Hay Festival Cartagena 2024

Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias 2024 was held from 25 to 28 January. In this page you can find the events in the general programme as well as Hay Joven activities for university audiences, Hay Comunitario sessions which took place in different areas of Cartagena, Reading Clubs and Talento Editorial.

Events video and audio is available on Hay Festival Anytime.

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Event HFC6

Performance-based reading from the Semilla collection

 Nelson Mandela, Institución Educativa El Salvador, sede Las Colinas
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Since 2014, the university press of the Technological University of Bolivar (UTB) has been creating a book collection called Semilla, whose goal is to cultivate a love of reading and literature among young people and adults in the UTB community. For the collection, the press has carefully selected major works from different genres and authors of world literature. At this event, Graciela Franco and Federico Ochoa, lecturers in Humanities, and Julián Navarro, Deacon of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, will present a performance involving a reading of The Diaries of Adam and Eve by Mark Twain, with musical accompaniment.
Ages 14 to 17
This event has taken place
Performance-based reading from the Semilla collection

Event HFC7

Carlos Agudelo Montoya

 Puerto Rey, Casa del Adulto Mayor
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Carlos Agudelo Montoya (Colombia) teaches, runs literature workshops and also writes. He has won a range of awards and has published many books for children, including Colombia es una fiesta and El piano de la selva. In his book Tras la sonrisa del lobo we read the stories of classic characters including Tom Thumb, Bluebeard, Cinderella, the evil witches, and Red Riding Hood’s wolf who, when he is not working as the villain of the story, is really a friend of Grandma and the hunter. He also talks about books and literature on his YouTube channel, Más que literatura.
Ages 7 to 8
This event has taken place
Carlos Agudelo Montoya

Event HFJ4

Juan Gabriel Leiva and Ingrid Silva in conversation with Laura Puello

 Universidad de Cartagena, Claustro de San Agustín (Biblioteca)
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Since 2014, the university press of the Technological University of Bolivar (UTB) has been working on a book collection called Semilla, whose goal is to boost a love of reading and literature among young people and adults in the UTB. To create the collection, the press has carefully selected major works from different genres and authors of world literature. At this event, Juan Gabriel Leiva (Editorial Coordinator at the UTB) and Ingrid Silva (Humanities Coordinator) will talk about this reading promotion initiative and the first ten years of a publishing project that makes books available for free. In conversation with Laura Puello.
This event has taken place
Juan Gabriel Leiva and Ingrid Silva in conversation with Laura Puello

Event HFJ5

María Hesse in conversation with Lissette Urquijo

 Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar (sede Manga)
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When María Hesse finished her studies in Special Education, she took up her pens to work as a professional illustrator. She has worked on text books for the Edelvives publishing company, and her latest publication is El Miedo. In this book, she faces up to her own fears, those that have accompanied her throughout her life and the same ones that she shares with so many other women. Through a highly visual and allegorical language, her pages bring to life anxiety, manipulation, precariousness, change, loneliness, madness, maternity, aging and death. In conversation with Lissette Urquijo.
This event has taken place
María Hesse in conversation with Lissette Urquijo

Event 13

Juan Gabriel Vásquez in conversation with Leila Guerriero

 Teatro Adolfo Mejía
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The award-winning Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Colombia) is a fiction writer, essayist and author of 18 books; the translator of Victor Hugo, Joseph Conrad and E. M. Forster, his own work has been translated into thirty languages. Here, Vásquez presents his most recent book, Los nombres de Feliza, in which the author reconstructs the life of Feliza Bursztyn, a Colombian sculptor, born in Bogota into a Jewish family. The rise of the Nazi Party meant her parents had to leave Europe, while violence in Colombia sent her into exile. A friend of García Márquez, Saturnino Ramírez and Luis Caballero, she challenged the social expectations that her time sought to impose on her. Vásquez talks about his new work, a rigorous investigation crafted into a novel, with Leila Guerriero.
This event has taken place
Juan Gabriel Vásquez in conversation with Leila Guerriero

Event 14

Melba Escobar in conversation with Gioconda Belli

 Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española (patio)
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The magazine Cuadernos hispanoamericanos encourages knowledge and exchange between writers of different generations and nationalities, united by a single language and a literary tradition enriched by authors of different origins. This event features Melba Escobar (Colombia), a columnist and writer, author of books such as the non-fiction Cuando éramos felices pero no lo sabíamos, and the novel La casa de la belleza, and her recent Las huérfanas, a portrait of Myriam de Nogales, her mother. Melba Escobar talks to Gioconda Belli about this novel, which delves into her family past and deals with the questions of origins, the creation of a female identity, and the place of the dead, who never die in the minds of the living.

