Hay Festival Digital Querétaro 2020

We have the pleasure to talk to the acclaimed writer Vivian Gornick, one of the major voices of the second wave of US feminism, about her work. Her career as a journalist began in the 1960s as a reporter for The Village Voice, before going on to work with The New York Times and The Nation. She is the prolific author of over 15 books, including several autobiographical works, which have made her one of the most outstanding contemporary exponents of personal narrative. In Unfinished Business (2021), the author revisits some of her essential reading, discovering in these texts a new view of herself and awareness of her transformation as a person, in a work that combines literary criticism with the personal, both fields in which Gornick is a seasoned writer. She will talk to Elvira Liceaga.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

For almost a decade, Radio Ambulante has told moving, funny and surprising stories from all over Latin America, revealing the diversity of the region in all its complexity. With over 200 episodes produced in more than 20 countries, Radio Ambulante is Latin America’s most ambitious narrative journalism podcast; it is distributed by NPR, the United States’ public radio service. This will be an opportunity to meet its creators and find out about their work, discovering how they shed light on Latin American life through stories of love and migration, of youth and politics, of the environment and families in extraordinary circumstances. With Daniel Alarcón (Peru), Lisette Arévalo (Ecuador), Pablo Argüelles (Mexico), Camila Segura (Colombia) and David Trujillo (Colombia).

We talk to one of the most eminent journalists and writers of our times, the winner of numerous major awards, including the Maria Moors Cabot Prize (1990), the MacArthur Fellowship (1995), the Ortega y Gasset Journalism Prize (2017) and the Princess of Asturias Prize for Communication and the Humanities (2018). Alma Guillermoprieto studied Dance in New York and gave classes in Havana. Her career as a journalist started in the 1970s, covering Central America for media outlets such as The Guardian and The Washington Post, and later South America for Newsweek. She writes for The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books. She has held the Julio Cortázar Chair at the University of Guadalajara and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Author of multiple books of articles, essays and reports, her most recent publication is La vida toda: Nueva crónica estadounidense (2022), a compilation of 13 texts, six of them written by women and all of them written in the post-9/11 period in a context marked by the appearance of the social media. Guillermoprieto will talk to the journalist Olivia Zerón.

We present one of the most respected writers on the Mexican cultural scene, the writer Mónica Lavín, an important figure in contemporary letters. A prolific author of over 20 books, including novels, short story collections and four books of non-fiction. She has won a number of awards, including a Canadian Governor General’s Award and the Elena Poniatowska Ibero-American Novel Prize for her powerful and iconic novel Yo, la peor, about Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. She is a columnist for El Universal newspaper and presents programmes for channels Once and 22 that feature interviews with writers. In her most recent book, Últimos días de mis padres, the author deals with the death of her father, followed by the death of her mother; it talks about their childhoods, experiences in exile, Mexico City, travel, separation and meeting again. In conversation with Jazmina Barrera.

How can we change the world? In this activity, the Hay Festival invites children to write their dreams or wishes on a Post-it in order to build up a little wall full of big ideas. The wishing wall will be put together throughout the day, with all the ideas that come from the hearts of the rebellious children who are ready to imagine a better world.

CaminaLee is an initiative that organizes walks aimed at connecting your feet and your brain, letting you listen to stories, characters, history, legends and adventures, all from a different perspective. Connecting with your imagination and your inner wisdom while you walk, feeling what you see. Walking but also reading to visit other worlds, fantastic worlds that you were not aware of, worlds where you can learn about the past, the present and the future. With CaminaLee, we will go out and tour iconic locations in the old quarter, finding the most important sites, monuments and churches. An explanation will be given about each of them, including the Teatro de la Ciudad, the Guerrero Gardens, the Palacio Municipal, the Church of Santa Clara, the Fountain of Neptune, the Casa de la Marquesa, the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro route and many other places, with rest stops and discussion of historical figures and the chance to draw them too.

