Hay Festival Segovia 2022

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

Carlos del Amor and Sergio C. Fanjul will discuss their works as well as exploring art at its best, seen as something exceptional and unique and, at the same time, necessary in people's everyday lives.

Del Amor is one of the most important voices in Spanish cultural journalism. Proof of this are the international awards won for his documentary Revelando a Dalí (Revealing Dalí). In 2013 he debuted in literature with the book of short stories La vida a veces; one of these stories, El trastero (Self Storage), was made into a film. In 2015 he published his first novel, El año sin verano, in 2017 came Confabulación, and in 2020, Emocionarte. La doble vida de los cuadros, with which he won the Espasa 2020 prize. His latest work, Retratarte, came out in 2022. Fanjul has a degree in Astrophysics and a Master's in Journalism. He has several published books and awards such as the Paco Rabal for Cultural Journalism or the Pablo García Baena for Poetry. He is a writing teacher, a TV scriptwriter, a radio operator in Poesía o Barbarie and a poetic performer. Since 2009 he has signed columns and articles in El País. His latest book is La España invisible.

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

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

Many people wonder what place academic disciplines have in the art schools of the 21st century and in a society where technology tends to take centre stage. How do we understand handcrafts, knowledge of materials, traditional craft techniques, new technologies and human creativity in this context?

A member of one of the most emblematic and representative families of European collectionism from the Renaissance to the present day, direct heir to a history tied to the most admired art in the world, Lorenzo de' Medici will discuss the subject with Simoneta Gómez-Acebo, representative of the Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship, and active member of the Contemporanea de Artes y Oficios (Contemporary Association of Arts and Crafts, CAO).

The conversation will be introduced by Belén Llamas Ferrier, president of the CAO.

Event in Spanish

Laura Ferrero and Mar García Puig are two writers of powerful stories of people who give everything to their relationships, emotionally and through conflicts. Both will talk about their books and how they manage to weave a narrative fiction that gives us stories anchored in reality.

Ferrero is a writer, journalist and scriptwriter. Author of the short stories Piscinas vacías (2016) and La gente no existe (2021) and the novels Qué vas a hacer con el resto de tu vida (2017), El amor después del amor (2018) and Los astronautas (2023). She writes regularly for El País and participates in the programme La Ventana, on Cadena SER.

García Puig is an editor by profession, and has published articles in media such as La Vanguardia, El Periódico, elDiario.es, Público and CTXT. She has contributed to the books LGTBI (2020), Neorrancios (2021). Sobre los peligros de la nostalgia (2022) and Más que visibles (2022). La historia de los vertebrados (2023) is her first individual book.

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

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.

In a captivating dialogue exploring foreign experiences, identity, style, and writing, foreign correspondant and author Sandrine Morel, journalist and writer David Jiménez, and journalist and author Lane Greene offer their unique perspectives and ideas. Sandrine Morel, a French journalist based in Spain since 2010, writes for Le Monde and has been recognized by the International Press Club of Madrid as best foreign correspondent in 2019, as an author she published a book “En el huracán catalán” with her views as a correspondent of the Catalan process in Spain. She sits alongside David Jiménez, a journalist with a deep understanding of literature, culture, and current affairs, former international reporter, ex-director of El Mundo, and author of books like El Director and El Corresponsal (The Director and The Correspondent). Joining them is Lane Greene, a multifaceted journalist, language columnist at The Economist, and author, with his latest book Writing with Style: The Economist Guide, whose expertise lies in the realm of language, communication, culture, and its impact on society.

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

Event with simultaneous translation from Italian into Spanish and vice versa.

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

Four different voices, with a common element: their confidence that poetry is a weapon of the future, capable of restoring the bonds between humankind and nature. Carlos Aganzo, Antonio Colinas, Raquel Lanseros and José María Muñoz Quirós are our poets in the garden. Their words are committed to re-humanising the world in a journey along the labyrinthine paths to hidden corners of the Romeral de San Marcos garden. Poetry in its purest form.

Event with readings in Spanish

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

Óscar Esquivias was born in Burgos in 1972. He has directed literary magazines such as El mono de la ink, Calamar and currently Mirlo. He is the author of numerous story books The Mark of Crete (Setenil Award, 2008), Pampanitos Verdes (Tormenta Award, 2010) and Andarás perdido por el mundo (2016). He is also the author of numerous novels such as The blessed soil (Ateneo Joven de Sevilla Award, 2000), Xerxes conquers the sea (Young Art Award of the Community of Madrid, 2009) and the trilogy composed of Restlessness in Paradise (Critics Award of Castilla y León, 2005), The City of the Great King (2006) and The Night Comes (2007).

José Gutiérrez Román was born in Burgos in 1977. He won the Adonáis Poetry Prize in 2010 with his work Los pies del horizonte. He has also published the collections of poems Everything a Tremor and Material de Contrabando, as well as the book of short stories La vida en Inglés.

Both have a long career as writers and important awards for fiction and poetry. Accompanied by the writer Mar Sancho, Vice-Minister of Cultural Action of the Junta de Castilla y León, they will take a tour of her literary work, reading and commenting on poems and short stories, and will hold a discussion with the public.

She is the author of several books of poetry with which she has collected numerous awards, such as the Young Letters Prize of Castilla y León on two occasions, the Ateneo de Valladolid Prize, the Federico García Lorca Poetry Prize and the Jaime Gil Prize of Biedma. As a short story writer, she was awarded the La Felguera short story award, the oldest in Spain, the Ana María Matute award, the Provincial Council of Valladolid in three consecutive years, the Vargas Llosa Award, the García Lorca Award, the Ateneo Award in Mexico and many others.

José Benito de Churriguera and Leone Batista Alberti. The main squares of Salamanca and Pienza as the nerve center of a city, of an idea.

Jaime de los Santos and Mar Sancho —writers; she is a journalist, he is an art historian; friends— will talk about the concept of a plaza with two different but complementary views. The one in the piazza ideale of Pienza in front of the main square of Salamanca; one reflection of the power of the Church, the other of the civil power. The paradigm of Italian Renaissance urban planning compared to that of the Hispanic Baroque. The unique personalities of Alberti and Churriguera; those of Pope Pius II and Corregidor Rodrigo Caballero.

Two essential architectural formulas to understand all subsequent urbanism in the West. Two unique examples of infinite beauty. Two centers of attention for cities that pulsate around two spaces declared World Heritage Sites.

A talk for reflection, for dialogue and the search for solutions for a world under construction, ours.

Event in spanish