Hay Festival Segovia 2020 Tickets

The author writes a lot but very little of it matters. This is the belief of Violeta Gil, who, when she settles down in front of a blank page to write, be it theatre, poetry or novels, likes to invoke ghosts which rise from realities that have not happened. That, she says, is what literature is all about. She has just been awarded the XX Premio de la Crítica de Castilla y León (Castilla y Leon’s Critics’ Prize, 2023) for her novel Llego con tres heridas, in which she ties together two ends of the same thread: love and death, both flawlessly woven into the story of her father, who tragically died when she was three months old.

She will talk to José Félix Valdivieso, born in Brussels to a Spanish mother and an Ecuadorian father. Poet, author of Grito de amor. Hacia una teoría general de las cavidades and La geografia del erizo, Valdivieso says he would like to learn all the world’s languages, so as to have more synonyms to fall back on. For now, he has mastered Classical Greek, Chinese, Russian, Japanese, and several others, along with the language of the street; graffiti.

Event in Spanish

The authors will sign their books after the event.

Varge is a cross-border village in the district of Bragança, in the Porto and Norte region, to the north of Portugal. Here, tradition and nature merge in a lasting embrace of a past that still resonates in the present. For this reason, participants in this event —now in its second edition —will share a day which is all about celebrating the importance of our villages and valuing their quest for survival. Activities will include a traditional mask-making workshop, and a gastronomic tasting session of local Transmontane food, and in particular bread baked in a communal wood-fired oven still in use today after hundreds of years. There will also be a tour of the Grande Rota dos Molinos e dos Lameiros (the Mills and Lameiros Way), which was inaugurated last year between Spain and Portugal.

The event will have the participation of the writer José Ramón Alonso de la Torre, an expert in the Raya, of which he has written three books: La frontera que nunca existió (2006), R&R, Restaurantes de la Raya (2009), and Un viaje por la Raya (2021).

The ticket does not include transportation to Varge

A journalist and writer, but above all a novelist, Reyes Monforte is one of the most famous authors on the Spanish literary scene. Her first book, Un burka por amor (2007) became a bestseller, with 52 editions, and her television series was watched by more than four million viewers. After that novel she has continued to write others, such as Amor cruel (2008), La rosa escondida (2009), La infiel (2011), Besos de arena (2013), La memoria de la lavanda (2018) and Postales del este (2020), all of them marked by success. In 2022 she published La violinista roja, which told the story of the Spanish woman who was the most important Soviet spy of the 20th century.

The author will talk with writers and journalists Elsa González and Carlos Aganzo in the extraordinary setting of the Sabero Valley, in the mountains of León.

The author will sign books at the end of the event.

Event in Spanish

For the second year running, Hay Festival Segovia will visit Segovia Prison to deliver the workshop Minimal Autobiographies, led by Beltrán Gambier, founder and director of the magazine Intramuros, a leading publication in this genre. Over the magazine’s 27 years, it has been contributed to by prestigious writers, including Nobel Literature Prize winners such as Günter Grass, Herta Müller and Mo Yan. This is an opportunity for inmates to take part in an intellectual literary activity, supported by the Hay Festival, in which they can write an extract of their own autobiographies. Gambier is also a lawyer and author of several legal texts in areas including Penitentiary Administrative Law.

Gambier will give the workshop with Félix Losada, Intramuros writer and trustee, as well as with El País journalist Noelia Núñez.

Event in Spanish

Reading books, which only a few years ago seemed to be stagnating or even in decline, is undergoing changes that bring some optimism to the horizon. This comes along with some interesting trends in habits, like an increase in the number of audiobook users. This round table addresses the opportunities of the audiobook from the perspective of publishers and platforms. Ángela Álvarez, director of Penguin Random House Audio; Juan Baixeras, country manager Spain & Italy, Audible; Álvaro Curiel, country manager Storytel, Mariana Féged, general manager Spanish Markets, France & EMEA, Bookwire; Rafael Luna, director of marketing and business and digital at Editorial Anagrama and Raúl Pérez, head of Digital eBook and Audiobook Grupo Planeta will explore this topic together.