This event has taken place
Melba Escobar in conversation with Gioconda Belli

Event HFC8

Performance-based reading from the Semilla collection

 Turbana, Biblioteca Pública Clementina Flórez
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Since 2014, the university press of the Technological University of Bolivar (UTB) has been creating a book collection called Semilla, whose goal is to cultivate a love of reading and literature among young people and adults in the UTB community. For the collection, the press has carefully selected major works from different genres and authors of world literature. At this event, Graciela Franco and Federico Ochoa, lecturers in Humanities, and Julián Navarro, Deacon of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, will present a performance involving a reading of The Diaries of Adam and Eve by Mark Twain, with musical accompaniment.
Ages 14 to 17
This event has taken place
Performance-based reading from the Semilla collection

Event CL1

Juan Gómez-Jurado in conversation with Clara Elvira Ospina

 Casa Hay (Centro de Convenciones)
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At its book clubs, Hay Festival Cartagena offers intimate encounters with a selection of festival guests. These are spaces to talk in greater depth about recent work by some of the festival’s participants. At this event, Juan Gómez-Jurado (Spain) will talk to Clara Elvira Ospina about his book Todo muere, the last part of his trilogy Todo arde from the narrative universe of the acclaimed Reina Roja series, and a long-awaited ending to one of the most read and loved contemporary sagas in the Spanish language.

Those attending must have read the book

This event has taken place
Juan Gómez-Jurado in conversation with Clara Elvira Ospina

Event 19

Gioconda Belli in conversation with Ana Cristina Restrepo

Literature and resistance

 Teatro Adolfo Mejía
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The acclaimed Nicaraguan poet and novelist Gioconda Belli is also known for her commitment to her country’s political and social struggle. Her works explore matters such as feminism, love and revolution, combining a poetic sensibility with the denunciation of injustice. Belli participated actively in the Sandinista movement, in which women held a central place as agents of change and resistance. She has won numerous awards, including the 1978 Casa de las Américas Prize, the Biblioteca Breve Prize in 2008 and the Premio Reina Sofía de Poesía Iberoamericana in 2023. Her most famous works are The Inhabited Woman (1994) and El país de las mujeres (2010). Her latest book is Un silencio lleno de murmullos, a story about absence, silence and family links. In conversation with Ana Cristina Restrepo.
This event has taken place
Gioconda Belli in conversation with Ana Cristina Restrepo

Event HFC10

Mary Grueso

 Corporación Ruleli
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Mary Grueso is a poet, oral storyteller, writer, activist, teacher and one of the most prominent voices of the Colombian Pacific. Agüela, se fue la nuna is a book about a child who wants to understand what has happened to the moon; his wise agüela offers to help, and together they go on an adventure in which they discover not only the secrets of our moon, but also about Tumaco, its games, everyday life, and knowledge.
Ages 7 and over
This event has taken place
Mary Grueso

Event HFJ6B

Journalism workshop with Abraham Jiménez Enoa

 Universidad de Cartagena, Claustro de la Merced (Salón Eréndira)
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How can we travel towards literature from journalism? How do both fields coexist and feed each other? This workshop will explore the bond between journalism and literature through the format of journalistic books and will analyze the path towards telling true stories with literary tools, as Abraham Jiménez Enoa did in Aterrizar en el mundo, a travel writing book about the cities of the West where the author lived during his first year outside of Cuba, which won the Michael Jacobs Travel Writing Grant in 2023. In this book, the author tells the story of his arrival in Europe and the memories of his last years in Cuba, offering an intimate and critical view of Cuban reality.

This event has taken place
Journalism workshop with Abraham Jiménez Enoa

Event HFJ8

Mayra Santos-Febres in conversation with Ricardo Chica

 Universidad de Cartagena, Claustro de San Agustín (Biblioteca)
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We talk to an outstanding figure in contemporary literature of the Caribbean: Mayra Santos-Febres (Puerto Rico), a writer and academic, recipient of awards such as the Juan Rulfo Prize and the prestigious Guggenheim, Ford and Rockefeller fellowships. Co-creator of the University of Puerto Rico’s creative writing programme and founder of the Festival of the Word (2008-2019). As a researcher she is an authority on the subject of Afro-descendants and racialisation. Her most recent publication, La otra Julia, which won a Guggenheim Fellowship, is a fictionalised biography of the Puerto Rico poet and journalist Julia de Burgos. In conversation with Ricardo Chica.
This event has taken place
Mayra Santos-Febres in conversation with Ricardo Chica

Event HFJ6

Rafael Navarro de Castro in conversation with María del Rosario Osorio Fortich

 Universidad de Cartagena, Claustro de San Agustín (Aula Máxima de Derecho)
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Rafael Navarro de Castro (Spain) has a degree in Sociology and a diploma in Rural Development. He lived in Madrid, working in the film and television industry for years before he decided to leave it all and move to Monachil, a village in the Spanish mountains, where he works in traditional agriculture, raising hens, as well as in ecological activism. After his novel La tierra desnuda, he presents Planeta invernadero, a novel with stories and characters that will change readers’ ways of understanding what they consume, what they eat and how they live. In conversation with María del Rosario Osorio Fortich.
This event has taken place
Rafael Navarro de Castro in conversation with María del Rosario Osorio Fortich

