Ximena López Bustamante, Morella Petrozzi, Giovanna Pollarolo, Mayra Santos-Febres and Romina Silman in conversation with Martín Zúñiga Chávez
Women poetising: ways of living in poetry
–
Centro Cultural Peruano Norteamericano (teatro)
Poetry is not a single language, but a constellation of perspectives. Some arise from intimacy, others from the body, memory, or desire. Ximena López Bustamante, Morella Petrozzi, Romina Silman, Giovanna PollaroloandMayra Santos-Febreswill share five ways of approaching the poem. Pollarolo, from the experience of one of the most established voices in contemporary Peruvian poetry; Santos-Febres, from the dialogue between poetry and the body, identity, Afro-Peruvian memory and desire; López-Bustamante, from the perspective of a new generation searching for its own language; Petrozzi, from a less conventional dimension, where the body, movement and performance expand the possibilities of the poetic act; and Silman, from the body and memory as places where one can reconstruct one’s own identity.
Luis Carlos Arias Schreiber in conversation with Juan Carlos Soto
The Peruvian who conquered Wimbledon
–
Colegio de Arquitectos
In 1959, Alex Olmedo became the first Peruvian tennis player to win the prestigious Wimbledon tournament, a feat no other Peruvian has repeated since. That same year, he also won the Australian Open. The journalist Luis Carlos Arias Schreiber (Peru) has published Alejandro Olmedo, a biography that reconstructs the rise to glory of a young man from Arequipa with humble origins. It explores his years in the United States, his complex relationship with identity, nationality and competition, and how he became a coach to celebrities such as Katharine Hepburn, Kirk Douglas and John Wayne.
Cristina Bendek and Carlos Fonseca in conversation with Erna von der Walde
Other Stories from the Archivo de Indias: a world in transformation
–
Teatro Arequepay
Otras Historias del Archivo de Indias is a research project and an artistic initiative in which leading writers from the region engage with the documents held at the Archivo General de Indias. This project, organised by the Hay Festival and CAF, aims to introduce the general public to the archive’s vast collection of documents and to offer a critical and diverse perspective on the multitude of stories that record and challenge the colonial memory of the Americas. These texts have been compiled in the anthology Otras historias del Archivo de Indias, published by Anagrama. Cristina Bendek(Colombia) and Carlos Fonseca(Costa Rica), who have contributed with the respective texts Aclamación en dos voces para la Primera Madre and El color de todo lo que se perdió, will talk to the anthology’s editor, Erna von der Walde(Colombia).
Price: S/15.00 (PEN)
With the sponsorship of Yura and with the support of CAF
Twelve participants of the Hay Festival Arequipa 2026 will pay tribute to Mario Vargas Llosa by reading 24 autobiographical texts by the extraordinary Arequipa writer. From his birth to his eighties, we will explore the many sides of this multifaceted figure, remembering the universal writer, the incisive journalist and the generous human being. A unique opportunity to celebrate life, art and the transformative power of literature.
Irenosen Okojie in conversation with Mayra Santos-Febres
Storytelling to connect us with the unexpected
–
Alianza Francesa de Arequipa
There are writers who shine when they flow between fiction and reality; when their imagination merges the everyday with the fantastical.Irenosen Okojie, the multi-award-winning Nigerian-British author, draws the reader into her narrative universe with a grace that immediately captivates. Novels like Butterfly Fish and Curandera, and short story collections such as Speak Gigantular and Nudibranch, boast a boundless imagination in which the fantastic approaches reality from angles that realism cannot reach. In conversation with Puerto Rican writer Mayra Santos-Febres, she will discuss the possibilities that imagination offers for crossing borders and writing about memory, desire, identity and belonging from other perspectives.
Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available
–
Biblioteca Personal de Mario Vargas Llosa (San Francisco 306) - Auditorio Amelia Díaz
No rehearsals, no script, and with the help of the audience! En el acto, directed by Alexis Valverde, is an anthology of improvised micro-plays in which the actors explore loneliness, abandonment and new beginnings. With performances created on the spot, there will be scenes full of humour, surprise and emotion. Improvisation makes each performance unique, and anything can happen. Welcome to the magic of theatre.
Reading Club with Rosa Chávez Yacila and Jorge Malpartida Tabuchi
Las nerviosas
–
Instituto Cultural Peruano Alemán
The Hay Festival Reading Club arrives in Arequipa, led by Jorge Malpartida Tabuchi, presenting Rosa Chavez Yacila (Peru) and her non-fiction book, Las nerviosas, in which she discovers that anxiety and depression are shared with other members of her family, and in which she reflects on inherited pain, emotional fragility and the internal struggle of women to break a cycle.
Soledad Cunliffe and Ruhuan Huarca in conversation with Paco Goyanes
Why and how to open a bookshop, as well as with what aims and for whom
–
Centro Cultural Peruano Norteamericano (auditorio)
Commercial outlets, but also essential cultural and social centres serving the community: bookshops have become vital spaces for democratic coexistence. With Soledad Cunliffe (La Rebelde Librería), and Ruhuan Huarca (Fabla Salvaje) in conversation with Paco Goyanes (Librerías Cálamo).
Price: S/15.00 (PEN)
With the support of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation AECID and Librerías Cálamo
Proyección de película seguida de Rossana Díaz Costa en conversación con Luis Rodríguez Pastor
Un mundo para Julius
–
Plaza San Francisco
Rossana Díaz Costa dirige la adaptación cinematográfica de la novela Un mundo para Julius de Alfredo Bryce Echenique. Julius es un niño de clase alta de los 50 en Lima. Vive en un palacio con su familia y muchos sirvientes. Perderá la inocencia poco a poco, al descubrir y nunca entender un mundo lleno de injusticias. Tras la proyección, Díaz Costa dialogará con Luis Rodríguez Pastoracerca de esta obra clave, que con el uso de la ironía y la ternura retrató la profunda desigualdad social y el racismo en el Perú.
The 'making of': Mariano Melgar, poetry of love and rebellion
–
Teatro Municipal
There is a link that connects a Nobel laureate like J. M. Coetzee (South Africa) with Arequipa: the poetry of Mariano Melgar. At the end of last year, he translated, along with Valerie Miles (USA), the poem "Por no sé qué capricho" into English and published it in the prestigious literary magazine The Paris Review under the title "On Some Whim or Other." This is a small preview of what is to come: the publication of Mariano Melgar: poesía de amor y rebelión, a bilingual edition in Spanish and English with poems by the "poet of the yaravíes." They will discuss the culmination of three years of work in which they selected and translated Melgar's work, how Coetzee came to discover Melgar, and what fascinated him about his poems. It is significant that, 200 years after Melgar's death, his poetry is finally being translated into English.
Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available
A theatrical piece about humanity, literature and the sea. Es necesario navegar is a performance-lecture that examines the inseparable relationship between human beings, literature and the sea — spanning everything from the Epic of Gilgamesh (written in 2100 BCE) to the video art of French artist Sophie Calle, and from Homer’s Odyssey to Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. Javier Peña invites the audience to embark with him on a one-hour voyage, accompanied only by the sea and a handful of stories.
Hay Festival en español podcast: another way of talking about the environment
–
Casa del Moral
Stories change depending on who tells them and from where. Some stories only emerge when we shift our perspective and it is our viewpoint that shapes the narrative. Come and discover how a live episode of the Hay Festival podcast in Spanish is recorded, and listen to the reflections of Xabier Díaz de Cerioand Rosa Vásquez Espinoza on the environmental legacy our generation can leave.
