Hay Festival Forum Panamá 2025

María Dueñas (Spain) is a widely-read author who has achieved considerable prominence worldwide. A Doctor in English Philology, she worked as a lecturer at the University of Murcia and at various institutions in the United States before turning to writing full time. Dueñas published her debut in 2009, the acclaimed novel The Time In Between (released in English in 2011); the book became a publishing phenomenon and has been translated into over 35 languages and made into a successful television series. Some of her best received books are The Heart Has Its Reasons, La templanza, Las hijas del capitán and Sira, all featuring an exploration of history, culture and identity, with strong, resilient female characters. Her narrative talents and capacity to connect with readers have won her awards such as the Cartagena City Historical Novel Prize, and the Madrid Region Culture Prize.

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Something that has strongly characterised the evolution of our species and our societies is our relationship with water. In La sed. Una historia antropológica (y personal) de la vida en tierras de agua escasa, its author takes us on a fascinating journey through time and space. Using a captivating prose style, it connects scientific discoveries with ancestral stories, full of life, exploring the complex relationship between humanity and thirst throughout history. From the origins of civilisations, to contemporary challenges, this book looks at our connection with water and the difficulties we face as a species. The journalist and anthropologist, Virginia Mendoza (Spain), is the author of books that explore roots, as well as their lack. Winner of the Manuel Iradier Award for Communication in 2019 for her contribution to the La Exploradora Geographical Society, she will talk about her most recent publication with Emma Gómez.

The professor Marcus du Sautoy (United Kingdom) is renowned for his work as a mathematics communicator. In his latest publication, Thinking Better, he reflects on shortcuts and their reputation as ways of cheating; but for Sautoy, they are legitimate tactics of the creative process. The author explains how this is reflected in mathematics, in ‘the art of the shortcut’. He will talk about the brain’s capacity to code abstract ideas. A session that reflects on the relationship between science and art.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

Silvana Paternostro presents her book Solitude and company. The life of Gabriel García Márquez told with the help of his friends, admirers, adversaries, drunks, cronies, family members, cock suckers and a few good people. The Colombian-Panamanian journalist and writer was born in Barranquilla and collaborates with The New York Times, The Paris Review, Vanity Fair and The Financial Times, among other media, with chronicles and reports on her topics of interest: women, culture, creativity and the relationships between art and civil society. Her first book was In the Land of God and Man: Confronting Our Sexual Culture, and her second book, My Colombian War: A Journey Through the Country I Left Behind, was published in 2007.

Peter Frankopan (Croatia / United Kingdom) is Professor of Global History at Oxford University, where he directs the Centre for Byzantine Research, and is a Senior Researcher at Worcester College. He is also UNESCO Professor of Silk Roads Studies and a bye-fellow at King's College, Cambridge. Called a “literary star” by The Times and a “rock star don” by the BBC, his work has been acclaimed internationally, particularly his book The Silk Roads, named one of the best books of the decade by The Sunday Times. His latest work, The Earth Transformed. An Untold Story, has been praised for its wide-ranging and erudite analysis of how the environment has moulded global history.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

María Dueñas (Spain) is a widely-read author who has achieved considerable prominence worldwide. A Doctor in English Philology, she worked as a lecturer at the University of Murcia and at various institutions in the United States before turning to writing full time. Dueñas published her debut in 2009, the acclaimed novel The Time In Between (released in English in 2011); the book became a publishing phenomenon and has been translated into over 35 languages and made into a successful television series. Some of her best received books are The Heart Has Its Reasons, La templanza, Las hijas del capitán and Sira, all featuring an exploration of history, culture and identity, with strong, resilient female characters. Her narrative talents and capacity to connect with readers have won her awards such as the Cartagena City Historical Novel Prize, and the Madrid Region Culture Prize.

Ángel Cárdenas, CAF Urban Development, Water and Creative Economies Manager, talks with two water experts, from the fields of anthropology and management, looking into water security and the social and human challenges regarding the most precious asset. With Virginia Mendoza (Spain), author and journalist, who with her book La sed. Una historia antropológica (y personal) de la vida en tierras de agua escasa (Thirst. An anthropological (and personal) story of life in water-scarce lands), takes readers on a fascinating journey through time and space. And with Ricaurte Vásquez (Panama), economist and administrator of the Panama Canal, an worldwide example of sustainable water management.