Event in Spanish

Despite the prejudices society might hold about young people and their reading habits, children and teenagers are actually among those who read the most in Spain; a higher percentage, in fact, than people older than them. So, if young people are among those of us who read the most, why do we think that they don't? How do young people read? What genres do they prefer? How do they consume literature? How do social networks and new technologies influence reading? How does reading influence their values, interests, and choices? Gemma Lienas, a writer with a long career in literature for children and young people, and winner of the Ramón Llull (2003) and San Joan (2018) prizes, will explore these and other questions, along with Redry (David Galán), poet and winner of the Espasa poetry prize (2019), and Marta Álvarez, youth editor at Anaya.

The event will be moderated by Carme Riera, writer and academic, winner of the National Prize for Spanish Literature (2015).

At the end of the event, the authors will sign copies of their books at the book stall on Calle Real.

Event in Spanish

The publishing house Caballo de Troya summons the three writers chosen in 2023, Aida González Rossi, Violeta Gil and Margaryta Yakovenko, for a conversation about their latest works. Within the similarities and divergences in the works of these three Caballo de Troya authors, they will open up a space for reflection on the new narrative voices in the work of a publishing house that functions as a political and social tool, with books that make people uncomfortable and authors that write shamelessly.

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

Event in Spanish

Throughout society, the role of women has not yet reached full equality with that of men. One of the most important issues is the invisibilisation of women over the age of 50, which occurs both in life —with professional, emotional and sexual obstacles— and in art, where they are not represented or offered models they can identify with. Elia Barceló, in her literary work, aims to give voice and prominence to women who, with extensive life experience behind them, still have a long future ahead. She will talk about this with Marisol Teso, head of Culture at Mediaset.

Barceló is considered one of the most versatile authors on the current literary scene, as well as one of the most prestigious in the field of fantasy and science fiction. She has published 30 novels, some for adults and others for young people, and some 90 short stories, in Spain and abroad. She is the author of highly successful works such as El color del silencio, El secreto del orfebre, Las largas sombras, El eco de la piel, La noche de plata, Muerte en Santa Rita and the most recent, Amores que matan. She has won numerous awards. In 2020, she was awarded the National Literature Prize in the Children's and Young People's category for El efecto Frankenstein (The Frankenstein Effect).

At the end of the event, the author will sign copies of her books at the book stall on Calle Real.

Event in Spanish

For fourteen editions, this activity has combined poetry with the beauty of a city set in unique surroundings. This time, the ancient stones of the Library of the Casa de la Lectura welcome the voices of the poets themselves, who will read their own works and those of their favourite writers. The poet Amalia Iglesias and the journalists and writers Carlos Aganzo, Carlos Hernández-Lahoz and Angélica Tanarro will take part.

Event in Spanish

The winner of the 35th edition of the Loewe Poetry Prize, Cuban Reiniel Pérez Ventura, will read a selection of poems from his collection of poems Las sílabas y el cuerpo, in a conversation with journalist and director of ABC Cultural, Jesús García Calero.

At the end of the event, the author will sign copies of his books at the book stall in Calle Real.

Event in Spanish

The place: a decadent Venetian palace. The character: Inspector Kraken. Eva García Sáenz de Urturi weaves a tapestry of intrigues in which no one is free of suspicion and in which the present gives us deep hints about a dark past. A puzzle that Inspector Kraken tries to piece together through the keen pen of this writer from Vitoria —one of the most widely read novelists in Spain —in her latest novel: El ángel de la ciudad. Author of works such as El Libro Negro de las Horas and the Trilogía de la Ciudad Blanca, and having won the 2020 Planeta Prize with Aquitania, the author will talk about her latest work in conversation with the journalist Jesús Vigorra.

The author will sign her books in the theatre at the end of the event.

Event in Spanish

A new instalment of Propios y Ajenos (Our Own and Others' Works), a cycle of live poetry readings now in its 15th year as part of Hay Festival Segovia will take place in the Romeral de San Marcos, the private garden of the landscape designer and architect Leandro Silva, whose work included the restoration of the Botanical Gardens of Madrid. José Antonio Municio, an expert on the garden's history, will reveal some of its secrets.