Three kilometre run and book presentation with Perú Runners
The story of the runner who changed Peru
–
Plaza San Francisco
Perú Runners, the largest running organization in Peru, has been promoting the passion for this sport for 40 years. This time, they will organize a three-kilometre run through the historic centre of Arequipa, along with several groups from the city, finishing in Plaza San Francisco. Upon arrival, a facilitator will lead a movement session. After the exercises, María José Rodriguez Larrain and Gonzalo Rodriguez Larrain will present the book Perú Runners 40 años - La historia del runner que transformó el Perú. A healthy and positive way to start your Sunday and promote a passion for running.
Phillip Chu Joy in conversation with Eliezer Budasoff
El hilo event
–
Teatro Municipal
The technology content creator, entrepreneur and philanthropist Phillip Chu Joy (Peru) is one of the best-known figures on social media in Peru, with a loyal community that supports him and a subscription program through which his followers can access various benefits. In this special episode of the podcast El hilo, from Radio Ambulante Estudios, he will talk about how he went from playing video games to giving away houses and cars and promoting social causes. The episode will be hosted by Eliezer Budasoff.
This event will be recorded live and later broadcast as an El hilo podcast
Catherine Fletcher in conversation with Juan Esteban Constaín
Travelling through Words
–
Centro Cultural Peruano Norteamericano (teatro)
Aunque la metáfora sea manida, comenzar una lectura es abrir la puerta a nuevos mundos. Con Los caminos a Roma de Catherine Fletcher (Reino Unido) lo hacemos al Imperio romano, en específico a los caminos trazados en aquella época, que dos milenios después siguen siendo transitados en muchos de los casos. Transitadas por cruzados, peregrinos, revolucionarios, dictadores, turistas, escritores, refugiados y artistas, estas vías transformaron para siempre las culturas europeas y entrelazaron los destinos de sus ciudadanos.
Se ofrecerá interpretación simultánea del inglés al español
Fietta Jarque and Javier Peña in conversation with Cecilia Barría
Living in the cracks
–
Centro Cultural Peruano Norteamericano (auditorio)
Javier Peña (Spain), creator of the podcast Grandes Infelices, and Fietta Jarque (Peru–Spain) —journalist and author of the most recent biography of Blanca Varela, La vértebra perdida— come together with Cecilia Barría to reconstruct the life and work of one of the most extraordinary figures in Latin American poetry. Marking the centenary of her birth, this conversation offers a fresh perspective on Varela: moving beyond the myth of the tormented writer to explore the lucidity, loss, love and radical honesty that permeate her work.
Sarah Babiker Moreno in conversation with Carlos Zeballos Velarde
Unequal cities
–
Colegio de Arquitectos
Even in the cities most dehumanized by neoliberalism, there is room for hope if we begin with the dignity of their inhabitants. That's why La nada fértil, by journalist and anthropologistSarah Babiker Moreno (Spain), goes beyond being an essay that interweaves stories criticizing the precarity we experience. It addresses all stages of life from a feminist perspective to depict an inhospitable and precarious landscape —in housing, education, relationships and employment— that suffocates us, yet whose citizens confront with affection and tenderness. The wasteland of the city blossoms into a field of social relationships and support networks that strive for a better life.
Price: S/15.00 (PEN)
With the support of Accion Cultural Española, AC/E and CAF
After an election decided by fewer than 50,000 votes and with the first months of the new government already past, it is necessary to try to decipher a democracy as complex as Peru's. To discuss 21st-century Peru beyond politics, we have invited two of the country's most renowned analysts: the political scientist Alberto Vergara and the writer Raúl Tola.
Ximena López Bustamante and Giovanna Pollarolo in conversation with Luis Rodríguez Pastor
Varela-Ferrer: echoes of a conversation that never took place
–
Casa Tristán del Pozo - Fundación BBVA
On the centenary of Blanca Varela's birth and following the recent publication of Julia Ferrer's En la orilla de todos los sueños. Poesía reunida, two outstanding voices of 20th-century Peruvian poetry meet again through those who have studied their work. Giovanna Pollarolo, Ximena López Bustamante and Luis Rodríguez Pastor will bring into dialogue two poetics that seem to advance along opposite paths: Varela's extreme refinement and Ferrer's boundless imagination. In both, however, there is a way of exploring the body, language, freedom and the female experience. Their verses, their lives and the readings they have inspired will be the starting point for revisiting a poetic tradition that continues to raise questions.