To participate in this activity, please click here to fill in the registration form

Ages 6 to 12. Every child must be accompanied by an adult

We are going through a moment of reflection regarding what has made the lives of native communities possible, enabling conversations regarding how respectful treatment can be established. At the same time, we have witnessed profound changes in ways in libraries and museums, spaces traditionally considered to be repositories of knowledge The use of electronic formats in the arts, culture, entertainment, academia and literature has given rise to a debate about “emerging formats” and the end of the use of the printed book as the only vessel of knowledge. This round table offers the chance to debate the ideologies that are changing the many ways of conceiving what are known in Western cultures as writing, reading, schooling, books, libraries, catalogues and archives. With Iris Calderón and Benjamín Kumantuk Xuxpë in conversation with Isela Xospa.

This event is part of the Eccles Centre & Hay Festival Writer's Award.

They write, they report and, above all, they inform about conflicts and events from places that may be very remote or unknown to their readers: Ukraine, Central America, Amazonia... Jacobo García (Spain), El País America journalist and recent winner of the True Story Awards and Emma Graham-Harrison (United Kingdom), a British journalist with vast experience in several countries around the world. They will talk to the journalist Emiliano Ruiz Parra about their fascinating, and sometimes risky, trade.

Dahlia de la Cerda (Mexico) is a fiction writer, activist and philosopher, distinguished with various awards for literature and creative pursuits. She is the co-founder of the Morras Help Morras organization, a feminist collective that works from and for the periphery, and author of Perras de reserva (2022), a powerful collection of stories in which the writer reveals some of the most unjust aspects of the patriarchy. The goal of this workshop is for its attendees to obtain basic tools to write their first narrative texts.

Adriana Grimaldo thinks that perhaps humanity's best invention has been words. With them, we not only connect with the world, but we can share our interior world with others. Adriana loves and admires words: she speaks with them, learns them, listens to them, reads them and writes them. At this activity, children and teenagers will discover the importance of creating, taking care of and sharing words and ideas to build better life stories.

Ages 6 and over

Elisa Guerra is a teacher, writer and friend to both children and trees. In 2015 she was named Best Educator in Latin America and the Caribbean by the Inter-American Development Bank, and has been shortlisted for the Global Teacher Prize twice. At this event she will talk about her latest book, Las voces de los árboles, in which she takes us to a parallel world where trees of different species and from different places around the world tell us their stories and lead us to reflect on the damage we are doing to the planet.

Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos aims to promote knowledge and exchange among writers of different generations and nationalities, united by a single language and a literary tradition enriched by authors of diverse origins. The project consists of having an established author select a younger one on the other side of the Atlantic for conversations. On this occasion we present a conversation between Rosa Montero and Clyo Mendoza, moderated by Irma Gallo.

The “hard problem of consciousness” is one that we must return to again and again. The award-winning historian, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst George Makari explores this in his outstanding work of non-fiction, Soul Machine (2015). The author teases out the history of concepts such as “soul” and “mind”, and how one term came to replace the other along with advances in philosophy, science and psychology. The book tackles the relationship between body and mind, between brain and consciousness, the transition from religious paradigms to rationalist views on such matters, and the philosophical, political and ethical implications of these processes, resulting in the nuances of current thought in this area. In conversation with Pablo Duarte.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

The story of resistance of a community led by women, as an example of union and strategic action to protect the natural resources and way of life of the people of Cherán, in Michoacán (Mexico). This inspiring case has become a podcast. With Alicia Lemus (Mexico), one of the “women of fire” and a central figure in the events, in conversation with Elvira Liceaga (Mexico), co-writer, co-producer and co-director of the podcast together with Ricardo Giraldo (Mexico).

The life of Alina changes drastically the day she receives some terrible news: Daniel, her best friend, has killed himself because of the bullying he was suffering. What is the worst? Nobody seems to care and Mauricio and his gang, the bullies of our story, go unpunished. Only Alina’s grandmother has an answer to her granddaughter’s concerns, when she tells her about a creature who can act as a defender, and she teaches her the recipe to create one, assisted by Lenny, her golem. At this event, we reflect together with Teresa Alcántara about of El extraño caso de Lenny Goleman, by author Liliana Blum, on this evil which affects so many young people, how to tackle it and, above all, how to bring justice in cases of bullying. The event will be moderated by Óscar Pedra Nieto.

Ages 14 and over