Hay Festival Querétaro 2023 – Literature

Journalist, writer and Farsi-language translator. Victoria Belim (Ukraine) grew up in the United States and currently lives in Belgium. She speaks 20 languages, including Chinese, Japanese and Indonesian. Her literary debut is entitled The Rooster House (2023) and is a work of memoire, told as a novel, about Vika, a woman who returns to the Ukraine of her birth to investigate the death of her great-great uncle in the 1930s. It is an exploration of the history of a country marked by conflict and devastation, one with a new war just beginning. Belim narrates this story, which is about both a family and a nation, in prose that is captivating, mysterious and beautiful. In conversation with Eduardo de la Garma de la Rosa and Alejandra Martínez Quesada.

One of the most critical matters among those debated today is the issue of care, as well as new understandings of parenting. At this event, audiences will be able to hear the points of view of two writers who have experience in these matters, and have written and reflected on them. The Mexican writer Tania Tagle presents her first book of essays, Germinal, which contains ten years of reflections on pregnancy, birth and raising her first child. The Chilean writer Alejandro Zambra is the author of ten books that have been translated into at least 20 languages, has won awards such as the English PEN Award and the Prince Claus, and was selected in 2007 to feature on the Bogotá39 list as one of the 39 best Latin American fiction writers under 40; he has published the recent Literatura infantil, a series of stories, both fictional and non-fiction, about childhood and fathering. They will talk to the teacher Norma Ayala.

Irene Solà (Spain) is the author of the publishing success When I Sing, Mountains Dance (2019), written in Catalan and translated into Spanish and many other languages, published in over a dozen editions and winner of the 2019 Cálamo Prize and the 2020 European Prize for Fiction. This polyphonic novel, set in the high Pyrenees, tells the story of farmers, poets, witches, mothers and ghosts, surrounded by the magnificence of the exuberant and relentless natural world of the high Pyrenees. Solá will talk to María José Vázquez and Melissa Sánchez González about this extraordinary novel and her new book, Et vaig donar ulls i vas mirar les tenebres.

With his first novel, In the Distance, the Argentinean writer Hernán Díaz was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, as well as the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. His novel Trust was longlisted for the Booker Prize and has recently been awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Set in the 1920s, this marvellous creation tells various complementary and contradictory versions of a mysterious tale of a magnate. The author will talk about his latest work and will reflect on the unexpected links between money and fiction. In conversation with Felipe Bohórquez.

Muriel Barbery (France) is the author of the highly acclaimed and much-loved novel The Elegance of the Hedgehog, an international publishing success. Her most recent book is One Hour of Fervour, set in Kyoto, where Haru, a Japanese art dealer, meets a beautiful French traveller, and from their amorous adventure a baby is born. Some time later, Haru is notified that he is strictly prohibited from approaching the child. Thanks to his particular group of friends, Haru will manage to fulfil a terrible and necessary promise. The author presents the re-edition of her most popular novel, as well as her new book, in conversation with Yael Weiss.

Simultaneous interpretation from French to Spanish available

The Basque writer Eider Rodríguez will talk about her first novel Material de construcción, published after producing a number of successful books of short stories. This work has notable autofiction traits, and tells the story of a childhood and family life that bear the scars of the alcoholism of her father. This honest, hard and moving story deals with the difficult relationships between parents and children in such cases, and illustrates the function of literature in the reconstruction of memory and identity. In conversation with the teacher Sara Escamilla.

The best, the most beautiful, the biggest, the smallest… bookshops are subject to many romantic projections that ignore the difficulties of a trade that needs to be supported and valued appropriately, due to its indispensable role within the book ecosystem. With Rafael Blanco (Mar Adentro bookshop, Veracruz), Lola Larumbe (Rafael Alberti bookshop, Madrid) and Fernando Vera García (Navegui bookshop, Nezahualcóyotl) in conversation with Paco Goyanes.

No profession is neutral and that of bookseller certainly is not, given its place as a curator and intermediary between publishers and the readers who visit bookshops. With their extensive cultural programmes, focussed around the book, bookshops participate decisively in the life of citizens, as a necessary niche in the book ecosystem. Nacho Borraz (La Central, Barcelona-Madrid), Lalo Pessoa (Cafebrería Pessoa, Querétaro) and Verónica Mendoza (Carlos Fuentes bookshop, Guadalajara) in conversation with Francisco Carrillo.

The writer Sarah Ladipo Manyika (Nigeria/United Kingdom) was the Director of the Board of the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, California, and has been on the jury of a range of literary awards. She is the author of three books that deal with the African diaspora through fiction and non-fiction. One of them is In Dependence, which tells the story of over 30 years of the relationship between Tayo, a young Nigerian who goes to study at Oxford, and Vanessa, the daughter of a former colonial official. The author shows how the political becomes the personal in this story about the “dependencies” that they must both overcome in order to make their relationship work; an epic love story set during the difficult years which followed the independence of the African colonies. In conversation with professor Germán Francisco González Valdez.

Event in English

Journalist, writer and Farsi-language translator. Victoria Belim (Ukraine) grew up in the United States and currently lives in Belgium. She speaks 20 languages, including Chinese, Japanese and Indonesian. Her literary debut is entitled The Rooster House (2023) and is a work of memoire, told as a novel, about Vika, a woman who returns to the Ukraine of her birth to investigate the death of her great-great uncle in the 1930s. It is an exploration of the history of a country marked by conflict and devastation, one with a new war just beginning. Belim narrates this story, which is about both a family and a nation, in prose that is captivating, mysterious and beautiful. In conversation with Yael Weiss.

