Hay Festival Querétaro 2023 – Literature

Brenda Lozano (Mexico) is a fiction writer, essayist and publisher. In 2017 she featured on the Bogotá39 list as one of the best Latin American fiction writers under the age of 40. She is the author of the novels Todo nada (2009), Loop (2019), Witches (2022) and the recent Soñar como sueñan los árboles (2024), which tells the story of two women whose lives cross after the kidnapping of a girl, in the Mexico City of the 1940s; this is a story full of suspense, but also of humour, which portrays a period of splendour for the capital and Mexican culture. It also focuses on matters of contemporary interest, such as motherhood, and women’s place in society. In conversation with María Concepción Castillo González and Mariana Oliveros Trujillo.

The French author Neige Sinno has recently published her book Triste tigre in Spanish. This is a work that has startled the world of publishing. The book, which won the 2023 Fémina Proze, takes a precise and pitiless look at the monstrous and taboo theme of incest, which the author tackles based on her own experience, discovering it to be a crime that affects both family and society, which lives among truths and lies, and is linked to consent and the desire for power, and whose consequences are far-reaching in the lives of victims. It is also a book that speaks about the role of language and literature as safe spaces, which allow a freedom of thought. In conversation with Elvira Liceaga.

Mohamed El Morabet (Morocco/Spain), a Politics graduate, presents his second novel, El invierno de los jilgueros, a story about Brahim, who has lived with death, illness and war from a young age. Years later, Brahim studies Fine Art and meets Olga, a woman immersed in her role as an art teacher, but who also wants to see new horizons, other realities. The link created between teacher and pupil will change their lives forever. In conversation with Saúl Crespo and Rogelio Haces Gil Martínez.

Elisa Guerra (Mexico) holds a Master’s in Education at Harvard University. In 2015 she was named Best Educator in Latin America and the Caribbean by the Inter-American Development Bank, and was a member of the UNESCO Futures of Education’s International Commission. At this event, she will talk about her latest book, Las voces de los árboles, a work that takes readers to a parallel world in which trees of different species around the world tell us their story and let us reflect on the harm we are doing to the planet.

The writer, essayist, and thinker Sara Barquinero (Spain)has published one of the most acclaimed novels of the year in her country, Los Escorpiones (2024),where the two main characters investigate a dangerous conspiracy spanning several decades and reflect on the meaning of life. A PhD in Philosophy, Barquinero received a creative scholarship at the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid and has obtained numerous prizes, such as the Virginia Woolf Short Story Prize in the English Language (2017) and the Voces Nuevas Poetry Prize of the Torremozas Publishing House in 2019. In conversation with Julieta Díaz Barrón and Montserrat Michelle Rivera Ruiz.

Antonio Ortuño is a major voice in Mexican contemporary literature, and his fascinating body of work challenges conventions in forms of exploring social and political matters. In conversation with Abdiel Hernández, Ortuño will talk about his novels, which tackle themes such as violence and corruption, satire of the corporate world, the migration routes of Central America, and dystopian perspectives on his country. Ortuño will also talk about the project Verdades compartidas, an anthology which, thanks to the Hay Festival and the Colombian International Centre for Transitional Justice, reimagines and tells the story of Colombia after the peace process, through the writings of ten Latin American figures.

Letra Capital, the Queretaro Municipality press, has recently compiled the complete works of the Queretaro dramatist Gerardo Mancebo del Castillo, whose innovative and original plays have made him a central figure in Mexican theatre. Noé Morales and Manuel Naredo will talk about his Obras completas with Imanol Martínez.

The lawyer and writer Petina Gappah (Zimbabwe) is the author of two books of short stories and two novels. Out of Darkness, Shining Light tells the story of those who carried the body of the doctor and explorer David Livingstone through African lands so that he could be buried in England. Gappah turns the spotlight on two particular characters, the cook, Halima, and the servant, Jacob Wainwright. The novel explores the collision of Europe and Africa, questions hegemonic historical discourses, and portrays the hypocrisy and deception linked to the colonisation of Africa. The author will talk about her novel with Felipe Bohórquez.

Event in English

Alberto Fuguet (Chile), author, journalist and filmmaker, is an outstanding representative of the New Chilean Fiction movement of the 1990s. His new novel, Ciertos chicos, takes us back to the 1980s, and life under the Chilean dictatorship, exploring a world that challenges political structures and cultural binaries. The book, about young LGTB love, takes us into a vibrant counterculture scene, full of the music, books, fanzines and journalism that have come to represent the period, offering us a luminous counterpoint and a personal memoire from the viewpoint and experiences of the author. In conversation with Eliezer Budasoff.

