Hay Festival Cartagena 2023

Two authors will talk about their work with Juan Cárdenas. The journalist and writer Selva Almada (Argentina) is one of the most respected authors in the world of Latin American literature. Author of the non-fiction Chicas muertas (2014) and of the novels El viento que arrasa (2012), No es un río (2020) and Brickmakers (2021), her books have been translated into around ten languages and, among other awards, she received the 2019 First Book Award given at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. The thinker and writer, Dahlia de la Cerda (Mexico), is the author of the short story collection Perras de reserva (2022), she has a degree in Philosophy and is a co-founder and co-director of the Morras Help Morras feminist collective. She now presents Desde los zulos (2023), a book that combines autofiction, journalism and essay to reflect on marginal feminisms, the danger of excluding practices within the social movements, and she proposes a more plural and diverse view of feminism.

Our book clubs are intimate events with guests selected from the Hay Festival programme. These small-scale events will be a chance to talk in depth about the most recent work published by those invited. At this event, Gabriela Wiener (Peru) will talk to David Lara Ramos about her book Huaco retrato. A huaco retrato is a piece of ceramic made by the native peoples of Peru. In 1878, the Austrian Jewish explorer Charles Wiener, the author’s great-great-grandfather, carried four thousand pre-Colombian pieces away from Peru, in the process gaining recognition at the Paris Universal Exhibition. The protagonist faces up to this instance of stolen memory and reflects on their history and on the consequences of colonization and racism in our lives.

The book should be read before attending.

Venki Ramakrishnan (India/United States) won the 2009 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on molecular biology, which includes studies into the advanced compression of the atomic structure of the ribosome, the so-called “mother of all molecules”. He covered this topic extensively in his book Gene Machine. He has recently written Why We Die: The New Science of Ageing and the Quest for Immortality. At this event he will talk about these two works with Carlos Serrano.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

Two writers, through fiction and non-fiction respectively, tell the life of the German explorer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, considered to be one of the fathers of modern geography. The acclaimed writer William Ospina (Colombia) presents his latest novel, Pondré mi oído en la piedra hasta que hable (2022), which deals with the time that the explorer spent in Colombia (from Cauca to Quindío, and from Magdalena to Barú). The historian Andrea Wulf (Germany/UK), winner of the 2013 Eccles Centre & Hay Festival Writer's Award, is the author of the lauded biography of von Humboldt, The Invention of Nature (2016), a book that follows his footsteps up the world’s highest volcanoes, his trip along the River Orinoco, and his journeys to Siberia and even Cartagena de Indias. In conversation with Natalia García Freire.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

Philippe Sands (UK) talks to Javier Ortiz Cassiani about The Last Colony, a book about the Chagos Islands, which describes and censures the role of the UK in the expulsion of its native inhabitants in the 1960s. This prominent lawyer and human rights expert has not only documented these events, but also explores how the unjust acts have affected the lives of the inhabitants of the archipelago to this day, making a call for reparation of this colonial past.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

In the second decade of the 21st century, Colombia showed remarkable results in the fight against poverty. Over five million Colombians lifted themselves out of poverty, and the inequality gap decreased. Juan Manuel Santos, in his book La batalla contra la pobreza, emphasizes the importance of Colombia's pioneering adoption of the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI). This approach provides lessons for other nations, academics, and decision-makers. In conversation with Michael Stott.

Our guests will discuss the relevance of La vorágine today, especially on how certain types of development proposed for the Amazon rainforest threaten its survival and that of its ethnic peoples, exploring the possibilities that this iconic novel presents to delimit biocultural terrains, which must be protected and dignified through sustainable projects, both cultural and environmental. With Adriana Molano and academic Erna von der Walde.

According to Professor Mariana Mazzucato (United States/Italy) and Rosie Collington (UK), the consulting industry has managed to install itself at the very hearts of power in our economies and governments, with an extremely problematic impact on political responsibilities and public innovation. In this conversation with the economist Carolina Soto, Mazzucato will talk about her and Collington's joint book, The Big Con, in which the two authors discredit the myth that consultancy firms always add value to the economy, and defend investment in, and the collective intelligence of, organisations. They will also talk about the economic and social situation of Latin America.

The Spanish edition of The Big Con, entitled El gran engaño, will be published by Taurus and available to purchase from 25 January at the Hay Festival (and from 30 January throughout Colombia).

