Colombia Digital 2021

Will we return to life the way it was before the pandemic, or will we have to reinvent ourselves completely? For those who educate new generations, this question is an essential one. When it comes to training publishers and booksellers, what challenges will they face? How is it possible to prepare them for these challenges? How can knowledge of the past be kept alive while we also discover a new way of existing and interacting with others around the world? The years pass and the training of these professions is still something that needs to be tackled in Spanish-speaking countries. This event brings representatives of three prestigious academic institutions into discussion. Margarita Valencia (Educator at the Caro y Cuervo Institute, Colombia), Lluís Agustí (Director of Barcelona University’s Escola de Llibreria) and Alejandro Katz (Publishing Lecturer at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina).

We are living in a world beset by pandemic, in which we have had to learn new ways of working, interacting and communicating and where the future is uncertain. In such a world it seems easier than ever to abandon past knowledge. What is the place, then, of literary agents, those mediators between writers and publishing companies? How do they feature at this time of uncertainty, adaptation and change? Andrea Montejo (Indent Literary Agency, New York) and Víctor Hurtado (VicLit Agency, Barcelona) in conversation with María Elvira Jaramillo, Communications Manager at Siglo del Hombre.

Workshop given by José Manuel Anta, General Manager of FANDE (Federation of Spanish Book Distributor Associations) and IPDA (International Publishing Distribution Association).

Workshop given by Víctor Gomollón, Editorial Designer and Editor at Jekyll and Jill.

Duration: 50 minutes

Emilie Pine (Ireland) is a writer and lecturer in Modern Theatre at the University of Dublin. Her book Notes to Self is a collection of autobiographical essays about women and their bodies. If our bodies could tell their stories, what would they say? They would talk about blood, of the pain of dirty blood, of the blood that must never show itself. They would talk about the anguish of not being good enough, of always being silent, thinking that will improve things. This is a distressing yet wise and optimistic book. A treatise for what it means to live, an act of rebellion against a society that feels more comfortable silencing women.

This event is in English

Emilie Pine (Ireland) is a writer and lecturer in Modern Theatre at the University of Dublin. Her book Notes to Self is a collection of autobiographical essays about women and their bodies. If our bodies could tell their stories, what would they say? They would talk about blood, of the pain of dirty blood, of the blood that must never show itself. They would talk about the anguish of not being good enough, of always being silent, thinking that will improve things. This is a distressing yet wise and optimistic book. A treatise for what it means to live, an act of rebellion against a society that feels more comfortable silencing women.

This is the version with the Spanish simultaneous translation.

The prodigious writer Arturo Pérez-Reverte was a war correspondent for over two decades, covering armed conflicts in Africa, America and Europe. He is the author of more than twenty novels and collections of short-stories, the most recent of them being Línea de fuego (2020), a chilling account of the brutal Battle of the Ebro, the bloodiest episode of the Spanish Civil War, which took place in July 1938. Pérez-Reverte will talk to Juan Carlos Botero.

The writer and political analyst León Valencia (Colombia) is the Director of the Pares Foundation, a research centre dedicated to the analysis of Colombia’s social and political conflicts. He has been a columnist for Semana magazine and also for newspapers such as El Colombiano and El Tiempo. His research into the links between politicians and paramilitaries (“la parapolítica”) marked a watershed in judicial processes against corruption. He is also the author of several books, the most recent of which is La sombra del presidente. In conversation with Juan David Correa.

The performance created and led by the LASTESIS collective of the song and dance “Un violador en tu camino” in Santiago de Chile has been one of the global highlights of recent feminist activism. Shown around the world, it was a direct condemnation of the violence that is intrinsic to the patriarchal system. It also aimed straight at the heart of questions that are crucial when it comes to changing our societies legally, socially and culturally, seeking to make these societies truly equal. In conversation with the BBC Mundo editor, Carolina Robino, the collective will answer questions compiled through this media outlet.

Guadalupe Nettel (Mexico) and Marta Orrantia (Colombia) will talk about their latest books with Karim Ganem. Orrantia is the author of the book of non-fiction Todopoderosos de Colombia and of the novels Orejas de pescado, Mañana no te presentes and Cipriano, her most recent work. Nettel is the author of well-known novels including El huésped (shortlisted for the 2005 Herralde Prize), Bezoar & Other Unsettling Stories, The Body Where I Was Born and After the Winter (2014 Herralde Novel Prize), as well as the short story collection El matrimonio de los peces rojos (Ribera del Duero International Short Fiction Prize). Her latest book is La hija única.

Two recent winners of the Eccles Prize will talk to Guido Tamayo about the projects they submitted in application for this award, which is given in support of writers wishing to research and write about the Americas. Pola Oloixarac (Argentina), author of Las teorías salvajes and Mona, was selected for her Atlas Literario del Amazonas, a creative non-fiction project that reveals the secret history of the Amazon region. Daniel Saldaña París (Mexico), author of En medio de extrañas víctimas, El nervio principal and several poetry books, won the Eccles in 2020 for the novel Principio de mediocridad, due to be published soon.

The research and writings of the author, journalist and translator Gloria Susana Esquivel (Colombia) are closely tied to feminism, as is her podcast Womansplaining. In ¡Dinamita! Mujeres rebeldes en la Colombia del siglo XX, illustrated by Powerpaola, she tells 14 stories of 20-century Colombian women who worked in their respective fields towards equality and the recognition of women’s rights. In her book, Rebeldes: Osadas y transgresoras mujeres colombianas, the journalist Myriam Bautista offers six profiles of women who, consciously or unconsciously, departed from established norms and worked on what they wanted and in the way they wanted. In conversation with the journalist Beatriz Mesa Mejía.

The writer and political analyst León Valencia (Colombia) is the Director of the Pares Foundation, a research centre dedicated to the analysis of Colombia’s social and political conflicts. He has been a columnist for Semana magazine and also for newspapers such as El Colombiano and El Tiempo. His research into the links between politicians and paramilitaries (“la parapolítica”) marked a watershed in judicial processes against corruption. He is also the author of several books, the most recent of which is La sombra del presidente. Valencia will talk to Diego Aristizábal.

Carolina Ponce de León has been the Director of Fine Art at the Luis Ángel Arango Library, Director of New York’s Museo del Barrio, Director of the Galería de la Raza in San Francisco and a consultant on matters involving the visual arts to the Ministry of Culture. She writes regularly for El Tiempo and is the author of several books, including Tantas vueltas para llegar a casa (2020), an autobiographical book that combines the personal experiences of the author with some recent history of art and its relationship to social and political matters. In conversation with María Mercedes González.