Álvaro Iparraguirre and Julio Rojas in conversation with Paola Donaire Cisneros
New heroes, new codes
–
Alianza Francesa de Arequipa
Stories are not innocent: they shape our views on love, power, justice and heroism. While princesses once waited, today’s heroines take the initiative; where cinema once depicted a unique world, modern platforms, audio fiction and artificial intelligence are expanding the boundaries of storytelling. Julio Rojas, one of Ibero-America’s most innovative screenwriters and the creator of narrative universes such as Caso 63, and Álvaro Iparraguirre, the author of Princesas a heroínas, will join the communicator Paola Donaire Cisneros to discuss the transformation of the characters that inhabit our imaginations and the emergence of new audiovisual codes.
Price: S/15.00 (PEN)
Sponsored by the University of Lima and with the support of the Chilean Embassy
The writer, columnist and workshop facilitator Ana Saavedra is the author of Lo que la tierra me contó, secretos para volver a escucharla, a book of stories and poems that intertwines memory and nature. Founder of Anaquel Literario, she is closely connected to the literary community of Queretaro, Mexico, her home. In addition to presenting the book, she will give a musical poetry reading of some of the poems it contains.
La Carpa Librera book tent is a welcoming space for reading and listening to stories, where children, young people and adults can explore books and discover all that they have to offer. This is a place where the pages come to life. For this experience, we will be joined by the reading facilitatorYsabel Rodríguez.
André Aciman in conversation with Miguel Barreda Delgado
Love a la italiana
–
Teatro Municipal
They say you always return to where you were happy, and for André Aciman (Egypt/United States), that place is Italy. It was Italy in Call Me By Your Name and Find Me, and it takes on a more personal dimension in My Roman Year, where he recalls the first year he spent in Rome with his family after fleeing Egypt. There, a teenager discovers the city while trying to find his place in the world and experiencing love. This possibility of becoming someone else also runs through Room on the Sea, his most recent novel, not yet translated into Spanish, whose protagonists imagine the lives they could have lived. Alongside filmmaker Miguel Barreda Delgado (Peru), he will discuss literature and film, that profoundly human matter that lies between who we are and who we imagine we could have been.
Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available
Vidya Narine in conversation with Augusto Carrasco
Reflections among orchids
–
Centro Cultural Peruano Norteamericano (teatro)
Based on meticulous research on orchids, including accounts from 19th-century explorers and scientists and contemporary botanical studies, Vidya Narine (France) has created a short, fragmented and poetic novel that interweaves the history of these flowers with a narrative on capitalist and colonial development. Orchidéíste is a debut novel that exposes the paradoxes of our time while reflecting on the exploitation of natural resources and the loss and transmission of family traditions. Narine combines her literary career with creative direction in the world of fashion and communication, and edits the literary magazine Sève. In conversation with Augusto Carrasco.
Simultaneous interpretation from French to Spanish available
Álvaro Bisama and Rosa Chávez Yacila in conversation with Andrea Lerner
The threshold of stories
–
Centro Cultural Peruano Norteamericano (auditorio)
Every novel shows us a story and Oráculo, Álvaro Bisama (Chile) unfolds a whirlwind of interwoven stories, filtering through diverse realities: the historical, the horrific and the fantastic. A kind of labyrinthine book through whose plots his characters wander. The key to the stories collected in Las nerviosas by Rosa Chávez Yacila (Peru) is the transmission of an affliction inherited from generation to generation among the women of the same family; a nervous condition that is not only an illness, but an emotional and social burden transmitted through silence, fear, repression and the expectations imposed on women. They will talk to Andrea Lerner.
