Hay Festival Cartagena 2026

Lo que nunca te dije, Un silencio prohibido, MalEducada and Descubriendo a Miranda, Antonio Ortiz has become one of the most popular authors of young adult fiction in Colombia. The reason is simple: he speaks to their hearts, tackling the internal conflicts and concerns that are most relevant to them: bullying, loneliness and the breakup of relationships. It is with stories that cover such issues that he has been attracting so many young readers. This will be a close, enjoyable encounter that encourages young people to laugh at themselves, recognize their emotions, and discover how literature can help them understand themselves better.

Gambote también puede convertirse en un libro: las aventuras, historias y tradiciones del día a día pueden plasmarse en cuentos breves rebosantes de imaginación. Rosmery Armenteros conduce este taller que fomenta la creatividad y el sentimiento de pertenencia a una comunidad de quienes tomen parte en él. Partiendo desde la palabra hablada, y combinando juegos, narraciones orales y escritura, cada participante creará un cuento breve inspirado en su territorio, y se construirá un Árbol de historias colectivas de Gambote.

As well as being three of Latin America’s most renowned writers, Leila Guerriero Argentina), Leonardo Padura (Cuba) and Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Colombia) are all El País columnists. They will talk to Javier Moreno Barber, exdirector of the Spanish newspaper, about how they tackle writing, why it is so important for the reputation of a newspaper to have high profile columnists, and how they contribute to maintaining the narrative, cultural and social bridge between Latin America and Spain.

Mia Couto (Mozambique) is the first Portuguese language writer to win the PEN/Nabokov Prize. He became well known for works such as Sleepwalking Land and the Sands of the Emperor trilogy. He has received many distinctions, including the Camões Prize, the Guadalajara Book Fair Award for Literature in Romance Languages, and he was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize. His most recent book, O mapeador do ausências, is his most autobiographical to date, telling the story of a Mozambican intellectual who returns to his home city, where he confronts memories of his childhood and his father, while he meets a magnetic woman with whom he shares a tangled past. In conversation with Pilar Quintana.

Mia Couto will participate virtually

Simultaneous interpretation from Portuguese to Spanish available

Fernando Arancón (Spain) is the Editor of El orden mundial, the most read Spanish-language outlet covering international affairs and analysis. Its goal is not just to say what is happening, but why, and it has just published the book Las fuerzas que mueven el mundo, an illustrated work that uses maps, graphs and accessible language to explain 21st-century geopolitics and global economics. He talks to Claudia Gurisatti..

Frank Báez (Dominican Republic) and Cristina Bendek (Colombia) are from different places, and their writing too occupies different latitudes — poetry and non-fiction in the first case, novels and essays in the case of Bendek. But their creative processes all take place by the shores of the same sea: the Caribbean, with images and topics bathed by the same sun. Bajo otras luces, by Báez, is the portrait of a region and a book about exile, a poet’s personal view of a territory. Los cristales de la sal, by Bendek, talks about returning to one’s roots, to San Andrés, where the protagonist starts to question her identity and relationship with the island. In conversation with Yeniter Poleo.

A look at the world through non-hegemonic narratives. We will get to know more about the diversity of the great African continent with Sani Ladan (Cameroon), an expert in international relations and author of the podcast África en 1 click, and the philosopher and writer Karima Ziali (Morocco) will talk about the migratory links between Spain and North Africa, and the reality of the diaspora. In conversation with Diego Aretz.

Starting the workshop with the question “If you had your own media outlet, what issue would you put on the front cover?”, Rodrigo Paredes introduces the fanzine —an alternative format for popular communication—, and each participant will create their own using the technique of collage. This is an exercise for exploring creative skills and channelling energies through art.

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. This session will be on the book El tití y el mojojoy.

The poet, storyteller, writer, activist and teacher Mary Grueso is the first Afro-descendent woman to be a member of the Colombian Academy of the Language. This pioneer in Afro-Colombian children’s literature, who has black children as the protagonists of her stories, is the author of entertaining books such as Agüela, se fue la nuna, about a child who wants to understand what has happened to the moon, and the modern classic La muñeca negra, a narrative poem that is now an illustrated book.

The Brazilian writer, publisher and translator Joca Reiners Terron has written the novel O morte e o meteoro. In it, the last members of the Kaajapukugi tribe, barely surviving in the heart of the Amazon, are sent to Oaxaca, in Mexico, as political refugees. Just days before they arrive, the anthropologist responsible for the transfer dies, and then begins a story full of mystery, overflowing imagination and adventures. In conversation with Valentina Rodríguez Ayola.

Against all expectations, since 2020 we have seen a large and growing number of new publishing houses opening all over Latin America. Three publishers present their exciting projects: Óscar Daniel Campo (Himpar Editores, Colombia), Alejandro Villate (Yarumo Libros, Colombia) and Laura. C. Vela (Ediciones Comisura, España).

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.