The winner of the 35th LOEWE Poetry Prize, Reiniel Pérez Ventura, will read poems from his collection of poems Las sílabas y el cuerpo. Museologist Julia Casaravilla, poet Carlos Aganzo, UK Ambassador to Spain Hugh Elliott, ambassador of Belgium in Spain, Gerard Cockx, Hay Festivals CEO Julie Finch, writer Elia Barceló, artisan Belén Ferrier, poets Amelia Iglesias, Angélica Tanarro and Carlos Hernández-Lahoz as well as the President of the Hay Festivals Caroline Michel will read their own texts or those of their favourite poets in a stroll through the leafy corners of the Jardín Romeral de San Marcos. The readers will be led by masters of ceremony Cristina Ward and Félix Valdivieso.

Event with readings in Spanish, English and French.

When the author delivers his or her literary work, it sets off along a tempestuous path, and sometimes the trail is lost. To what extent should a translator maintain a thread that links him or her to the writer of the text he or she is confronted with? Does it improve the work if author and translator know each other personally? Translators can be said to be firm allies of Europe’s linguistic richness, spreading diversity across national borders. Rosa Montero will talk about all this with Myriam Chirousse, the translator of her novels into French.

A native of Madrid, she studied journalism and psychology. She is the author of the novels Crónica del desamor, Te trataré como a una reina, Amado amo, Temblor, Bella y oscura, La hija del caníbal (Primavera Prize), El corazón del Tártaro, La loca de la casa (Qué Leer Prize and Grinzane Cavour Prize), Historia del Rey Transparente (Qué Leer Prize), La ridícula idea de no volver a verte and El peligro de estar cuerda. Her journalistic career has been recognised, among others, with the National Journalism Prize, the Rodríguez Santamaría Prize and the El Mundo Journalism Prize. She was awarded the Premio Nacional de las Letras in November 2017 in recognition of her career as a novelist, journalist and essayist.

The event will be moderated by Isabelle Berneron, attaché for books, ideas and media networks at the Institut Français D'Espagne.

There will be a book signing after the event.

Event in Spanish

Carlos Zanón and Ray Loriga are multifaceted writers who have worked with novels, film scripts, criticism, press articles, and children's literature. Both have written exceptional works in genres such as Zanón’s noir work, or Loriga’s minimalist realism. Their latest novels treat, from different angles, love, the loss of youth, illness, suicide, how to face death and the loss of illusion. Either from the Suicide Assistance Center or in the bizarre route of three musicians through campsites on the Mediterranean coast, the protagonists of both authors are escaping towards the end. Both draw on what pop culture has nurtured them to get on with life and stay alive. And both resolve the leap into the void, each one as their literary world leadas them to accept: credible, original, hopeful and deeply personal. They will discuss this in a conversation moderated by El Mundo journalist Luis Alemany.

Zanón has published some twenty works, including Tarde, mal y nunca (2009), Yo fui Johnny Thunders (2014, Hammet Award) Taxi (2017), or Love Song (2022), and the articles compilation Cien formas de romper un glaciar (2023).Loriga, writer, screenwriter and film director, has published works such as Héroes (1993), Rendición (2017, Alfaguara Novel Prize) and Cualquier verano es un final (2023).

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

Event in Spanish

Journalists and writers from El País Juan Carlos Galindo and Berna González Harbour talk about literature in this event and, in particular, about the cities that act as settings in crime fiction. González Harbor gave Madrid the crime novel that the city had been waiting for with Verano en rojo (Destino ), now adapted for cinema. Thus began the series of the curator María Ruiz, who travels between the capital and Santander, and with which the author has won the Dashiell Hammett Award of the Gijón Black Week in 2020. Galindo has framed Hontoria, his debut in fiction (Salamandra), in Segovia, the city where he was born and grew up.

At the end of the event, the authors will sign copies of their books at the book stall on Calle Real.

Event in Spanish

Join us for a dynamic conversation about technology and creativity between two global voices John Maeda and Ikhlaq Sidhu. In this engaging dialogue, Maeda, renowned artist and designer, author of several books including How to Speak Machine: Computational Thinking for the Rest of Us and Sidhu, prominent computer engineer, chief scientist, and author of Engineering Innovation: A Practical Guide to Creating Something New, will bring together their expertise to explore the limitless possibilities that occur when art, technology and innovation meet.