Price: S/15.00 (PEN)
Sponsored by Fundación BBVA and with the support of the Chilean Embassy
El peso del aire: power, corruption and journalism
–
Colegio de Arquitectos
The weight of the air varies with altitude: the higher we climb, the less air there is above us, making it harder to breathe. Raúl Tola (Peru) turns this fact into a metaphor in his latest novel. El peso del aire is a novel about journalism, the gears of power and moral conscience; a story that paints a picture of a country adrift. In the midst of recording sets, clandestine meetings and election campaigns, an institutional rot that infects everything —even the family— is gradually revealed. In an atmosphere where ethics seem to be on permanent vacation, a group of journalists will try to preserve the integrity of the profession and cling to their convictions. Tola will discuss this novel, which portrays the fall of the first Fujimori regime with Josefina Townsend.
Price: S/15.00 (PEN)
Co-organized with the Cátedra Mario Vargas Llosa and with the support of Integra Tech
Elma Correa and Karina Pacheco in conversation with Cecilia Barría
South to North conversations: Reservoirs of memory, cracks of violence
–
Teatro Arequepay
Whether setting El bosque de tu nombre in the Guatemalan armed conflict or portraying border life in Mexicali in Donde termina el verano —winner of the 2026 Biblioteca Breve Prize— both Karina Pacheco (Peru) and Elma Correa (Mexico) find inspiration in reality for their fictional settings. Rather than depicting specific events, they sketch territories where various forms of violence coexist, guided by the leitmotif that memory is everything: memory to avoid forgetting, to give voice to what the official narrative conceals, to reconcile and remember. These two authors will speak to Cecilia Barría, a BBC Mundo journalist, about what Mexicali and the Guatemalan jungle have in common, and about the literary vision they share.
Living surrounded by information does not necessarily mean a better understanding of the world. In his book, Humanidades. Lo visible y lo invisible, the philosopher and essayist Carlos Peña (Chile) explores the role of the humanities in an era dominated by science, technology and information overload. Rector of the Diego Portales University and one of the most influential intellectuals in the Andean region, he defends the value of a discipline that does not seek immediate answers, but rather learns to interpret what we see. In conversation with the essayist Alberto Vergara (Peru), he will discuss what the humanities can contribute today in a world where data is incapable of explaining everything.
Price: S/15.00 (PEN)
With the sponsorship of Yura and with the support of the Open Society Foundations
Ulises Gutiérrez Llantoy and David Silva Rojas in conversation with Luis Rodríguez Pastor
The rural world
–
Alianza Francesa de Arequipa
From the Andean sky streaked by Halley's Comet to the agricultural fields of Ica, contemporary Peruvian literature is also told from the perspective of a rural world in transformation. Nuestra luz en la noche, byUlises Gutiérrez Llantoy, intertwines the Andean worldview with Western science and transforms the sky into an observatory of existence. Donde trabaja el agua, with which David Silva Rojas won the Almadía-Ventosa-Arrufat International Novella Prize, follows the story of a young woman who leaves her community to work temporarily as a farm labourer in Ica. Both authors will speak to their fellow writer Luis Rodríguez Pastor about how to inhabit their own territory within the pages of fiction.
Book Presentation and simultaneous games with Julio Granda and Juan Luis Ramírez
Guide to be a chess master
–
Plaza San Francisco
Starting to play chess is easy; all you need is a board, the pieces and the desire to learn. Perfecting your technique is another matter entirely: it requires hours of training and study. No one is better suited than Julio Granda, the greatest chess player in Peruvian history, to guide us from the most basic strategies to the moves that win major games. He will present, along with Juan Luis Ramírez, the Guía para ser un maestro de ajedrez, a manual that begins with the fundamentals and progresses to analysing the most memorable games of his career. After the presentation, Granda will play three simultaneous live games against three children.
