Hay Festival has announced the line-up for its seventh edition in Peru, Hay Festival Digital Arequipa, bringing writers and readers together in free online events, 1-7 November.
Featuring some of the most prominent figures in the world of literature, science, journalism, and the arts, Hay Festival Digital Arequipa features 140 speakers from 18 countries with all sessions free to view on the Festival’s streaming platform. Guests include former President of Peru Francisco Sagasti; novelists Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ken Follett, Marie Modiano, Santiago Roncagliolo, Victoria Mas and Abdellah Taïa; historians Carmen McEvoy and Yuval Noah Harari (pictured); Nobel laureate Paul Krugman; psychologist Ignacio Morgado; science fiction writer Vandana Singh; journalists Martín Caparrós, César Hildebrandt, Michael Read, Daniela Rea and Joseph Zárate; performers Susana Baca, La Phármaco, Caryn Mandabach and Yuyachkani; and more…
Explore the digital programme and register for the free events now at hayfestival.org/arequipa.
For seven years, Peru’s leading festival of literature and the arts, Hay Festival Arequipa, has shared the latest ideas in the arts, sciences and current affairs, while Hay Joven and Hay Festivalito workshops and conversations for young people ensure the Festival reaches the widest possible audience.
Cristina Fuentes, Hay Festival international director, said: “In these challenging times of compound crises, we need hope and new ideas. For our second digital Festival in Peru we are bringing writers and readers together to imagine the world anew, with some of our greatest storytellers offering their visions for a better tomorrow. Join us online to discuss and dream.”
Hay Festival Digital Arequipa will be the sixth Hay Festival event in 2021, following editions in Colombia, Mexico, Spain, France and Hay-on-Wye, Wales. The final edition of the year, Hay Festival Winter Weekend, is scheduled to take place live and online 24-28 November.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic began, Hay Festival events have been viewed by more than two million users globally, with last year’s Festival in Peru generating more than 300,000 event views alone.
PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS
Award-winning novelsits present their latest works as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talks Notes on Grief; Ken Follettlaunches Never; Marie Modiano presents Distante; Iban Zaldua discusses Panfletario; Santiago Roncagliolo presents Y líbranos del mal; Victoria Mas presents her multi-award-winning novel The Mad Women’s Ball; while the Festival celebrates 50 years of the Turner publishing house with some of the most outstanding writers from its portfolio; Abdellah Taïa discusses the new film adaptation of his novel, Salvation Army, and presents his latest work, La vie lente; Spanish author Sergio del Molino will talk to the Peruvian writer Miluska Benavides in a new series of transatlantic Festival conversations, Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos; while three of the authors selected by the second Granta magazine list, published in 2021, share their work: Munir Hachemi (Cosas vivas and Ya no recuerdo qué quería ser cuando grande), Miluska Benavides (A Season in Hell and La caza spiritual) and Diego Zúñiga (Niños heroes).
Some of the biggest issues in the world today are brought into focus as Yuval Noah Harari launches Sapiens. A Graphic History, the graphic series based on his groundbreaking study on humanity; Nobel laureate Paul Krugman presents his most recent book Arguing with Zombies: Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future; award-winning New York Times journalists Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang present The Ugly Truth, a book that reveals Facebook’s dark secrets; photographer and philosopher Martín López de Romaña presents La jaula invisible, his investigation into sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.
Peru today is drawn into focus as former President Francisco Sagasti discusses Imaginemos un Perú mejor… y hagámoslo realidad, a compilation of interviews and articles that analyse the structural problems of Peru and propose forms of political, social and cultural growth; writer and diplomat Alejandro Neyra (Traiciones peruanas, 16 ilustres antihéroes de la historia nacional) analyses Peru’s political tradition; novelist Jeremías Gamboa explores Peru’s cultural wounds in discussing his new release Animales luminosos; journalist Marco Sifuentes presents his book, Casi bicentenarios, offering a dozen Peruvian voices on Peru’s place in history; historian and diplomat Carmen McEvoy presents the collection of essays
La república agrietada. Ensayos para enfrentar la peste; and director Gonzalo Benavente and writer Grecia Barbieri discuss their landmark documentary on Peruvian history, La revolución y la tierra.
A changing Latin America is analysed more generally in a pair of headline panels: journalists Sandra Bord, Glatzer Tuesta andDaniela Rea discuss the complexities of covering Latin America today, and journalist and writer Martín Caparrós joins historian Natalia Sobrevilla and fellow journalists Michael Reid, Moisés Naím and Jaqueline Fowks to discuss social change across Latin America.