After the event, there will be a book signing at the book stall at the main entrance of the IE University

Event in English with simultaneous translation to Spanish

The alternatives that life gives us is to be sane and die of boredom or to be away with the fairies taking us closer to madness, with all its woes and freedoms. In her latest work, El peligro de estar cuerda, the writer Rosa Montero reflects, in a profound yet amusing way, on what it means to be different, to think and act without rules, and how close she came to losing her mind. She will do so in conversation with Ana Gavín, Director of Editorial Relations at Grupo Planeta.

Montero, a native of Madrid, studied Journalism and Psychology. She is the author, of novels including Crónica del desamor, Te trataré como a una reina, Amado amo, Temblor, Bella y oscura, La hija del caníbal, El corazón del Tártaro, La loca de la casa (winner of the Qué Leer and Grinzane Cavour awards), Historia del Rey Transparente (Qué Leer award), La ridícula idea de no volver a verte and El peligro de estar cuerda. Her journalistic career has been recognised by the National Journalism Prize, the Rodríguez Santamaría Prize and the El Mundo Journalism Prize, among others. In November 2017 she was awarded the Premio Nacional de las Letras in recognition of her career as a novelist, journalist and essayist.

At the end of the event, the author will sign copies of her books at the book stall on Calle Real.

Event in Spanish

A conversation between Cristina Carrillo de Albornoz and Paula Quinteros on the key themes of the novel Un beso en Tokio, in which issues such as the role of art, the paradox of mystery, ephemeral beauty, the unexpected dissatisfaction of success, the part chance plays in our existence, and the power of love will be explored or the importance of elegance.

Carrillo de Albornoz is a former United Nations diplomat who since 1996 has worked as an curator in the world's leading art museums such as the Hermitage in St Petersburg, the National Gallery in Berlin, the Glyptoteca in Munich, the Botero Museum in Bogota, the National Museum in Beijing and the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid. She has written twelve books; Un beso en Tokio is her first novel in Spanish. Quinteros is a Spanish-Argentine businesswoman, editor and journalist, CEO of The Objective. In 2005 she founded Clímax, a culture and research magazine awarded with the SIP Award. In 2014 she founded the digital medium The Objective, Best General Media in Spain by the Open Publishers Club (CLABE) in 2022. She also created El Estímulo, a digital medium recognized with two SIP Awards for Journalistic Excellence in 2017 and 2018. In 2023, she was awarded the prize for Influence at the IV Communication Awards

The conversation will be moderated by Philippine González-Camino Editorial Director of La Huerta Grande

.

After the event, Cristina Carrillo de Albornoz will sign copies of her works at the book stall on Calle Real.

Event in 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 notion that history is told by the victors is only half true. They are the first to come up with the story, but then there are the scholars and writers – of fiction and non-fiction - who work with proven facts and real people. In this session, Julia Navarro and Santiago Posteguillo, explore their ambitions to reach thousands of readers by recreating the epic biographies of some of history’s protagonists, and fictional characters who had the good fortune or misfortune to live through great historical events and as such led extraordinary lives.

Navarro is a journalist and writer. She made her literary name with La hermandad de la Sábana Santa (The Sisterhood of the Holy Shroud), which was published in 30 countries. The success of her books, which regularly hit the bestseller lists, led her to leave journalism. Her titles include novels such as Dime quién soy, Dispara, yo ya estoy muerto, Tú no matarás, and, most recently, Una historia compartida.

Posteguillo is a philologist, linguist and writer. The literary prizes he has been awarded include the Premio de la Semana de Novela Histórica de Cartagena, the Premio a las Letras de la Generalitat Valenciana in 2010, and the 2014 Premio Barcino de Novela Histórica de Barcelona. In 2018, he was awarded the Planeta Prize for his novel Yo, Julia, followed by the publication of Y Julia retó a los dioses in 2020. His latest novel, Roma soy yo, published by Ediciones B, is the first in a series that will cover the complete biography of Julius Caesar and has been described by the author himself as his most ambitious work.

Event in Spanish

The authors will sign their books after the event.