Simultaneous interpretation from French to Spanish available

Edmundo Paz Soldán (Bolivia) is one of the most respected figures on the Spanish-language literary scene. A lecturer in Latin American Literature at Cornell University, he is the author of 13 novels, which have been translated into a dozen languages and have won numerous prestigious awards. His most recent book is La mirada de las plantas (2022), a novel in which the alteration of consciousness mingles with the complex reality inhabited by the protagonist, Rai, a psychiatrist who experiments with hallucinogenic plants and virtual reality, which results in experiences that resurrect a past of abuse and separation, framed within the conflict-strewn reality of the book’s geographical setting. He will talk about the book with Eliezer Budasoff.

The Hay Festival wishes to recognise the great cultural work of Hispano-American bookshops, paying homage on this occasion to its associate Cálamo bookshop (Zaragoza, Spain), on the occasion of its 40th anniversary. This is a good time to reflect on the present and future of the bookselling trade. Ana Cañellas, Paco Goyanes, Brenda Navarro and Manuel Vilas in conversation with Cristina Fuentes la Roche.

Irene Solà (Spain) is the author of the publishing success When I Sing, Mountains Dance (2019), written in Catalan and translated into Spanish and many other languages, published in over a dozen editions and winner of the 2019 Cálamo Prize and the 2020 European Prize for Fiction. This polyphonic novel, set in the high Pyrenees, tells the story of farmers, poets, witches, mothers and ghosts, surrounded by the magnificence of the exuberant and relentless natural world of the high Pyrenees. Solá will talk to Yásnaya Elena Aguilar about this extraordinary novel and her new book, Et vaig donar ulls i vas mirar les tenebres, a story of living and dead women in a rural context, presented for the first time in Mexico.

In Koli Jean Bofane is one of the most preeminent Congolese writers, and his work is an examination of the globalisation and violence of post-colonial African societies. He is the author of five books that have been acclaimed by critics and have won numerous awards. In his most recent work published in Spanish, Mathématiques congolaises, we get to know the tribulations that Célio faces in a Kinshasa plagued by war, hunger, political corruption, social havoc and death, where the strains of this hostile environment take the characters to extreams that make us question, in essence, what is right and what is wrong? he will talk to his editor, Emiliano Becerril.

Simultaneous interpretation from French to Spanish available

Three writers talk about their works which deal with a matter that is both everyday and essential in our lives: care. The journalist Daniela Rea (Mexico) is the author of Fruto, a book that is about the contradictions of care based on 14 voices from different generations. The Mexican writer Tania Tagle presents her first book of essays, Germinal, which contains ten years of reflections on pregnancy, birth and raising her first child. The Chilean writer Alejandro Zambra, author of ten books that have been translated into at least 20 languages, has received awards such as the English PEN Award and the Prince Claus. In his book, Literatura infantile (2023), he offers a series of stories, both fictional and non-fiction, about childhood and fathering. In conversation with Elvira Liceaga.

Spaces for buying and selling, socialisation and discovery, bookshops are also the subjects of literature and for interpretation. Often readers create strong links with their local bookshops, and these links develop into relationships that can last a lifetime. From this personal, almost intimate, perspective, three writers and a bookseller will talk about the love created, as well as the fallings out that can also happen on the way. With Liliana Colanzi and Socorro Venegas in conversation with Lola Larumbe.

Luis Jorge Boone and Julián Herbert, both from Coahuila, offer, with El polvo que levantan las botas de los muertos, a unique and intimate view of the Mexican Revolution, combining non-fiction with poetry and storytelling. By recovering the biographies of two people forgotten by history, that of a private in the federal army who is waiting for the enemy to arrive while he remembers his childhood, and that of a rural teacher who is made a member of the Congress founded by the Constitution of 1917. The authors remind of us of the many life stories that were buried by the violence of the war and by the passage of time.

The Basque writer Eider Rodríguez will talk about her first novel, Material de construcción. With this book, the author uses the genre of autofiction to tell the story of a childhood and family life that bear the scars of the alcoholism of her father. The writer, publisher, broadcaster and literature teacher, Elvira Liceaga (Mexico), presents her novel Las vigilantes, which introduces Julia, a woman who returns to Mexico, to her maternal home, where she is awaited by Catalina. On this return trip she meets Silvia, a pregnant woman. The stories of these three women mingle in a story of care and watchfulness in which each one becomes a reflection of the others. In conversation with Diego Rabasa.

Juan Villoro is one of the most appreciated and high-profile writers and thinkers in the world of Spanish-language letters. His body of work is both extensive and varied, ranging from fiction genres such as the novel and the short story, to essay, literary journalism and drama. Over the course of his career he has published over 50 books, received over 30 prizes —including the Herralde Novel Prize, the José Donoso Ibero-American Prize and the Gabo Foundation Prize for Journalistic Excellence—, and he has been awarded three honorary doctorates. In his recent book La figura del mundo (2023), Juan Villoro recreates his father, the Catalan-Mexican thinker, UNAM lecturer and founder of the UAM, social activist, Zapatista and author of many books of philosophy that are considered highly important in Mexico. A look at the public persona and the private individual, a great philosopher and the father of a great writer. In conversation with Edmundo Paz Soldán.

The award-winning writer Aroa Moreno Durán (Spain) is a journalist and specialist in International Information and the Countries of the South. She has written poetry books and biographies of Frida Kahlo and Federico García Lorca. She won the Ojo Crítico Fiction Prize in 2017 for her first novel, The Communist’s Daughter, and the 2022 Grand Continent Prize for the second, La bajamar, a story full of family secrets and confrontations between mothers and daughters of different generations. Adirane, the protagonist of this novel, goes in search of the memories of a remote family past, damaged by the Spanish Civil War. In the process, she leaves her young daughter and her husband, and confront her mother, with whom she has not spoken for years. A novel that reflects on growing up and care, motherhood and pain, and the permanent tension between the past and what is to come. In conversation with the doctor Eduardo Becerra.