Hay Festival Segovia 2023

Intramuros magazine, a pioneer in the autobiographical genre in Spanish, celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, continuing to explore the form known as the "minimal autobiography." Its director, Beltrán Gambier, will lead a workshop guiding participants in writing their life stories in just 1,000 words.

Through theoretical guidelines and the reading of selected excerpts from autobiographies, Gambier will motivate attendees—no academic background required—to write four or five initial paragraphs (or a complete minimal autobiography) in the first person. These texts will be shared and discussed among participants in the second session of the workshop.

With the collaboration of Laura Ventura, literature professor and journalist. Assistant: Yago Cabrera Pérez

Event in Spanish

Hay Festival Segovia returns once again to the Segovia Penitentiary Centre, driven by the success of previous years, with the Minimal Autobiography Workshop led by Beltrán Gambier, founder and director of Intramuros magazine, which is dedicated to this literary genre. With over three decades of history, Intramuros has featured contributions from prestigious authors, including Nobel Prize winners Günter Grass, Herta Müller, and Mo Yan. Gambier is also a lawyer and author of several legal texts, including one focused on Penitentiary Administrative Law.

The workshop once again includes the participation of Pedro Zuazua, a trained philologist and practicing journalist. Author of En mi casa no entra un gato and Días para ser gato, autobiographical works centered on his life with his cats, Mia and Atún.

This is a valuable opportunity for inmates to take part in a high-level literary activity, where they will be invited to write a short autobiographical fragment.

Event in Spanish

What is the editorial board like, where the front page of a newspaper's web and paper is decided every day? Who intervenes? Is there a debate about the news stakes? Who chooses the front page photo? Let's enter the realm of fictional journalism for a day: how would one of these meetings take place in an imaginary European newspaper? To what extent would common themes be strengthened against the pressure of strictly local themes and points of view? Let us imagine that this medium is called Europa Tribune and that on 10 September 2025 it has decided to hold an open-door editorial board meeting.

The place chosen for this unusual exercise in transparency is the Telefónica Foundation in Madrid. Flesh and blood journalists sit at the table of this fictitious board: Sandrine Morel, correspondent of Le Monde; Martin Dahms, correspondent of Frankfurter Rundschau and Stuttgarter Zeitung; Helena de Bertodano, reporter for The Sunday Times and Miquel Molina, deputy director of La Vanguardia. The cover was designed by Núria García Arenas, editor-in-chief of Design at La Vanguardia. The event is presented by Sheila Cremaschi, director of the Hay Festival in Spain and chosen by Forbes among the 75 Latin women to follow 2024.

Event in Spanish

Writers have visited to London for centuries, from Europe and beyond. Lost & Found exhibition reveals how the city has inspired them, bringing to light a Europe and a London of the imagination. It is based on an interactive digital map designed by the European Institute, the Faculty of Arts and the Bartlett Center for Advanced Spatial Analysis at UCL, which allows the visitor to explore London from texts written in more than twenty European languages, including Spanish, Catalan and Galician.

Ideas for new passages to include on the map are very welcome. For more information visit www.europeanliterarylondon.org

The exhibition will be open from 11 to 14 September

The Institut Français in Spain presents in its French cinema evening two recent films that, from two completely different perspectives, coincide in presenting characters facing unexpected, and in some cases extreme, changes in their lives. The two films are directed by two veteran directors with a long career behind them: Jéróme Salle and Cédric Kalpisch. A comedy and a thriller not suitable for all sensibilities.

16:40 - 18:40 h Screening of One Step Ahead

The first screening is a comedy suitable for all audiences. In One Step Ahead, Élise is a great classical dancer who is forced to stop dancing after suffering an injury during a performance. From that moment on, her life is turned upside down and she must learn to rebuild herself... Élise's life is spent between Paris and Brittany, where she has encounters, experiences, disappointments and hopes that lead her to meet a contemporary dance company. This new way of dancing will allow her to give a new impulse to her life by discovering a new way of living. Nominated 9 times at the last César Awards, including Best Film and Best Direction.
Directed by Cédric Klapisch and starring Marion Barbeau and Hofesh Shechter.
Running time: 117 minutes.