–
Biblioteca Personal de Vargas Llosa (San Francisco 306) - Auditorio Amelia Díaz
¿Qué historias perderíamos si desaparecieran nuestras recetas? Los recetarios familiares constituyen patrimonio inmaterial que permite comprender la historia de una comunidad. Gracia AnguloyLuis Adawiimparten un taller para poner en importancia los recetarios y reflexionar sobre la cocina como espacio de transmisión de memoria. Las personas que participen aprenderán una metodología para registrar recetas e historias familiares y elaborarán la ficha patrimonial de una receta.
The Coro Institucional del Colegio Esclavas del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús in concert
–
Plaza San Francisco
El Coro Institucional del Colegio Esclavas del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús choir is made up of students from different grades who actively participate in academic events, masses and civic holidays in the region, and is known for its work in the artistic development of its members. They will offer a repertoire ranging from sacred and choral music to interpretations of local hymns and traditional songs.
André Aciman, Elma Correa, Catherine Fletcher, Vidya Narine and Irenosen Okojie in conversation with Enrique Planas
Maps for understanding ourselves
–
Teatro Municipal
Maps are never neutral. They define borders, reflect power relations, record conflicts, and reveal how societies imagine and organize the world. At a time of profound geopolitical transformations, marked by territorial disputes, migrations, climate crises and new configurations of global power, cartographies take on renewed significance. André Aciman(Egypt/United States), Elma Correa(Mexico), Catherine Fletcher(United Kingdom), Vidya Narine (France) and Irenosen Okojie (Nigeria/United Kingdom) will share different ways of reading and narrating the world. Each will choose their own physical, cultural, linguistic or emotional map and discuss how these shape our understanding of identity, memory, territory and belonging.
Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available
Price: S/20.00 (PEN)
SURA Invites and with the support of the British Council
Cal Flyn(Reino Unido) visita varios paisajes posthumanos en Islas del abandono y descubre cosas tan impresionantes como que en Chernóbil ha resurgido una variedad de vida silvestre o que en la zona desmilitarizada que separa las dos Coreas hay un bosque que alberga especies extinguidas o en peligro de extinción en cualquier otro lugar. Cada lugar abandonado por la humanidad se convierte en una isla recuperada por la naturaleza. Y es que a la naturaleza no le va nada mal cuando el ser humano se hace a un lado.
Se ofrecerá interpretación simultánea del inglés al español
Liliana Blum and Alma Delia Murillo in conversation with Cecilia Barría
Mexico, the intimate and the wild
–
Centro Cultural Peruano Norteamericano (auditorio)
When you read the Mexican authors Liliana Blum and Alma Delia Murillo, you won't find headlines describing their work as "the great Mexican novel"; and yet, their work is a way to better understand the country. Both authors begin with intimate stories and look into areas where wounds permeate all of society — wounds that, in many cases, also resonate in Peru. Murillo does so in Raíz que no desaparecido, where she explores the limbo between absence and hope experienced by the families of the disappeared. Blum does the same, immersing her characters in stories of violence, family silences and contradictions, leading to landscapes as sordid as they are real. In conversation with the BBC Mundo journalist Cecilia Barría.
Rember Yahuarcani in conversation with Katerina Valdivia Bruch
An invitation to think about the Amazon through contemporary art
–
Centro Cultural Peruano Norteamericano (teatro)
For centuries, the Amazon has been viewed from the country's metropolis as territory, landscape, or resource. Today, contemporary art proposes a reversal of that perspective. What happens when the Amazon ceases to be an object of representation and becomes a form of knowledge? Artist Rember Yahuarcani, whose work intertwines the oral history of the Uitoto people with the language of contemporary art, will speak to the researcher Katerina Valdivia Bruch about the new way of imagining that are emerging from the forest. A conversation about how art can open up space for other ways of knowing and relating to the territory.
