage expert and a tireless promoter of cultural patrimony, will present a lecture on Queretaro’s material culture, in this very special year.

Event for university students

With an extensive career as a member of the National English Opera (ENO) and the Welsh Opera House, tenor Marc Le Broq marks his presence at Hay Festival Segovia 2023. With a repertoire ranging from Cavalli, Debussy, Wagner, Puccini, Strauss, Verdi and much more, with outstanding appearances at the most important festivals in the world (Salzburg, Grimeborn, Southwell) and records recorded with the best publishers and most relevant music entities, Lebroq will engage in a conversation with journalist Irene Hernández Velasco about his career as a tenor and the problems that beset the world of opera today.

Event in English with simultaneous translation into Spanish

Although just a few years ago it would have seemed impossible, there now exists a considerable consensus around the idea that Western democracies are in serious danger, faced with the rise of authoritarianism, nationalism, autocracy and the extreme right. The writer and historian Anne Applebaum (United States), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction for Gulag (2004), presents her most recent book, which tackles these and other themes: Twilight of Democracy. The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism (2020). Applebaum argues that through poisonous, simplistic and seductive messages, authoritarianism uses the media, the social media, political polarization and conspiracy theories to set up a worrying attack on democratic values, values that are defended in her book. She will talk to the jurist and academic Ana Laura Magaloni.

Luz Gabás, winner of the 2022 Planeta Prize, will talk with Jesús Vigorra about her historical novel Lejos de Luisiana (Away from Louisiana), an illustration of a time when this US territory was French, Spanish and then American. The main protagonist is the Mississippi River and its original peoples, who coexisted with European colonisers and others in a world in permanent transformation that will irrevocably mark all their destinies.

Gabás (1968) has a degree in English Literature, and is a university lecturer, although after many years dedicated to this, she left teaching to focus on writing. She began her writing career with Palmeras en la nieve (Palm Trees in the Snow, 2012), a literary phenomenon that brought tens of thousands of readers, translation into several languages and a successful film adaptation. Then came works such as Regreso a tu piel (Return to your Skin, 2014), Como fuego en el hielo (Like Fire on Ice, 2017) and El latido de la tierra (The Heartbeat of the Earth, 2019), all achieving widespread circulation.

At the end of the event, the author will sign copies of her books at the book stall outside IE University

Event in Spanish

Mercedes Ron is a young writer and audio-visual communicator born in Argentina and now a Spanish national, specialising, and achieving enormous success in children's literature. Despite her youth she has already published many books, including her trilogy Culpa mía (2017), Culpa tuya (2017) and Culpa nuestra (2018). She wrote the first of these under 20, and when she couldn't find a publisher, she decided to launch the book on the WattPad reader platform. Since then, tens of thousands of teenagers have read her works. After that came the Marfil y Ébano books (2019), and the trilogy Dímelo bajito (2020), Dímelo en secreto (2020) and Dímelo con besos (2021). At this event she will talk about her work, the importance of reading in childhood and adolescence, and the themes that young people want to find in the books they read.

At the end of the event, the author will sign copies of her books at the book stall at the main entrance of IE University.

Event in Spanish

A good novel must have a powerful story as a starting point. From there, the plot and the characters, shaped by the author, will do the rest to capture the reader's attention. Giuliano da Empoli's novel, The Wizard of the Kremlin, starts with its own story that is so real that it seems pure fantasy. A trusted advisor to Vladimir Putin - based on a real-life character - is the protagonist of a book that moves at a furious pace and delves into the intricacies of ruthless power. How an enlightened and cultured man can put himself at the service of Putin, who uses power with a blend of chaos and ruthless decisions that confounds Western countries.

Giuliano da Empoli is a sociologist, essayist and political consultant of Italian-Swiss origin. Director of the think tank Volta in Milan, he also teaches at Sciences Po Paris. The Wizard of the Kremlin, his first novel, is the literary phenomenon of the year in France and has won the French Academy’s Grand Prix de Novel and the Honoré de Balzac prize, as well as being a finalist for the Goncourt and Interallié prizes.