Our response to the climate crisis is picked apart by lawyers behind the Stop Ecocide Foundation: Philippe Sands, Pablo Fajardo and Rodrigo Lledó on the crime of ecocide; naturalist Joaquín Araújo (Los árboles te enseñarán a ver el bosque) discusses the importance of trees; Icelandic YA writer Andri Snaer Magnason presents On Time and Water, a reflection on the climate emergency; filmmakers Dan Collyns and Karina Garay present their award-winning documentary The Adventures of Wonder Woman: Inside the War Against Illegal Gold Mining in Peru’s Amazon; while Libia Brenda, the first Mexican woman nominated for a Hugo Award, and Vandana Singh, a speculative fiction writer and a Physics lecturer, will talk to Ed Finn, Director of both the Center for Science and the Imagination and the Climate Imagination Fellowship, about fiction, hope and climate justice.
The human mind takes centre stage as neuroscientist Ignacio Morgado talks Materia gris; novelist Almudena Sánchez offers her study on depression, Fármaco; psychoanalyst Jorge Bruce talks to Guillermo Nugent on the psychological fight against racism; and neuroscientist Francisco Mora talks Neuroeducación y lectura.
The impacts of Covid-19 are explored as the editor of El Comercio Aurelio Arévalo Miró Quesada chairs a discussion between four Peruvian teenagers on their experiences during the pandemic; French Minister of National Education, Sports and Youth, Jean-Michel Blanquer (École ouverte) looks at the lessons that can be drawn from the Covid-19 pandemic in the school system; writer Alonso Cueto joins psychoanalyst Moisés Lemlij Malamud and the psychologist Camila Gianella Malca to discuss loss in the time of Covid-19
Culture’s place in the modern world is explored as the British Library’s Iris Bachman joins Baltasar Brito from the Mexican National Museum of Anthropology and History, Tracy Bonfitto, art curator at the Harry Ransom Center in the US, Laura Osorio Schnuk, from the British Museum and Ulla Holmquist from Peru’s Museo Larco to discuss America, through its objectsin an event in partnership with The British Library’s Eccles Centre; while poet Gloria Mendoza Borda joins writers David Robertson and Ingrid Bejerman in a celebration of multilingualism.
Real-life stories inspire as Peruvian National Journalism Prize-winner Gabriela Wiener presents her memoir, Huaco retrato; former Peruvian Minister of Culture and singer Susana Baca talks about her life in the spotlight; Canadian graphic designer and illustrator Marie-Noëlle Hébert presents her autobiographical graphic novel My Body in Pieces; actor, singer and dancer Anahi de Cárdenas discusses Fuck cancer; journalist César Hildebrandt presents his memoir Confesiones de un inquisidor; and renowned publisher Michi Strausfeld talks to cultural journalist Luis Rodríguez Pastor about her exceptional career in the book industry.
Philosophers exlore the human condition as Catalan philosopher Josep Maria Esquirol discusses his moving essay, La resistencia íntima, and Marina Garcés joins the Festival’s imagina el mundo series, discussing her most recent work, La escuela de aprendices.
Late-night Festival entertainment includes performances from dancers Joel Brown and Eve Mutso with 111, and Spanish dance troupe PHARMACO; while multi-award-winning television producer Caryn Mandabach discusses Peaky Blinders, and there’s a performance from Yuyachkani, one of Peru’s most prominent theatre companies, which is celebrating its 50th birthday this year.
Hay Festivalito presents digital events for young people featuring writers and entertainers including Mexican illustrator, writer and musician Juan Gedovius with his interpretations of Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass and The Hunting of the Snark; Jorge Eslava discusses his award-winning fiction for young people; Christian Ayuni presents El ABC de los seres fantásticos en Perú, an album book that presents the alphabet illustrated with extraordinary figures from the ancient myths and legends of Peru; Víctor Ruiz talks Heroes and heroines of Peru; Renato Cisneros presents Julieta went out; Roxana Valdivieso offers Las aventuras de Sami; muralist and writer Amaia Arrazola presents Animales fantásticos; while there’s a visit to Mónimo Publishing House with Elena Fernández Ferro, Mariana Río and Julia Viñas; and Nadia Hafid leads acomic workshop.
Hay Festival highlights can be rediscovered anywhere in the world on Hay Player hayfestival.org/hayplayer offering the world’s greatest writers on film and audio for £15/€15 per year.