Event TE1

Victoria García, Valentín Ortiz and Tomás Rubio in conversation with Raúl Quinto

Bookstores. Not Everything Goes: Bibliographic Collection and Community Commitment

 Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española (Salón Mutis)
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Evicted just before and right after the pandemic, bookstores have become a central hub of cultural life in the first half of the 21st century. The selection of their bibliographic collection, tailored to the needs of the community they serve, is one of the keys to their survival. Another, equally important, is their cultural and social activity. Featuring Victoria García from the Dos Mangos bookshop (Barranquilla), Tomás David Rubio (Libélula Libros, Manizales), Valentín Ortiz of Saga Libros (Bogotá) and Spanish writer Raúl Quinto.
This event has taken place
Victoria García, Valentín Ortiz and Tomás Rubio in conversation with Raúl Quinto

Event 23

Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, Viet Thanh Nguyen and Javier Zamora in conversation with Leonard Benardo

South to North conversations

 Centro de Convenciones (Salón Barahona)
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Three authors talk to Leonard Benardo about their writing, talking about the particular perspective of their work with respect to current social questions. With Lena Khalaf Tuffaha (United States/Palestine) author of Kaan and her Sisters and Something About Living, winner of the US 2024 National Book Award, Viet Thanh Nguyen (United States), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The Sympathizer; and Javier Zamora (El Salvador / United States), author of Solito.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

This event has taken place
Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, Viet Thanh Nguyen and Javier Zamora in conversation with Leonard Benardo

Event 24

Colm Tóibín in conversation with Charlotte Higgins

 Teatro Adolfo Mejía
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Colm Tóibín (Ireland) is a novelist, journalist and educator, and is one of the most influential writers in contemporary literature. Throughout his career, he has received numerous awards, including the E. M. Forster Award in 1995 and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for The Master (2004). His most recent work, Long Island (2024), the highly-awaited sequel to Brooklyn (2009), explores the life of Eilis Lacey two decades after her move to Long Island, dealing with the impact of the past on the present. He will talk to Charlotte Higgins.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

This event has taken place
Colm Tóibín in conversation with Charlotte Higgins

Event CL2

Camila Sosa Villada in conversation with Margarita Valencia

 Casa Hay (Centro de Convenciones)
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At its book clubs, Hay Festival Cartagena offers intimate encounters with a selection of festival guests. These are spaces to talk in greater depth about recent work by some of the festival’s participants. At this event, Camila Sosa Villada (Argentina) will talk to Margarita Valencia about her book Tesis sobre una domesticación. The protagonist, a trans actress, finds she is trapped by marriage and social convention.

Those attending must have read the book

This event has taken place
Camila Sosa Villada in conversation with Margarita Valencia

Event TE2

Luis Solano and Pilar Reyes in conversation with Mario Jursich

Publishing Houses. The Construction of Their Catalog: Rationality, Passion, and Social Responsibility.

 Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española (Salón Mutis)
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Book professionals face the greatest of challenges: a questioning of their credibility. Their reputation is largely built and maintained on the methodical, serious, responsible and professional creation of a catalogue, whether this is an editorial fund, the stock of books on sale at a bookshop, or the clear and rational layout of a library’s collection. Now, more than ever, publishers, bookshops and libraries have a public responsibility with the people who use them.
With Luis Solano (Barcelona, Spain) of Libros del Asteroide, and Pilar Reyes (Colombia), an editor at Alfaguara. They will talk to Mario Jurisch.

This event has taken place
Luis Solano and Pilar Reyes in conversation with Mario Jursich

Event HFC15

María Hesse

 Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española (biblioteca)
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When María Hesse finished her studies in Special Education, she took up her pens to work as a professional illustrator. She has worked on text books for the Edelvives publishing company, and her latest publication is El Miedo. In this book, she faces up to her own fears, those that have accompanied her throughout her life and the same ones that she shares with so many other women. Through a highly visual and allegorical language, her pages bring to life anxiety, manipulation, precariousness, change, loneliness, madness, maternity, aging and death.
Ages 13 and over
This event has taken place
María Hesse

Event HFC17

Workshop with Carolina Garzón Blanco

Musical biographies

 El Pozón, Institución Educativa Valores Unidos
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The Cartagena-raised Carolina Garzón Blanco is a graphic designer, author and illustrator of a number of books, including La herencia de nuestros mayores, a collection of stories about the Colombian Pacific; Bonito que canta, about the childhood of the great singer-songwriter, Petrona Martínez; and Agüela, se fue la nuna, a children’s book written by the poet Mary Grueso. In this workshop, participants will listen to three musical tracks and, based on them, select characters narrated in the songs to create their own literary characters.


Ages 7 to 10
This event has taken place
Workshop with Carolina Garzón Blanco

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