Hay Festival Cartagena 2026

Being a young woman in Cartagena de Indias can be a double challenge when it comes to finding work. It is estimated that the rate of female unemployment in the Caribbean region is as high as 13 percentage points higher than the rate for men. This, in practice, means that as soon as they enter employment, their conditions are not equal to those of men. To talk about the different causes and consequences of this situation, we welcome the economists Andrea Otero, a Banco de la República researcher; Marcela Meléndez, from the World Bank; and the economist and rector of the Universidad del Norte, Adolfo Meisel.

¿Cómo se encienden las ideas creativas e investigativas en la academia? Estudiantes y docentes de la Maestría en Literatura y Escrituras Creativas de la Universidad del Norte se reúnen para explorar qué ocurre cuando teoría y práctica se encuentran y qué tensiones y hallazgos surgen en ese cruce. Una mirada a la universidad como un laboratorio vivo que acompaña escrituras con ambición estética y pensamiento crítico. Los cursantes de la maestría Omar Lubo, Lusdary Martínez y Piero Pradilla conversan con Óscar Daniel Campo y Mar Ortega.

Brigitte Baptiste invites us to think in an alternative way: from the viewpoint of queer ecology. From watching what we consume, how we inhabit the planet, and the demographic future that awaits; as well as thinking about the digital revolution and an energy transition that is becoming more and more urgent, we will be prepared for a new cycle of transformations on Earth. The Colombian biologist and ecologist brings together seven essays that act as a guide, offering readers tools to work on these changes, in Transecología. Una guía patafísica para habitar las transformaciones del mundo. In conversation with Mar Ortega.

All events on Sunday, February 1st will be free for people with ID from the department of Bolívar. Complimentary tickets can be requested —up to capacity— at the box office of the Hay Festival (Centro de Convenciones) showing your identification on the same day the event is taking place.

As part of the Literary Pairs series run by the Hay Festival and the British Council, and an event that will be repeated at the Hay-on-Wye Festival in 2026, the British writer Shon Faye and the Spanish writer Fer Rivas will take part in a conversation with Nicolás Morales about their fiction and their books The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice and Yo era un chico, respectively.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

All events on Sunday, February 1st will be free for people with ID from the department of Bolívar. Complimentary tickets can be requested —up to capacity— at the box office of the Hay Festival (Centro de Convenciones) showing your identification on the same day the event is taking place.