Mariana Mazzucato is a Professor at University College London (UCL), and Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. Her highly acclaimed books include The Entrepreneurial State, The Value of Everything, Mission Economy, and The Big Con.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

How can civil society be restored after a country has suffered violence or armed conflict? What tools do the State and NGOs have to establish processes of transitional justice and reparation? Juanita León talks to Humberto de la Calle (Colombia), lawyer, writer and Head Negotiator for the Juan Manuel Santos government during the peace process with the FARC; Volodymyr Yermolenko, president of PEN Ukraine; and Patrick Radden Keefe (United States), journalist and writer, the author of Say Nothing, an essential book about the history of the IRA and the Northern Ireland peace negotiations.

Volodymyr Yermolenko will participate in this event digitally.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

The Argentinean-US musician Kevin Johansen and the illustrator and cartoonist Liniers (Argentina) unite for an illustrated concert at which the music of Johansen becomes image and Liniers’ drawings become songs. A spectacular and moving live show for singing and setting the imagination free.

Julia Navarro (Spain) is the author of eight novels, translated in over 30 countries, and which have sold millions of copies around the world. Her latest work is Una historia compartida (2023), a book that aims to round out a universal history that, until now, has been written by and about men, shedding light on those women whose achievements and names have hardly appeared in books; from philosophers to scientists, from ancient times to our own days. This event, with Andrea Bernal, will be a chance to hear a story that evens things up.

Brigitte Baptiste is one of Colombia’s most eminent scientists, an expert on the environment and biodiversity. She studied Biology at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, did a Master’s in Tropical Conservation and Development, and has a doctorate in Environmental Management from the Instituto Universitario de la Paz. She was the Head of the Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resource Research Institute, and is currently the Rector of the EAN University. In conversation with Diana Calderón, both present El mundo según Brigitte, a book that offers us a portrait of Brigitte Luis Guillermo Baptiste, who has raised her voice again and again, becoming a global figure in relation to some of the most urgent matters of our times: sustainability, education, left- and right-wing regimes, and the struggle for equality. They will talk to Margarita Valencia.

The family forms us and is one of the aspects that all societies have in common. In The World: A Family History, the historian Simon Sebag Montefiore (UK) shows us the history of humanity through some of its most important family dynasties. Starting with the fossils of the footprints of a family who walked along a beach 950,000 years ago, the author will examine some of the families that have given shape to our world: from the Medici and the Rothschilds to the Churchills, the Kennedys, the Kims and many more. In conversation with Andrea Bernal.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

All Sunday events will be free for people who has an ID expeded in the Bolívar Department. You must request their courtesy tickets at the box office of the Hay Festival (CCCI) showing your ID, between 22 and 28 of January.

Wade Davis is one of the most intrepid explorers of our times. He was Explorer-in-Residence with the National Geographic Society from 2000 to 2013. He is an ethnographer, photographer, filmmaker and Professor of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of 23 books, including Magdalena (about his journey along the great Colombian river) and One River. His expeditions have taken him to some of the most remote regions of the planet, from Tibet to Polynesia, from the Arctic Circle to the Amazon, and from the heart of Australia to the Isthmus of Darien. He will talk to Philipp Blom.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

All Sunday events will be free for people who has an ID expeded in the Bolívar Department. You must request their courtesy tickets at the box office of the Hay Festival (CCCI) showing your ID, between 22 and 28 of January.

Central America has a concerning number of autocracies who oppress investigative journalists and restrict freedom of expression. Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Venezuela, all countries with journalists who have been sent into exile for speaking the truth. Talking part at this event will be Carlos Manuel Álvarez (Cuba), Laura Aguirre (El Salvador) and Alfredo Meza (Venezuela); professionals who have had to leave their homes in order to publish high-quality journalism containing the truths that power will not tolerate. In conversation with Jan Martínez Ahrens, Director of El País América.

All Sunday events will be free for people who has an ID expeded in the Bolívar Department. You must request their courtesy tickets at the box office of the Hay Festival (CCCI) showing your ID, between 22 and 28 of January.

A musician who rose to fame in a legendary band, Phil Manzanera (Colombia/UK), will talk to Fernando Gómez. Having spent his childhood in Cuba, he has an unbreakable link with Latin America. The guitarist and composer was one of the founders of the band Roxy Music and he has produced albums by Héroes del Silencio, Fito Páez, Aterciopelados, David Gilmour and many more. He will speak about a life dedicated to music and his love for Latin America, as he describes it in his memoir Revolución to Roxy.

All Sunday events will be free for people who has an ID expeded in the Bolívar Department. You must request their courtesy tickets at the box office of the Hay Festival (CCCI) showing your ID, between 22 and 28 of January.