Hay Festival Cartagena 2025
The twentieth edition of Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias will be held from 30 January to 2 February. In this page you can find the events in the general programme as well as Hay Festival Joven activities for university audiences, Hay Festival Comunitario sessions which took place in different areas of Cartagena, Reading Clubs and Talento Editorial.
For any inquirie, please contact tickets@hayfestival.org and contacto@hayfestival.org. Consulta el programa en PDF.
Event HFJ8
Mayra Santos-Febres in conversation with Ricardo Chica
Universidad de Cartagena, Claustro de San Agustín (Biblioteca)
Read moreWe 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.
Event free for the university community
Event HFJ10
Florence Thomas in conversation with Julián Navarro
Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar (sede Manga)
Read moreThe psychologist, columnist, writer and feminist activist Florence Thomas (France / Colombia) is recognised as one of the most influential voices in the women’s rights movement in Colombia. At 81 years of age she presents Fragmentos de vida, a book that weaves public and private memories, from her childhood in France to her activism in favour of the rights of Colombian women at the National University and the decriminalisation of abortion. Thomas reveals a life characterised by diversity and challenges, defying the narrative of a linear, perfect life. In conversation with Julián Navarro.
Event free for the university community
Event HFJ17
Javier Zamora in conversation with Claudia Ayola
Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar (sede Manga)
Read moreThe award-winning writer and poet Javier Zamora (El Salvador / United States) is the author of the poetry book Unaccompanied and the memoir Solito. In this last book, the author tells the story of his journey of over five thousand kilometres, between El Salvador and the United States, aged just nine. The civil war in El Salvador had expelled his family from the country, and the journey, which was meant to take two weeks, became a two-month odyssey, undertaken with a group of strangers and a “coyote” through Guatemala, Mexico and the Sonora Desert (the world’s most dangerous overland migratory route). Solito is the story of that time. In conversation with Claudia Ayola.
Event free for the university community
Event 49
Florence Thomas in conversation with Gloria Susana Esquivel
When women speak out
Centro de Convenciones (Salón Barahona)
Read moreThe psychologist, columnist, writer and feminist activist Florence Thomas (France / Colombia) is recognised as one of the most influential voices in the women’s rights movement in Colombia. At 81 years of age she presents Fragmentos de vida, a book that weaves public and private memories, from her childhood in France to her activism in favour of the rights of Colombian women at the National University and the decriminalisation of abortion. Thomas reveals a life characterised by diversity and challenges, defying the narrative of a linear, perfect life. In conversation with Gloria Susana Esquivel.
Price: $40,000.00 (COP)
Event 81
Silvia Vásquez-Lavado and Javier Zamora in conversation with Angel Cárdenas
Centro de Convenciones (Salón Barahona)
Read moreSilvia Vásquez-Lavado (Peru) is the author of the autobiographical book In the Shadow of the Mountain, in which the author deals with her past of trauma and excess, of alcoholism and promiscuous sex and, before this, of childhood abuse. She has undertaken climbing expeditions accompanied by other victims of sexual abuse, as part of the Courageous Girls project, founded in 2014. The award-winning writer and poet Javier Zamora (El Salvador / United States) is the author of the book of memoir Solito. In it, Zamora tells the story of his five-thousand kilometre journey, between El Salvador and the United States, aged just nine. In conversation with Ángel Cárdenas.
All Sunday 2 February events will be free for people from the department of Bolívar. Complimentary tickets can be requested at the box office of the Hay Festival (Centro de Convenciones) showing your ID, between 27 Janaury and 2 February.
All Sunday 2 February events will be free for people from the department of Bolívar. Complimentary tickets can be requested at the box office of the Hay Festival (Centro de Convenciones) showing your ID, between 27 Janaury and 2 February.
Price: $40,000.00 (COP)
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