Hay Festival has today announced the line-up for the seventh Hay Festival Querétaro in Mexico with more than 145 speakers from 19 countries set to take part in person, 1-4 September 2022.
Launching the very best new fiction and non-fiction, while engaging with some of the biggest issues of our times, the programme mixes Nobel laureates, award-winning writers and journalists, global policy makers and innovators in 94 activities live and online over four days.
One of the northern hemisphere’s fastest growing centres and a World Heritage City, Querétaro’s majestic architecture makes for a unique Festival backdrop as Hay Festival Querétaro takes over the city’s cultural venues and, for the first time, offers events in the municipalities of Bernal, Corregidora and Tequisquiapan. All sessions will be broadcast live online, free.
Explore the programme, book tickets, and register for the live-streams at https://www.hayfestival.com/queretaro/home.
Cristina Fuentes La Roche, Hay Festival international director, said: “We are delighted to bring writers and readers back together again in Querétaro to inspire, examine and entertain. Over four days, the world’s greatest minds will tackle some of the biggest issues of our times with their stories of hope and reconciliation. Join us live or online as we ‘imagine the world’ anew.”
PROGRAMME IN DEPTH
Stars of Mexican literature join global heavyweights to launch new work and discuss the role of writers in times of conflict and crisis. Nobel Prize-winner Wole Soyinka talks his life in fiction; Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon talks the power of poetry across borders; Prix Goncourt-winner Leïla Slimani talks fiction and politics; and there are conversations with Rosa Montero, Lucía Lijtmaer, Jesús Carrasco, Bibiana Candia, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Vivian Gornick, Jean-Baptiste del Amo, Wilfried N'Sondé, Dolores Reyes, Felipe Restrepo Pombo, Jeremias Gamboa, Horacio Castellanos Moya del Salvador, Guillermo Fadanelli, Gisela Leal, Emiliano Monge, Mónica Lavín, Gonzalo Celorio, Pedro Ángel Palou, Alma Delia Murillo, Clyo Mendoza, Paola Llamas Dinero, Alberto Villarreal, Nadia Ñuu Savi, Horacio Warpola, Xel-ha López Méndez and Andrés Cota Hiriart. Meanwhile, the extraordinary career of the multi-award- winning author Margo Glantz is explored; while special Festival events pay tribute to the late writers Juan Rulfo and Almudena Grandes.
Leading writers tackle some of the world’s most pressing issues as Yásnaya Elena Aguilar, Emma Graham-Harrison and Marta Peirano talk equality; and journalist Carole Cadwalladr looks at press freedom. Meanwhile, gender equality takes centre-stage as Nobel Prize-winner Tawakkol Karman explores women’s rights in the Middle East, Caitlin Moran presents More Than A Woman, and podcaster Lucía Litjmaer and activist Dahlia de la Cerda discuss gender equality.
History is reimagined by academics and activists. Classicist Natalie Haynes offers her feminist retellings of the Greek Myths, Juan Tallón presents Obra Maestra, Francois Hartog presents a lecture on history and time, and the Festival’s Untold Microcosms anthology launches in collaboration with the British Museum in a conversation between project contributors Yasnaya Elena Aguilar, Cristina Rivera Garza, Dolores Reyes and Joseph Zárate.
Latin America today is drawn into focus as Carlos Granés presents American Delirium; Iris Calderón, Benjamín, Kumantuk Xuxpë and Fernando Palma talk with Isela Xospa about the positive role libraries can play in modern societies; reporter Alma Guillermoprieto presents her new book; and a new partnership with NPR’s Radio Ambulante brings the award-winning podcast live to the Festival stage, showcasing stories from across the continent.
Experts share the latest ideas in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) including astrobiologist Carlos Briones, science journalist Antonio Martínez Ron, botanist Patricia Dávila Aranda, and psychiatrist and psychoanalyst George Makari. Meanwhile, Tiziana Ulian talks biodiversity in the Kew Gardens Platform, and journalists Esther Paniagua and Marta Peirano talk cyber security in the Festival's Big Ideas Platform, a new international series with global investment managers Baillie Gifford to showcase innovative work in the arts and sciences.
Performers keep the conversation and party going until late. Jarvis Cocker makes an exclusive appearance in Mexico to discuss his life in music and new poetry, while there are performances from pianist Jorge Viladoms and Luz de Luna, and a very special play by the Salvadoran women La Cachada.
Talento Editorial, the Festival series offering the latest thinking from the book industry, features booksellers in Mexico and Spain on the latest sales trends and post-pandemic recovery.
Hay Joven, the Festival’s free annual events for university students, will take place around the city and neighbouring districts with a series of sessions, while Hay Festivalito events for young readers throughout the Festival feature Liliana Blum, Juan Gedovius and Natalia Toledo.
Hay Forum Dallas, an off-shoot event in partnership with The Wild Detectives independent bookstore in Dallas, USA, will once more take place during Hay Festival Querétaro with guests including Cuban journalist and writer Carlos Manuel Alvarez, linguist rights activist and writer Yasnaya Elena from Mexico, Peruvian journalist and activist Joseph Zarate, Argentinian writer Dolores Reyes, US author Zahid Khaled, translator Lizzy Davis, Peruvian novelist Jeremias Gamboa, Spanish journalist and researcher Marta Peirano, and music from Amanditita. The full programme for Hay Forum Dallas is out now at https://www.hayfestival.com/forum/dallas/programme.