Hay Festival Querétaro 2021 – Literature

Natalia Toledo is the author of the book Guendaguti Ñee Sisi: La Muerte pies ligeros, which tells the story of how death came to Earth, inspired by the images of the great Oaxaca artist Francisco Toledo, the author’s father, and presentes in a Zapoteco/Spanish bilingual edition. Toledo will share a reading of this tale with the public and talk about it with Imanol Martínez.

There are questions that have been in the minds of humans since we emerged as enquiring beings: are the stars inhabited? Or are we alone in the universe? The guest who will discuss this matter with us is Carlos Briones (Spain), a doctor of science, a specialist in biochemistry and molecular biology and a researcher at the Council of Scientific Research’s Astrobiology Centre in Spain, an organization affiliated with NASA. Briones is the author of the book ¿Estamos solos? En busca de otras vidas en el cosmos, in which he takes up this question from an interdisciplinary viewpoint, looking at the history of how humans have reflected on extraterrestrial life not only from a scientific perspective, but also through art, literature, philosophy, music and science fiction. Briones is a dedicated Third Culture advocate, supporting the integration of the sciences, humanities and the arts. He will talk to Criseida Ruiz Aguilar.

The writer Mónica Lavín is considered to be one of the most interesting voices on the contemporary Mexican cultural scene. 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. At this event, Lavín will offer a literary workshop at which the participants will create an exquisite corpse in order to cover the issue of narrative elements, and then do a short story writing challenge.

Libros UNAM presents an anthology, together with the authors Gabriela Jauregui and Brenda Lozano, who have edited the book, that introduces ten young women Mexican writers born between 1990 and 2000, whose work is proof of the contemporary richness of a very diverse Mexico, where creative freedom is accompanied by a will to experiment. With Paola Llamas Dinero and Nadia Ñuu Savi in conversation with the two editors.

Two lives lived four centuries apart cross over in the latest novel by Lucía Lijtmaer (Argentina/Spain). Cauterio (2022) tells the story of two women who feel the need to flee: one from 17th-century London, where her ideals make her a threat, to the New World; another from Barcelona to Madrid, tormented by a recent breakup and her conviction that an apocalypse is coming. The critic and writer Lucía Lijtmaer offers two stories that shed light on and ask questions of gender roles in two very different eras; it also shows us a decadent world, one ready to be delivered to the flames: the fire will cauterize everything. In conversation with María José Vázquez de la Mora.

Despite the fact that Juan Rulfo is one of the most studied and commented on writers of recent decades, his work seems to be an endless source, always open to new interpretations and points of view. The academic, Doctor in Latin American Literature from the University of Pennsylvania and writer Francisco Carrillo (Spain) is the author of the book of essays Fuera de foco. Cinco derivas por la obra de Juan Rulfo, which give a new approach to the life and work of one of the most universal, iconic and influential Mexican writers. For those who think they know everything about Rulfo.

Gisela Leal published her first novel aged 24, making her the youngest author to be published by the famous Alfaguara house. El club de los abandonados (2011) was shortlisted for the Alfaguara Prize, and is a novel about excess and decadence in high society, expressed through the tragic and opulent lives of her characters. She later published El maravilloso y trágico arte de morir de amor (2015), a story that unfolds through a continuous conversation between a young women and a writer who, in cities such as New York, Mexico City and Barcelona, try to find company in their loneliness, telling each other how they have reached that point in their lives. Her third novel, Oda a la soledad y todo aquello que pudimos ser y no fuimos porque así somos (2017) tells the story of a family that enjoys fortune and social prestige in the eyes of others. However, one of the heirs seems to embody an error in the family system: he is a potential suicide who reveals the faults, absences and unbridgeable distances that exist among its members. Leal has also published stories in the magazines Eñe and P Magazine. On this occasion, she will talk about her work with her editor, Mayra González, and with the journalist Denise Maerker.

Jeremías Gamboa (Peru) is a journalist and academic and one of the most outstanding writers in his country and the Spanish-speaking world. His first novel, Contarlo todo, the story of a young woman of humble origins in contemporary Lina, was critically acclaimed. His most recent novel, Animales luminosos, is an intimate narrative that deals with some of the essential matters of our time, such as migration and cultural clashes. He will talk to the writer and journalist Irma Gallo.

