Hay Festival Arequipa 2025

Fabian Drenkhan and Jhan Carlo Espinoza in conversation with Santiago Rojas

Climate change: water and ecosystems

Sunday 9 November 2025, 10am GMT-5 –  Teatro Municipal

From the ecohydrology of the Andes and the Amazon, Fabian Drenkhan and Jhan Carlo Espinoza are direct witnesses of the climate change that our planet is suffering from. The two experts will talk to Santiago Rojas, Northern Regional Manager and Representative of CAF Peru, about a reality that is becoming ever more urgent and dangerous. Climate change is not a future possibility, it is a truth that is already here.

LSP Peruvian Sign Language interpretation available

With the support of CAF and the Swiss Embassy

Jessica Andrews and Claudia Paredes Guinand in conversation with Sandra González Luna

Emerging literature

Sunday 9 November 2025, 10am GMT-5 –  Centro Cultural Peruano Norteamericano (teatro)

Both Saltwater —her debut novel and winner of the Portico Prize— and Milk Teeth have made Jessica Andrews one of the most promising and interesting writers in the United Kingdom. Her writings cover issues such as social class, gender and the body, and she has also done theatre adaptations such as Saint Maud. In Un lugar en la familia de las cosas, Claudia Paredes Guinand (Peru) portrays the confusion and instability created by a past that we cannot understand and a future full of uncertainty. In conversation with Sandra González Luna.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

With the support of the British Council

Carlos Enrique Freyre and Enmanuel Grau in conversation with Paola Donaire

South to North Conversations: violences

Sunday 9 November 2025, 10am GMT-5 –  Centro Cultural Peruano Norteamericano (auditorio)

With the support of Open Society Foundations

Claire Bishop, María Galindo and Boima Tucker in conversation with Nereida Apaza

Contemporary art viewed from the global South

Sunday 9 November 2025, 10am GMT-5 –  Teatro Arequepay

A chance to discover and debate the matter of contemporary art, and what is being created in the global South, seen through expert eyes and from the point of view of artists themselves. With the art historian and critic Claire Bishop (UK), the feminist activist and performance artist María Galindo (Bolivia); and the musician, writer and cultural manager Boima Tucker (Sierra Leone/USA). Moderated by the multidisciplinary visual artist, Nereida Apaza (Peru).

With the support of the Chilean Embassy in Peru and the British Council

Alonso Cueto, Verónica Ramírez and Juan Gabriel Vásquez in conversation with Ainaí Morales

Homage to Mario Vargas Llosa

Sunday 9 November 2025, 10am GMT-5 –  Casa Tristán del Pozo - Fundación BBVA

The death of Mario Vargas Llosa in April, aged 89, has brought an irreparable loss to literature, not only the literature of Peru, but of the world. We pay homage to Arequipa’s Nobel laureate with Alonso Cueto (Peru), friend of the writer and author of Mario Vargas Llosa. Palabras en el mundo; Verónica Ramírez (Peru), who worked with Vargas Llosa for years; and Juan Gabriel Vásquez, the Colombian author who some literary critics have seen as the literary heir of the great writer. In conversation with Ainai Morales.

LSP Peruvian Sign Language interpretation available

With the support of PUCP

Camila Osorio, Josefina Townsend and Alberto Vergara in conversation with Pablo Quintanilla

Talking about Latin America

Sunday 9 November 2025, 10am GMT-5 –  Alianza Francesa de Arequipa

Sponsored by Credicorp

La Carpa Librera

Sunday 9 November 2025, 10am – 6pm GMT-5 –  Plaza San Francisco

The Carpa Librera is a space for reading and listening, where the reading mediators Estefani Bengoa and Sandra Linares Reategui will take turns reading children’s books. In a place designed for both young and old —including those who cannot read—, they can enjoy the stories hidden in books, and so perhaps the reading bug will bite them. The Carpa Librera will also have a small mobile library for children, young readers and adults.

Hay Festival Comunitario is sponsored by LXG

Melissa Siles, Yesenia Silva and Patricia Villanueva in conversation

Colonial Peru

Sunday 9 November 2025, 10am GMT-5 –  Plaza San Francisco

A journey into the past to discover what happened when the Spanish reached the Incas. How did life, beliefs and habits change in the Inca Empire with the new government? Melissa Siles, Yesenia Silva and Patricia Villanueva present Perú virreinal, a way of understanding this cultural encounter, and of cultivating a critical look at a past that marks the Peruvian identity of the present day.

Hay Festival Comunitario is sponsored by LXG

Workshop with Melissa Siles and Yesenia Silva

Colonial characters

Sunday 9 November 2025, 11.30am GMT-5 –  Plaza San Francisco

The children that take part in this workshop will receive sheets to colour in, with printed characters from the colonial period —leaders, intellectuals, clergy…—. They will also be able to paint the frames with motifs taken from the Cusco School. An activity for getting to know one’s past, boosting creativity and relating it to respect and national identity. With Melissa Siles and Yesenia Silva.

Hay Festival Comunitario is sponsored by LXG

Alonso Cueto in conversation with Carlos Granés

Homage to Mario Vargas Llosa by a friend

Sunday 9 November 2025, 12pm GMT-5 –  Teatro Municipal

Alonso Cueto met Mario Vargas Llosa aged three, at a Christmas Dinner organised in France by his mother. Almost seven decades later he published Mario Vargas Llosa. Palabras en el mundo, his homage to Arequipa’s Nobel prizewinner, written before the death of the famous writer on 13 April this year. More than an academic essay, this is a personal text, an ode to the work and influence of Vargas Llosa, who has become more important than ever after his passing. In conversation with Carlos Granés.