Book fairs are important spaces for promoting books, but also for building relationships in the publishing industry, and meeting readers. Three Mexican publishers Daniel Flores, Mauricio Sánchez and Isabel Zapata, talk to Felipe Rosete about why they take part in the La Otra Feria initiative.

Dinero y escritura is a very personal book of fiction by the award-winning author Olivia Teroba (Mexico), which looks at matters related to the profession of writing and the conditions that make it possible in hyper-capitalist societies. In this series of texts, written in the first person, Teroba shares the ins and outs of her fragile relationship with writing, and with the world itself, framed by family and bodily demands that she expresses in a style that is both lucid and intimate. In conversation with Margarita Aguilar Urbán.

Frida Cartas (Mexico), from Mazatlán, describes herself as a housewife and part-time writer. A former presenter at the Instituto Mexicano de la Radio with the programme Altersexual (a sexual anthropology programme) on Radio Ciudadana, she contributes to digital media outlets and gives workshops on sexual and reproductive rights for young people, with a class and gender perspective. She is also the author of the extraordinary novel Transporte a la infancia, which, using honest, colloquial language, recalls the scenes from her childhood in which she discovered and affirmed her identity, creating an essential testimony for the recognition of trans childhoods, bringing to light the urgency of guaranteeing respect, protection and freedom for trans children. In conversation with Imanol Martínez.

Are podcasts about stories and books a complement to the work of publishing, or are they a parallel universe that is connected with books, but is a different kind of space? Two podcast presenters linked to literature, Gina Jaramillo (Mexico) of Cháchara Literaria; and Nuria Pérez (Spain) of Gabinete de Curiosidades, talk to Silvia Viñas (Uruguay), the Executive Producer of El Hilo podcast. An event about the love of books, and about telling stories through a format that is enjoying great success with the public today.

The writer Anthony Passeron (France) will talk to the writer Gabriela Jauregui about Les enfants endormis, a book about the heroine and HIV epidemic in France, which links up the personal history of the author and his family, with the story of scientific advances, achieved working against the clock to control the virus. This moving book has been received in France as one of the best debuts of the year. Les enfants endormis has won a number of major awards, including the Prix Wepler-Fondation La Post and the Prix Première Plume. Passeron teaches Humanities, History and Geography at a higher education institute.

Simultaneous interpretation from French to Spanish available

Montse Bizarro (Spain) is a Journalism graduate with a Master’s in Literary Creation. She is also an activist who raises awareness about, and works against, discrimination linked to mental health, autism and gender. Her novel Mañana ya no hablaremos de nada explores these matters through the lives of Mar and Lorena, who have a relationship permeated by psychological and emotional instability, the result of living in a hostile context, with the city of Barcelona as the backdrop. A very contemporary reflection on the structures of our relationships and mental health. In conversation with Daniel Montes Pimentel.

Emiliano Monge (Mexico, 1978), formerly a lecturer in Politics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, is a publisher and journalist. He debuted as an author with Arrastrar esa sombra (2018), shortlisted for the Antonin Artaud Prize. He has won a number of other awards, including the 28th Jaen Novel Prize and the 5th Otras Voces, Otros Ámbitos Prize, for El cielo árido (2012); and the Elena Poniatowska Prize for his novel Las tierras arrasadas (2015). He was also recognised in the book México20 and the Bogotá39 list (2017) as one of the best writers aged under 40 in Mexico and Latin America. His new book, Los vivos, tells the story of Hincapié and Vestigia, a couple in crisis, devastated by terrible experiences that bring on a fear of losing each other, and problems of lack of communication. In a working environment characterised by migration and constant disappearances, Vestigia seeks answers by interacting with other characters who shed light on the vacuum left by the disappeared, and the profound impact on those who wait for them. The book finds new perspectives on presence, absence and reappearance, not only physical aspects, but also ones related to language, feelings and the past. Emiliano will be in conversation with Javier Lafuente.

Two writers from each side of the Atlantic will talk to the journalist Diana González. With Mohamed el Morabet (Morocco), who in El invierno de los jilgueros, his second novel, tells the story of Brahim, a man wounded by death, illness and war. And with Ana Sofía González (Mexico), an architect and teacher who presents her literary debut, No matarás, a novel about violence in the domestic sphere and class tensions, with complex women characters who are looking to escape from extreme situations.