There are questions that have been in the minds of humans since we emerged as enquiring beings: are the stars inhabited? Or are we alone in the universe? The guest who will discuss this matter with us is Carlos Briones (Spain), a doctor of science, a specialist in biochemistry and molecular biology and a researcher at the Council of Scientific Research’s Astrobiology Centre in Spain, an organization affiliated with NASA. Briones is the author of the book ¿Estamos solos? En busca de otras vidas en el cosmos, in which he takes up this question from an interdisciplinary viewpoint, looking at the history of how humans have reflected on extraterrestrial life not only from a scientific perspective, but also through art, literature, philosophy, music and science fiction. Briones is a dedicated Third Culture advocate, supporting the integration of the sciences, humanities and the arts. He will talk to Cecilia Barría.

Dolores Reyes is a writer and educator from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her first book, Cometierra, tells the story of Cometierra, a girl with a special gift, but also one that is hard to live with. When she was small, she ate some earth and had her first vision. In it, she saw her father killing her mother. This book shows the power of literature as a means of expressing difficult situations, whether they are real or imagined. At this workshop, Dolores Reyes will share her experience as a writer in an activity that will teach those attending some tools to bring their ideas into being, making them into stories.

The writer and academic Viet Thanh Nguyen (Vietnam/United States) has recently published The Commited, the highly awaited sequel to his literary debut, The Sympathizer. He will talk to the publisher Lee Brackstone about this extraordinary book, a perceptive reflection on racism, immigration, consumer society and hangovers from the Vietnam War. Born in Vietnam, his family emigrated to the United States, where Nguyen currently lives and lectures English, American Studies and Ethnicity. In 2015 he published his first book, The Sympathizer, which won him the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and plaudits from the critics.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

Horacio Castellanos Moya (El Salvador) is one of the most prominent writers in the Spanish language. The winner of numerous awards, this prolific author of over a dozen books has been translated into at least ten languages. He has also worked as the editor of various newspapers and magazines, and lived in different North American, European and Asian countries. His most recent book, El hombre amansado (2022), is a novel that continues the Aragón family saga, a series that allows the writer to deal with different moments in the recent history of El Salvador. Castellanos Moya will talk to Javier Lafuente about this and other facets of his extensive literary output.

Based on her personal experiences and from a study of psychology, neuroscience, literature and memoires of great artists from different creative fields, the renowned Rosa Montero (Spain) presents us an intriguing look at the links between creativity and mental instability in her most recent book, El peligro de estar cuerda. This offers readers numerous curious insights into how our brain works when we create, identifying those aspects that influence creativity and putting them before the reader’s eyes as she writes, like a detective bringing together the various clues involved in an investigation. In conversation with the journalist of the American edition of El País, Javier Lafuente.

Born in the Congo, brought up in France, and based in Germany for over two decades, Wilfried N’Sondé, is not only a talented musician, but also the acclaimed author of six novels which have been recognized with numerous major awards. His book Un océan, deux mers, trois continents (2018) tells the story of Don Antonio Manuel, born on the shores of the River Congo in 1583 and educated by missionaries. The protagonist becomes a priest and is appointed ambassador to the Pope by the king of his land. In the early 16th century, what becomes a pilgrimage to Rome becomes a voyage to the New World in a slave ship. N’Sondé will talk about this extraordinary adventure novel with the writer Yael Weiss.

Simultaneous translation from French to Spanish available

Two writers with extensive experience working in different formats have returned to fiction to present their second novels. Alma Delia Murillo (Mexico) tells the story of a forty-year old woman who, brought up among seven siblings and a working mother, sets out to look for her father. The plot of La cabeza de mi padre is both a present journey and a set of reflections on the past. Our other novelist deals with something very different: the little elites of Latin America, where political power and an excessive accumulation of possessions come together in a perverse relationship, one that plays its part in submitting the masses to endless violence and poverty; this is the background delineated by Felipe Restrepo Pombo (Colombia) in his book Ceremonia (2021). This powerful novel follows the story of Arturo Ibarra and his family, which falls compulsively into the dark temptations of corruption, money, sex, drugs and luxury, all in excess and resulting in an abyss of inconsolable loneliness. In conversation with Karla Iberia Sánchez.

Miriam Toews (Canada) is the author of All My Puny Sorrows, recently published in Spanish and about which she will talk with Lee Brackstone. Considered to be one of the most interesting Canadian writers of her generation, she has published eight books, including the non-fiction Swing Low: A Life (2000) and the novels A Complicated Kindness (2004) and Women Talking (2018). Her work has been recognized with an impressive number of awards, including the Governor General’s Award for Fiction and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize twice. Her Mennonite background plays an important role in her work and several of her books deal with the role of women in these communities. In 2007 she played the leading role, the mother of a Mennonite family, in the Carlos Reygadas film, Silent Light, which won the 2007 Cannes Jury Prize.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available