LSP Peruvian Sign Language interpretation available

John Vaillant in conversation with Jhan Carlo Espinoza

The fire that was also a warning

Sunday 9 November 2025, 12pm GMT-5 –  Centro Cultural Peruano Norteamericano (teatro)

John Vaillant (USA/Canada) won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction for Fire Weather, a book about the terrible forest fire that burned Fort McMurray, the centre of the Canadian oil industry. In this brilliant work, Vaillant argues that it was not just a fire, but a warning that we need to prepare for an ever hotter and more inflammable world. In conversation with Jhan Carlo Espinoza, research director at IRD and hydroclimatologist at the Institut des Géosciences de l'Environnement (IGE) in Grenoble, France.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

With the support of the Canadian Embassy in Peru and Bolivia

María Galindo in conversation with Camila Osorio

South to North Conversations: from the trenches and the periphery

Sunday 9 November 2025, 12pm GMT-5 –  Centro Cultural Peruano Norteamericano (auditorio)

With the support of Open Society Foundations

Carlos Caamaño, Sonia Cunliffe, Mafe García and Marisa Mujica in conversation with Jorge Villacorta

Peruvian photography

Sunday 9 November 2025, 12pm GMT-5 –  Teatro Arequepay

Sponsored by the University of Lima

Andrés Barba and Fernanda Trías in conversation with María Gracia Ríos

Cuadernos hispanoamericanos: conversations

Sunday 9 November 2025, 12pm GMT-5 –  Casa Tristán del Pozo - Fundación BBVA

The magazine Cuadernos hispanoamericanos foments knowledge and exchange between writers of different generations and nationalities, united by a single language and a literary tradition enriched by authors of diverse origins. At this special event, Andrés Barba (Spain) and Fernanda Trías (Uruguay) will talk about her work and literary world with María Gracia Ríos.

LSP Peruvian Sign Language interpretation available

With the support of AECID, Acción Cultural Española, AC/E and PUCP

Teresa Ruiz Rosas in conversation with Augusto Carrasco

South to North Conversations: 'Coreografía para trenzas solas'

Sunday 9 November 2025, 12pm GMT-5 –  Alianza Francesa de Arequipa

Teresa Ruiz Rosas (Peru) present her most recent book, Coreografía para trenzas solas, a novel about the private stories of women at war, their pain and their beauty, and about the construction of a world through the unique Andean oral tradition. In conversation with Augusto Carrasco.

With the support of Open Society Foundations

L.M. Bracklow in conversation with Nazareth Vega

Fantasy literature

Sunday 9 November 2025, 3pm GMT-5 –  Plaza San Francisco

El reino de Belmar by L.M. Bracklow is the latest book of the Islands of Iros series. With this third book of the adventures of Luke, Damien and Kaori, the bestselling young Peruvian author has captivated millions of readers around the world, and the acclaim she has received has made her books a standard of Peruvian fantasy writing for young adults. In conversation with Nazareth Vega.

Hay Festival Comunitario is sponsored by LXG

Héctor Solís and Ignacio Medina in conversation with Santiago Rojas

Peru is for eating: from Chiclayo to the world

Sunday 9 November 2025, 4pm GMT-5 –  Centro Cultural Peruano Norteamericano (teatro)

The chef Héctor Solís, an expert in the gastronomy of Chiclayo, will join the food critic Ignacio Medina to talk about the tastes and secrets of their cuisine and its international success. Tradition, identity, sea, and links to the land of Lambayeque are all channelled through fine dishes served at his Fiesta restaurants, and expressed in his associated culinary projects. This event will bring together a chef and a critic, experts with a knife and a pen respectively, and a delight for the public. Moderated by Santiago Rojas, Northern Regional Manager and Representative of CAF Peru.

With the support of CAF

Gustavo Rodríguez in conversation with María Luisa del Río

Heart and memory

Sunday 9 November 2025, 4pm GMT-5 –  Teatro Municipal

Gustavo Rodríguez (Peru), Alfaguara Novel prizewinner, pays homage to his mother and grandparents in Mamita, in which family ties take us to the Amazon region in the 20th century and the social and cultural tensions of that time. A “delayed family duty”, that has become one of the most personal and reflective of this Peruvian writer’s novels. In conversation with María Luisa del Río.

LSP Peruvian Sign Language interpretation available

Sponsored by Grupo Gloria

Tatiana Huamanraime, Fernanda Pacho, Luis Carranza and Pedro Francke in conversation with Gabriela Vega Franco

Time to listen to the young

Sunday 9 November 2025, 4pm GMT-5 –  Centro Cultural Peruano Norteamericano (auditorio)

Young people make up 30% of Peru’s voters and their voices need to be listened to. It is not enough to tell them that nothing changes, or that Peru is broken: they want a different country. At this intergenerational event, Tatiana Huamanraime and Fernanda Pacho, from the Ya Toca platform, will talk to the economists and former ministers of Economy and Finance Luis Carranza and Pedro Francke, to express their frustrations, demands and ideas for (re)imagining the future.

Lecture by François Vallaeys

Soirée of ancient stories

Sunday 9 November 2025, 4pm GMT-5 –  Teatro Arequepay

François Vallaeys is a philosopher and teller of popular stories from the age-old oral tradition. Through humour and tenderness, he will offer an event with stories to guide listeners towards the most profound human wisdom, with tales from all over the world. These are not the kind that are read to send girls and boys to sleep, but rather those that wake adults, that through their simplicity manage to cure the wounds of the soul.