Divided into five sections, with an opening and an ending in the anime tradition, the poems of Paola Llamas Dinero explore the sensations that occur when fiction forms an essential part of our lives. Through language based on words, images and signs, characteristic of the street, television and Internet, the author examines our relationship with the world of fiction through anime, manga and the social media. She will ask how imaginary worlds determine many of our feelings and identities. She also wonders, if we are constantly relating to characters who do not exist, watching a series or scrolling through stories on Instagram, whether we can really form links with other people. In conversation with Yudi Martínez.

The guest at this event is a pioneer with great achievements. She was the first Peruvian woman to reach the summit of the world’s highest mountain, Sagarmatha (Mount Everest), and to climb the six highest peaks on the other continents She is also the first openly LGTBI+ person to reach the seven summits. Silvia Vásquez-Lavado tells her story in the book In the Shadow of the Mountain, winner of the Stanford Travel Book of the Year. In it, the author tells of these milestones, as well as a past of trauma and excess, of alcoholism and promiscuous sex, and before this, childhood abuse. Vásquez-Lavado reveals how an ayahuasca ceremony helped her to connect to the mountains. It is part of her story that she undertakes her expeditions together with other victims of sexual abuse, as part of the Courageous Girls project, founded in 2014. She will talk to Isabel Posadas about her activism, her memories and about the film that is currently being made.

This event is part of the Literary Pairs series run by the Hay Festival and the British Council; as part of the project, each “literary pair” will repeat the event at the Hay Festival in Wales in 2025. With Hind Hassan (UK/Irak), journalist who regularly covers international news for outlets such as Al Jazeera, Vice and Skynews, and Marcela Turati (México), a journalist who is part of Periodistas de a Pie, winner of numerous awards for her investigations and author of several books, including the award-winning San Fernando: última parada. In conversation with the photojournalist Héctor Guerrero.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

The writers Nuria Pérez (Spain) and Olivia Teroba (Mexico) explore the powerful impact of writing in the lives of characters, as well as in their own, highlighting its ability to offer support with regard to social pressures, create authentic connections and find a path that identifies us. Nuria Pérez, from Galicia, Spain, is a writer, communicator and creative director, recipient of awards at festivals in New York and Cannes for her innovative campaigns; she is the creator of the successful podcast Gabinete de Curiosidades. Her book, No tocarás, illustrates the place of writing as a fundamental tool for resistance, communication and expression. Dinero y escritura, by Olivia Teroba (Tlaxcala), is a pragmatic approach to the challenges involved in the profession of writing. Teroba is the author of the books of autobiographical essay Un lugar seguro and Dinero y escritura, and her short stories have been included in various volumes published in Mexico, Spain, Chile and Argentina. In conversation with Elvira Liceaga.

The acclaimed Spanish writer will talk to Gabriela Warkentin about his most recent books. Javier Moro, one of the most read contemporary Spanish-language writers, is also a journalist and has worked as a scriptwriter and film producer in Hollywood. His books include Senderos de libertad (1992), El pie de Jaipur (1995), The Mountains of the Buddha (2009), Five Past Midnight in Bhopal (2002, written with Dominique Lapierre), Passion India (2007), The Red Sari (2015), El imperio eres tú (2011 Planeta Prize) and the recent Nos quieren muertos, which he will talk about at this event. This rigorous, frenetic work portrays the life of a figure who is central to understanding Venezuela today: Leopoldo López, who, after being jailed in 2014 because of his leading role in the mass protests against the Nicolás Maduro government, became a symbol for the struggle for democracy in the country.

Patrick Autréaux (France) worked as an emergency psychiatrist for years, before devoting himself to writing in 2006. He is the author of a unique work which explores the relationships between medicine and literature, and here presents Pussyboy, about two men who have created a tacit agreement involving surprise sexual encounters, in the celebration of a ritual that is both ordinary and marvellous. He will talk to the writer and publisher Felipe Restrepo Pombo.

Simultaneous interpretation from French to Spanish available

Antonio Ortuño is a major voice in Mexican contemporary literature, and his fascinating body of work challenges conventions in forms of exploring social and political matters. In conversation with Javier Lafuente, Ortuño will talk about his novels, which tackle themes such as violence and corruption, satire of the corporate world, the migration routes of Central America, and dystopian perspectives on his country. Ortuño will also talk about the project Verdades compartidas, an anthology which, thanks to the Hay Festival and the Colombian International Centre for Transitional Justice, reimagines and tells the story of Colombia after the peace process, through the writings of ten Latin American figures. He will talk to the writer and journalist, Javier Lafuente.