18:55 - 20:55pm Screening of Kompromat

Kompromat. The Russian File is a dark thriller in which Mathieu, a French diplomat and member of the French Institute in Irkutsk (Russia), is arrested and imprisoned by the Russian authorities on charges of sexual abuse of his own daughter. He has been falsely incriminated by the Russian Federal Security Service; a distressing situation with very topical overtones in the European context.
Directed by Jéróme Salle and starring Giller Lellouche and Joanna Kulig.
Running time: 121 minutes.

The evening will be presented by Geoffroy Gerard, Director of the IE Foundation.

The films will be screened in their original language with Spanish subtitles

In order to lead a socially reasonable life, it is essential to set limits for others. This implies, at the same time, trusting oneself to respond effectively or keeping silent as the best response. The psychologist Alba Cardalda has poured her profound experience in this field into books with resounding titles: Cómo mandar a la mierda de forma educada and Cómo dejar de ser tu peor enemigo ('How to politely tell people to fuck off'). In short, we need to be clear about our criteria, show our red lines and stop them giving us advice if we don't ask for it.

Alba Cardalda is an expert psychologist in cognitive-behavioural psychotherapy, brief and strategic therapy and neuropsychology. For more than 10 years, she has been working in child, youth and adult therapy, both individual, couple and family therapy, and since 2017 she has been travelling around the world without a fixed residence. In addition, through her social media channels she shares tips to improve the daily well-being of her hundreds of thousands of followers.

At the end of the event, the author will sign copies of her books

Event in Spanish

The international chessboard is undergoing a moment of accelerated transformation. Relations between China, the United States and Europe are the focus of geostrategic tensions, technological disputes and fundamental questions about global leadership, multilateralism and the defence of democratic values. Understanding this new geopolitics is key to interpreting the challenges of the present and projecting possible futures.

This high-level dialogue will bring together two key figures in European political thought and action. Josep Borrell, former High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, will contribute his diplomatic experience from the epicentre of the continent's strategic decisions. He will be accompanied by José María Beneyto, professor, jurist and author of fundamental essays on Europe and the global order, whose intellectual vision will enrich the analysis of the current situation.

During the first half of the meeting, the two will discuss the balance of power between China, the United States and Europe, the role of the European Union in a more fragmented international scenario and the keys to a coherent and effective foreign policy. In the second half, students from IE University's European Union Club, Oleksandr Mysyk, Vanessa Chioaru and Catherine Del Rio will join the conversation in an intergenerational dialogue that will highlight the voice of young people and their role in building the Europe of the future.

Event in Spanish

Oteyza and the AIDA Foundation present Merina, the story of the Merino sheep, the former "Spanish gold," the greatest cultural and artistic heritage in the history of fashion in our country, in a disruption of the aesthetic codes of dance, electronic music, and fashion. A constant progression of tradition and avant-garde.

Paul García de Oteyza and Caterina Pañeda, founders of Oteyza, have created a performance that brings together various performing arts, telling the story of the process, tradition, sustainability, and avant-garde in a unique show where Spanish wool becomes a travel companion alongside electronic music, dance, and fashion.

Creation, direction, and production: Oteyza

Original music: Tagore González

Choreography: Antonio Najarro

Costumes: Oteyza

Event in Spanish

Oteyza and the AIDA Foundation present Merina, the story of the Merino sheep, the former "Spanish gold," the greatest cultural and artistic heritage in the history of fashion in our country, in a disruption of the aesthetic codes of dance, electronic music, and fashion. A constant progression of tradition and avant-garde.

Paul García de Oteyza and Caterina Pañeda, founders of Oteyza, have created a performance that brings together various performing arts, telling the story of the process, tradition, sustainability, and avant-garde in a unique show where Spanish wool becomes a travel companion alongside electronic music, dance, and fashion.