Da Empoli will be in conversation with Eva Orúe, journalist, writer, cultural manager and director of the Madrid Book Fair.

The event will be presented by Jean-Michel Casa, French Ambassador to Spain.

After the event, the author will sign his book at the book stall at the main entrance of IE University.

Event with simultaneous translation from French to Spanish and vice versa

Yuri Andrukhovych is one of the most singular figures in European narrative in recent years. Novelist, poet, essayist and translator, in his new book Small Encyclopedia of Intimate Cities, he uses his unique flair for uncovering the different among the obvious as he maps life in 39 cities, all scenes of historical events. Andrey Kurkov, recently awarded the Médicis Étranger prize in France, began a diary when the first Russian rockets fell on Kiev on 24 February 2022. In Diary of an Invasion, he recounts the horrifying impact of the conflict through a personal chronicle, which is also an astonishing account of Ukrainian identity and the daily lives of his compatriots. Both will discuss their latest books and the current circumstances with María Sahuquillo, El País correspondent in Brussels.

After the event, the authors will sign copies of their books at the book stall at the main entrance of IE University.

Event in English with simultaneous translation into Spanish.

Alice Kellen is read by millions of young people all over the world, but she keeps her life private in a way that almost no one else does. Her works, according to her readers, radiate a serene, fresh and profound romanticism that has captivated so many people that it still surprises even herself. Love is capable of transforming people for the better. The events at which she signs books generate queues of dozens of mostly young people.

In Where Everything Shines, her latest work and her latest success, two characters, as close as they are distant in their characters, try to find their reason for being through very different paths; the key is to find out if they are going to meet again.

Born in Valencia in 1989, she is a woman who enjoys the small pleasures of her family, and her cats, while having written novels such as The Archipelago Theory, The Map of Longing, You and I, Invincible, Sophie's Wings, Us On The Moon and the duology Let It Be: All That We Never Were and All That We Are Together.

Alice Kellen will be in conversation with Ana Gavín, Director of Editorial Relations at Grupo Planeta.

The author will sign books in the foyer of the theatre after the event.

Event in Spanish

The chair of the Colombian Truth Commission, Francisco de Roux, will talk about this extraordinary analysis carried out in the country in order to establish a legal and sociological framework given the impact of decades of violence. The work of this commission has become a model for similar peace processes around the world. De Roux will talk to the editor of El País Mexico, Jan Martínez Ahrens.

Among the many things wrong with our current socioeconomic system is not just the fact that healthcare is a privilege for the few, but that a whole illness industry exists that is structured around making a profit from those who are unwell, often with serious illnesses. The poet, essayist and lecturer Anne Boyer (United States) won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction for The Undying. A Meditation on Modern Illness, an acute and lucid work that tells of her own experience as a survivor of an aggressive breast cancer, which led her to live through and understand some chilling realities. Boyer is also the author of books such as The Romance of Happy Workers (2008), The 2000s (2009), Garments Against Women (2015) and A Handbook of Disappointed Fate (2018). In conversation with Eduardo Rabasa.

Marisa Manchado is a renowned composer and pianist, as well as a teacher, and researcher, she has also been an important voice on topics such as women in music. She has held top positions in cultural management, such as the Deputy General of Music and Dance at the INAEM - Ministry of Culture. Manchado is a figure who embraces all the themes of music, women, feminism and even technology, as one of the most striking aspects about her is her interest in the synthesis of music and electronics. She now faces an exciting, perhaps daunting, challenge: in September she will begin rehearsals for her opera La Regenta, based on the novel of the same name by Leopoldo Alas Clarín and with a libretto by Amelia Valcárcel. It will premiere in October, in a joint production by the Teatro Real and the Teatro Español.

Manchado will talk about her work and career with Charo Izquierdo. Journalist, independent advisor and business consultant, she is editorial advisor to El Español, for its women's section, MagasIn, and its sustainability section, Enclave ODS. She has published the books Puta no soy, Socorro, soy abuela, ¿Soy yo o es que aquí hace mucho calor? (written together with Laura Ruiz de Galarreta) and Fashion ® Evolution.

Event in Spanish