Hay Festival Cartagena 2024

This celebrated Spanish author will talk to Moisés Naím about his most recent books. Javier Moro, one of the bestselling Spanish-language writers, is also a journalist and has worked as a screenwriter and film producer in Hollywood. His books include Senderos de libertad (1992), El pie de Jaipur (1995), Las montañas de Buda (1997), Five Past Midnight In Bhopal (2001, a work written together with Dominique Lapierre), Passion India, The Red Sari, El imperio eres tú (2011 Planeta Prize) and, more recently Nos quieren muertos, which the author will talk about at this event. This book, which is both an exciting read and a rigorous study, is about a key figure for understanding contemporary Venezuela: Leopoldo López. Upon being jailed in 2014, after leading massive protests against the Maduro government, López became a symbol of the struggle for democracy in the country.

The space available for writing should always be a safe place for the artist, but are there external limitations on the imaginations of writers? Jon Lee Anderson will talk to the Congolese writer In Koli Jean Bofane, author of Mathématiques Congolaises, and the Palestinian writer Adania Shibli, author of Minor Detail, about their experiences as creators, their perspective with regard to freedom of expression, and how this has affected their work.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

The historian Andrea Wulf (UK-Germany), winner of the 2013 Eccles Centre & Hay Festival Writer's Award, will talk about her latest book Magnificent Rebels, in which she delves into history and tells the story of a group of thinkers who, in the small German city of Jena in the 18th century, first expressed some of the concepts that would determine the thought of later centuries. With an engaging style and fascinating anecdotes, Wulf offers a panorama of some of the most important ideas of Romantic philosophy, and how these have affected our perspective of the contemporary subject. In conversation with Misha Glenny.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

Recognised by the Ministry of Equality of Spain for her contribution to making visible trans women, Alana S. Portero is a historian, writer, dramatist, theatre director and LGTBIQ+ activist. Portero will talk about her first novel, La mala costumbre, which tells the moving story of the childhood and teenage years of a girl who grows up in a body that feels strange to her. Set in Madrid in the 1980s and 90s, the text deals with the uneasiness and resentment caused by a society that, unable to accept difference, distorts it. She will talk to Gloria Susana Esquivel.

Artist, historian and creator of the 'Ciudad Parapeto' series, Raúl Ballesteros is the illustrator of the book Alba y el pequeño gran Toto, written by Carolina Cabarcas. On this occasion he will offer an art workshop, one that will help us think about the world around us through creativity.

The Hay Festival and the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) present the anthology Verdades compartidas, a project that reimagines Colombia after the peace process, written by ten Latin American authors. The project presents an inclusive and holistic vision of the peace process, and portrays not only the diversity of the country, but also sets the nation within the Latin American context. Three contributors to the anthology, Ana Paula Maia (Brazil) and Fernanda Trías (Uruguay) will talk about their texts, perspectives and feelings. In conversation with the Rector of Cartagena University, Willian Malkún Castillejo.

Simultaneous translation from Portuguese to Spanish available

The award-winning Colombian writer of both fiction and non-fiction, Juan Gabriel Vásquez, whose bibliography contains 17 books including novels, short stories, essays and poetry published in 30 languages, is one of the country’s most prolific and renowned writers. In his most recent book, La traducción del mundo, Vásquez presents the talks he gave at Oxford University in 2022, when he was invited to give the prestigious Weidenfeld Lectures, a series that has previously featured speakers such as Mario Vargas Llosa, Umberto Eco and Javier Cercas. With his habitual erudition, Vásquez gives his vision of literature, particularly fiction, as the highest tool we have for investigating the vastness and essence of human experience. In conversation with Ana Bejarano.

The novelist, historian and translator Philipp Blom, educated in Vienna and Oxford, has published nine books in Spanish, the last of which is El gran teatro del mundo (Das grosse welttheater). In this new long essay Blom examines the idea that is so common nowadays of “the crisis of the present”: feelings of discouragement with the idea of progress, the threats of populism and the ecological collapse, a lack of the momentum the brought enlightened ideas, the urgent need to reinvent ourselves and to find new paradigms. This lucid, perceptive text deals with our past, our present and the possibilities that exist in the future. In conversation with Misha Glenny.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

This event will be part of the South to South series, in which the Hay Festival offers a forum for some of the most innovative voices of the global South, in order to share different ways of seeing the world, as well as non-Western solutions to the problems that beset us. The four guests at this event will talk about post-colonialism and ways of seeing the world that challenge the dominant models. With Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe), writer and filmmaker; In Koli Jean Bofane (Congo), writer and author of Mathematiques Congolaises; Pankaj Mishra (India), essayist and novelist; and Erna von der Walde (Colombia), writer and academic. In conversation with Juan Esteban Lewin Pinzón.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

Over the course of four decades, and with 15 years as a columnist, Margarita Rosa de Francisco has become one of the most entertaining and influential personalities in the Colombian media. Her roles in soap operas such as Gallito Ramírez (1986-87) and Café con aroma de mujer (1994-95) made her a star of national television. She has acted in around 20 film and television productions, has contributed to media outlets such as El Tiempo, SoHo, Ellas and El Espectador, and has won many prizes, including the Simón Bolívar, TV y Novelas, Macondo and the India Catalina awards in Colombia, as well as the recent Horizon Award at the 2023 Venice Film Festival for Best Actress in the film El Paraiso, directed by the Italian Enrico María Artale. She will talk to Vanessa Rosales about her second book, Margarita va sola (2023), a collection of memories and reflections on matters that range from revealing one’s body and erotic initiation, to her thoughts about God and identity.

The writer and cultural manager Cindy Herrera will lead a conversation among four prominent cultural managers who, through different projects, can offer examples of success and models for the industry. With the participation of Daniel Fletcher (Spain), Director of Corporate Innovation and Development at Primavera Sound, a music festival of international renown for its innovative approach and its links with the cities where it runs; Rafael Ramos (Colombia), Director of the Cabildo cultural organisation, which works to train, promote and support the productions of traditional musicians, and of the Mercado Cultural del Caribe; the writer, cultural manager and reading promoter Velia Vidal, named in 2022 as one of the world’s 100 most influential women by the BBC, and founder and Director of the Motete cultural and educational organisation; and Adriana Sandoval, Culture and Press Attacheé at the Embassy of Colombia to the United Kingdom.