Creation, direction, and production: Oteyza

Original music: Tagore González

Choreography: Antonio Najarro

Costumes: Oteyza

Event in Spanish

Everybody seems to like the ancient world, and everybody seems to know things better than archaeologists, philologists, and historians. Ever since the early 1970s, there’s been an avalanche of insufficiently professional publications, and the rise of the internet has enabled the reintroduction of already refuted ideas. Measured by its ability to inform the general public of new insights, the study of the ancient world is a disappointment. Fortunately, there are lessons to be learned about proactive forms of science communication.

Jona Lendering (1964) read history in Leiden and has been writing about archaeology, history, and ancient languages ever since. He published several books and built Livius.org, which was, in the days before the Wikipedia, the largest website on Rome, Greece, Persia, and other civilizations from the distant past. Today, he maintains a daily blog on ancient history, MainzerBeobachter.com.

Jan W. Bok (1970) is a faculty member of the Global College, IE University, Madrid. Before that, he taught Political Philosophy at the Erasmus University, the Netherlands, and World Language and Literature at the Università degli Studi di Bologna, Italy. He is a proud graduate from different academic institutions, including the Erasmus University of Rotterdam (History and Arts, Philosophy) and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, Political Science) in Paris, France.

Event in English with simultaneous translation into Spanish

Momtaza Mehri is an award-winning writer and researcher working in the fields of poetry, criticism, education and radio. Since 2014 her work has been published in literary journals and magazines such as Granta, Poetry International, The Poetry Review, Artforum, Vogue and The Guardian.

Described by Bernardine Evaristo as ‘a truly transnational 21st century poet whose words resonate in the wider world’, Momtaza Mehri was named Young People's Laureate of London and is currently poet-in-residence at Homerton College, University of Cambridge. Her first collection of poems, Bad Diaspora Poems, was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award and won the Forward 2023 Award for Best First Collection, as well as the Eric Gregory Award and the Somerset Maugham Award. The collection asks the question of what it means to write diasporic poetry, blending the experience of his own family with the stories of many others in Somalia during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Together with a Spanish poet of her generation, Mehri will talk about her writing and the role poetry can play in challenging a world governed by race, class and gender. The talk will be moderated by Cristina Ward, director of the Arts Department of the British Council in Spain.

At the end of the event, the author will sign copies of her books

Event in English

At this event, CEDRO will present a critical reflection on the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on written culture, copyright and cultural accessibility.

The role of writers, translators, journalists and publishers will under discussion, as well as the confusion between creation and compilation of works, and the risks of cultural homogenisation. Carme Páez and Miguel Ángel Serrano will take part in the debate moderated by the writer, deputy director of the RAE and president of CEDRO, Carme Riera.

Carme Páez is Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Culture. Miguel Ángel Serrano is a writer and author of the essay Androiceno. Escribir en la era de la inteligencia artificial.

There will be a book signing at the end of the event

Event in Spanish

As the world faces growing polarisation, democratic fragility and technological disruption, how can we rethink the institutions that bind our societies together? What kind of new social contract is needed for this era of uncertainty, and what role should universities play in shaping it? In her influential book What We Owe Each Other: A New Social Contract, Baroness Minouche Shafik, argues for redefining the balance of responsibilities between individuals, governments and institutions, with dignity and opportunity at its centre. She will be joined by Manuel Muñiz, International Rector of IE University and Chairman of the Board of IE University New York. An expert on global affairs, he offers a forward-looking vision of the role universities can play in strengthening democracy, civic trust and global cooperation.

Moderated by the British journalist Anne McElvoy, executive editor of Politico, and host of major interview podcasts, this timely conversation will explore how higher education can help rebuild social cohesion and foster a renewed civic ethic in an era of global change.

Event in English with simultaneous interpretation into Spanish

Diplomacy is the backbone of international relations from which each nation weaves its multilateral strategies. But there are many paths, and soft policy and soft power seek to influence the chessboard of international politics through cultural and ideological means that sometimes serve to argue better and to generate détente. Inmaculada Ballesteros, Paul García de Oteyza and Ángel Cárdenas will discuss how to approach these alternative spaces in this event. The event will be moderated by Javier Gila, president of the NGO AIDA, which focuses on the fight against poverty in Asia.

