Hay Festival Cartagena 2026

With Morir en la arena Leonardo Padura returns with another masterful description of his native Cuba. He is the chronicler of a lost generation, one that has endured half a century of difficulties, and in his book Havana becomes another character, a witness to the passage of time and wasted promises. Rodolfo, marked by the patricide committed by his brother and reminders of the war in Angola, has recently retired, and intimacy with his sister-in-law, an old love, begins. With his brother, terminally ill, leaving prison and returning home, echoes of the past, long buried, haunt the present. Padura will talk about the book with the writer Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Colombia).

Mireille Fanon-Mendès-France (France) is a fearless speaker, ready to say exactly what she thinks. This jurist, lecturer in literature and anti-racist and anti-colonial activist is one of the most important voices in emancipatory theory and struggle: “Emancipation is not magical thinking, it demands assuming rupture”. She chairs the Frantz Fanon Foundation, continuing in the footsteps of her father, an essential author in terms of post-colonial theory: “All colonised peoples have the right to defend themselves.” Sheila talks to Sani Ladan.

Simultaneous interpretation from French to Spanish available

El hijo del hombre, by Juan Esteban Constaín, is a literary and historical essay in which the author examines early Christianity and its profound impact. This writer, whose very personal style is full of anecdotes, will talk to Pablo Arango, Philosophy lecturer at the University of Caldas, about this book on classical antiquity and how Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire.

The limits of the law in the face of the most serious crimes are the basis for this conversation involving Philippe Sands (UK), a jurist and promotor of the concept of ecocide as an international crime; Anna Rubesame (USA), expert in transitional justice; and Julieta Lemaitre (Colombia), JEP magistrate. They will talk to the human rights defender Juanita Goebertus. When the legal files are full of horrors, it is time to think about how justice can accompany truth and reconciliation processes; especially in countries such as Colombia, where the law has become a tool for social reconstruction.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

The Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias reading clubs offer intimate encounters with a selection of festival guests. These are spaces for an in-depth dialogue about authors’ recent work. At this event, Santiago Posteguillo (Spain) will talk to Toni Celia about Los tres mundos, the third part of his series about Julius Caesar.

Please read the book before attending

There is a Caribbean beyond the postcards, beyond the beautiful beaches bathed in sun. This is a region with a colonial history, whose exiles speak, just as those who have remained do. It is a region that is open to new arrivals, but private behind closed doors. Bajo otras luces is the Caribbean as seen by the Dominican Frank Báez: an essay about what it means to write there, and how it is seen from far off. The personal view of an essayist, a poet and a Caribbean. In conversation with Graciela Franco.

Las costuras invisibles deals with the silenced traumas of a family, one that might stand for many Latin American families: those connected with intra-familial sexual violence. In the novel, Yeniter Poleo (Venezuela/Colombia) tells of the encounter between a granddaughter and grandmother. The domestic becomes the political, and what started as an ordinary weekend becomes a story that links feminism, memory and violence. The journalist and writer is also the author of La ciudad vencida, set during the Caracazo episodes in Venezuela, a time of great repression that left hundreds dead. In conversation with Lusdary Martínez.

The actor, director, cultural manager and interpreter of the identity of his region, the Cartagenan Jhon Narváez, understands art as a tool for community transformation. He organises projects that boost citizen participation, such as the Pedro Romero Vive Aquí collective, the Mi Centro es Cartagena initiative, the Tornado Cartagena audiovisual festival, and the creation of the superhero Capitán Cartagena. His work in film is also linked to popular memory, interpreting Joe Arroyo in the film Rebelión.

A chance to find out about the art of book-binding, based on memories and perceptions of amphibious cultures and those who live in them. Guided by Rodrigo Paredes, each participant will create their own booklet with the aid of folds and stitches, and also design the covers. After this, these mini-projects will be completed by writing the first pages through a creative writing exercise.

A workshop for singing songs, in order to listen to them. A workshop for “catching butterflies” in a playful and poetic sense, using the emotions. Participants will create their own songs together with the coordinator Jairo Ojeda, using the literary strategy of it looks to me. The workshop will include a conversation about the interaction between listening to and singing songs.

Respira ciencia is a collection of illustrated stories whose goal is to bring science to children. This is a project run by Ciencia Magnetica, two of whose members are Mónica Diago and Pedro Caballero, which seeks to awaken scientific curiosity among the young. Because often, children are only a story away from discovering the world of science.

When writers from the global South take their pens to the topic of the West, it rarely comes out looking good. On this topic, the essayist and novelist Pankaj Mishra (India) is one of the most lucid and incisive voices of our times. In Age of Anger he traces the links between contemporary violence and the rise of individualism and capitalism; while in The World After Gaza, he criticises the global racial order imposed by the West. He will talk to Laura Restrepo.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

Here, by Richard McGuire (USA), is one of the most iconic works in the contemporary graphic novel, thanks to the originality of its narrative scheme. It tells the story of the corner of a room, and things that have happened and will happen in that space, from prehistoric times to a far future. The novel proceeds without a chronological order, and many panels contain insets with scenes from different years. Its French translation won an award at the Angouleme Comic Festival in 2016, and in 2024 it was made into a film, starring Tom Hanks, by Robert Zemeckis.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

We live as slaves to algorithms that activate our automatic pilots. An antidote to overcoming this apathy is to return to philosophy; to read the reflections and teachings of those who invite us to be critical and think for ourselves. Pablo R. Arango has done so by giving us portraits of Plato, St Augustine and Descartes in Sirvan la cicuta, crucifiquen al autómata; and Lu Beccasino has covered the Stoics, talking about love and other topics in Si nos enseñaran a amar. They will talk to journalist Isabella Atehortúa.

The Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias reading clubs offer intimate encounters with a selection of festival guests. These are spaces for an in-depth dialogue about authors’ recent work. At this event, Sara Jaramillo Klinkert (Colombia) will talk to Ana María Aponte about El cielo está vacío.

Please read the book before attending

In Los cristales de la sal, Cristina Bendek (Colombia) shows us an intimate return: a woman leaves her Mexican exile to return to San Andrés, confronting her origins and connecting with the ancestral voice of the island. This novel was the seed of the non-fiction Hilar el ritmo, a notebook about the spiritual space that goes into literary works, and about the rhythms needed for each story, from its origin to its writing.

Existen estrategias para leer mejor. Pautas que, si las seguimos, permiten una lectura más profunda y analítica por nuestra parte; algo que enriquece nuestra experiencia lectora. Mónica Acebedo (Colombia), autora de Letras compartidas. Una estrategia de lectura, y Javier Peña (España) artífice del pódcast Grandes infelices y de los libros Agnes y Tinta invisible, ofrecen consejos para que los asistentes aprendan cómo hacerlo.

The Cartagena writer, performer and storyteller Edgar Rodríguez offers a workshop about reading, memory and tradition using the book Dulce de Coco. The event brings us the cultural traditions of the Colombian Caribbean through exercises in raising awareness, musical rounds, readings, a discussion and the creation of “recipe huts”.