Event in Spanish

Mexican architect Fernanda Canales has dedicated her career to reflecting on space not only as an aesthetic or functional question, but also as a political and social act. Considered one of the most lucid voices in contemporary architecture, her work is situated at the intersection between creation, research and activism. Her book The Open Classroom and her urban projects question the ways in which we inhabit and the structures that condition our cities.

In this conversation with David Goodman, Dean of IE School of Architecture and Design, they will explore the role of architecture as a tool for transforming social dynamics, rethinking public space and giving citizens back the right to imagine their environment. From the everyday to the monumental, the dialogue will focus on how to design not just buildings, but possibilities.

Event in English with simultaneous interpretation into Spanish

Radka Denemarková is one of the most powerful and distinctive voices in contemporary Czech literature — a novelist, playwright, and translator whose fiction delves into unresolved social issues such as xenophobia, homophobia, and misogyny. For Denemarková, these challenges are deeply connected to the rise of nationalism and the struggle for fundamental human rights in a still deeply patriarchal Eastern Europe. Her latest published work is Sangre de chocolate.

She will speak with Monika Zgustová, a Spanish-Czech writer and translator whose work explores exile — both internal and external — and the everyday impact of authoritarian regimes on personal freedom.

At the end of the event, the author will sign copies of her books

Event in Czech with consecutive translation into Spanish

Secundino Hernández’s work hangs in some of the most prestigious private collections in the world, and he regularly exhibits with leading international galleries. Since Don and Mera Rubell acquired several of his paintings in 2013, his career has experienced steady and remarkable growth. Without a doubt, he is one of the most prominent Spanish painters working today. His artistic expression often emerges from intuition rather than a deliberate search, which leads him to take the risks that come with working without a safety net. Yet he is comfortable with uncertainty, open to exploration and the unexpected. Demanding and self-critical, he refuses to settle and continues to evolve. He believes that painting must reflect “our time” in the most personal way possible.

Hernández will discuss his life and work with Sema D’Acosta an independent curator, art critic, educator and researcher, considered one of the leading specialists in visual arts in Spain.

Event in Spanish

Two poets. Two writers. Two cultural journalists. Two faithful to the word, to its ultimate consequences. Angélica Tanarro and Carlos Aganzo talk about their experiences in the world of journalism and culture, but also about their own poetic work, in that other way of looking at the world that poetry always has, and about their relationship with readers. Two very different voices, but the same literary devotion.

Event in Spanish

Europe is currently facing unprecedented challenges, with a devastating war on its border, internal tensions, the rise of the far right, the migration crisis, an uncertain economic context and the shift of its historical ally, the United States. Miriam González Durántez, vice-president of UBS Europe, a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations, and a member of the international advisory board of the non-profit entrepreneurship organisation Círculo de Empresarios de España, and Jordi Juan Raja, Editor-in-Chief of La Vanguardia, will debate what Europe must do to emerge strengthened from this crisis.

There will be a book signing at the end of the event

Event in Spanish

Hubertus von Hohenlohe, known as a ‘sportsman, globetrotter and bon vivant’, he is a multidisciplinary artist whose creative career spans photography, design, performance and media. Born into the European aristocracy and educated in philosophy and economics, he has forged a career defined by curiosity and irreverence. A Leica ambassador and permanent traveller, his photographs often blur the line between self and scene, celebrity and anonymity, turning moments into reflections of the viewer's own gaze. His work has been exhibited in prestigious venues such as the Belvedere Museum (Vienna), the Hungarian National Museum, the Fundación Cajasol (Seville), Fundación Unicaja (Málaga) and the Chiostro del Bramante (Rome), among others.

Hubertus will discuss his work with Sema D’Acosta, independent curator, art critic, teacher and researcher, one of Spain's foremost specialists in photography.

Event in Spanish