Hay Festival has today announced the full programme for its 11th edition in Arequipa, Peru, taking place 6–9 November 2025.
Explore the full programme and book events now here.
Launching the best new fiction and non-fiction, while engaging with the biggest questions of our times, the programme leads with a tribute to Peruvian Nobel Prize for Literature winner Mario Vargas Llosa and covers a wide range of topics from the impacts of AI on creativity to the role of our archives in preserving our stories.
More than 130 artists from 15 countries feature, including former Prime Minister of Peru Pedro Cateriano; writers John Vaillant, Mircea Cărtărescu, Claire Bishop, María Luisa del Río, Juan Gabriel Vásquez, Mathilde Forget, Dany Salvatierra, Carlos Granés, Michael Magee, Salma El Moumni, Pilar Quintana; economists Luis Carranza and Pedro Francke; psychologist María Galindo; philosophers Susan Neiman and Darío Sztajnszrajber; neuroscientist Rodrigo Quian Quiroga; journalists Ricardo Raphael, Thomas Reinertsen Berg and Arwa Mahdawi; historian Natalia Sobrevilla; lawyer Rafia Zakaria; and more.
Major Hay Festival Global projects, including the South to North conversations and Eccles Institute partnership, are woven throughout across the programme, forging essential global connections across borders.
Outreach and education programmes across the region, including Hay Festival Joven for young people, plus Hay Festival Comunitario in communities and Socabaya Prison, open access to Festival inspiration more widely, while some sessions will be broadcast live online, maintaining Hay Festival Global’s commitment to digital accessibility.
Alongside this, Hay Festival Presenta pop-up events take place in Barranco and Lima, widening access to the Festival across Peru.
Hay Festival CEO Julie Finch said:
“Hay Festival Arequipa 2025 is a space where imaginations can roam, stories can be exchanged, and new solutions to our shared challenges can rise to the surface. Blending the greatest storytellers of our times with figures from the centre of our major institutions, this year’s programme convenes thinkers and dreamers around the biggest questions of our times in hope for a better future. Join us.”
Hay Festival international director Cristina Fuentes La Roche said:
“Opening with a thrilling concert in the centre of the city and featuring a blockbuster mix of conversations, workshops, readings and film screenings, Hay Festival Arequipa is a cultural event for everyone. This is a chance to hear from the greatest writers, thinkers and innovators of our times, while reflecting on the world today and our hopes for the future. We are grateful to our artists, partners and supporters who make this happen.”
The programme in detail
Peruvian literature takes centre stage as a trio of panels sees leading writers and editors pay tribute to Nobel Prize for Literature winner Mario Vargas Llosa, while novelists launch new work, including Jeremías Gamboa (El principio del mundo), Gustavo Rodríguez (Mamita), Carlos Enrique Freyre (Tierra de canes), María Luisa del Río (Se busca final feliz), Olga Montero Rose (Culpa), Patricia del Río (Jauría), Sonia Cunliffe (El tropiezo del sol), Enmanuel Grau (El fin del mundo), Diego Molina (La fascinación), Claudia Paredes Guinand (Un lugar en la familia de las cosas), Enrique Planas (El álbum de las cosas olvidadas), Teresa Ruiz Rosas (Coreografía para trenzas solas), Dany Salvatierra (Criaturas virales) and Zoila Vega Salvatierra (Cantan al hablar).
Writers from around the world gather to explore the role of storytelling in times of upheaval with appearances from Michael Magee, Jeremías Gamboa, Héctor Abad Faciolince, Pilar Quintana, Daniela Tarazona, Fernanda Trías, Juan Gabriel Vásquez, Alberto Fuguet, Alejandra Moffat, Fernanda Trías, Guillermo Arriaga, Ricardo Raphael, Mircea Cărtărescu, Andrés Barba, Mathilde Forget, Jessica Andrews, Salma El Moumni and Thomas Reinertsen Berg, plus a gala event spotlights the work of poet José Aburto.
Music is woven throughout the Festival as jazz singer Afra Kane opens the event with a special outdoor concert; and new ideas in philosophy and art come to the fore as Claire Bishop talks perception; María Galindo, Telly Gacitúa, Boima Tucker and Nereida Apaza explore global trends; Carlos Caamaño, Soledad Cunliffe, Mafe García and Marisa Mujica discuss Peruvian photography; and philosophers Darío Sztajnszrajber, Susan Neiman and Eduardo Dargent explore the unique moral challenges of society today.
Global institutions are interrogated with new visions for the future: journalists Elise Ann Harris, Pablo Quintanilla and Paola Ugaz discuss the Catholic Church; writer Pedro Salinas shares his study of the Sodalicio; Camila Osorio, Josefina Townsend and Alberto Vergara explore the global role of Latin America; essayist Carlos Granés reflects on modern life; Pedro Baños talks geopolitics; the role of museums is interrogated in the Eccles Institute platform with archivists Carlos Chávez, Esther Cruces and Jorge Lossio, while editors Alexandra Pareja and Enrique Redel take stock of the publishing industry.
Peru today comes into focus as former Prime Minister Pedro Cateriano shares lessons from his time in office; former Ministers of Economy and Finance Luis Carranza and Pedro Francke join the director of the Peru’s Central Bank Roxana Barrantes to discuss inequality; journalist Natalia Sobrevilla and political scientist Alberto Vergara explore the complexities of Peruvian society today; Amazon experts Iñigo Maneiro and Nelly Luna illuminate the problems of an extractivist economy; and a special session with Ya Toca explores the concerns of the country’s young voters.
Arequipa’s rich history comes to the fore as the city’s daily newspaper El Búho celebrates a quarter of a century with its director Mabel Cáceres in conversation with architect Mauricio Huaco, director of the Peruvian Institute of Economics in Arequipa María Pía Palacios and sociologist José Luis Ramos Salinas, while its culinary prominence is celebrated in by food writers Alonso Ruiz Rosas, Ignacio Medina and Héctor Solís.
Hay Festival’s South to North Conversations continue to spotlight ideas from the Global South: academic Farid Kahhat joins journalist Arwa Mahdawi to discuss the war in Gaza; writers Claire Bishop and María Galindo join lawyer Rafia Zakaria explore the fight against misogyny; activist Marie-Pier Lafontaine discusses the crisis of domestic abuse; writer Daniela Tarazona pays tribute to Clarice Lispector, one of the most innovative storytellers of the 20th century; and historian Pascal Riviale reconstructs the history of ethnological voyages of French adventurers, traders, and explorers who sailed the Atlantic to Peru.
New ideas from the world of science come to the fore in conversations with neuroscientist Rodrigo Quian Quiroga; digital campaigner Laura G. de Rivera; and astrophysicist Carla Arce-Tord; while ecologists Fabian Drenkhan and Jhan Carlo Espinoza look at our warming world and writer John Vaillant chronicles the fire that ravaged Fort McMurray.
Hay Festival Comunitario free events bring artists direct to communities all over the city, while Hay Festival Joven events for students take over the campuses of Universidad Continental and Universidad Católica de Santa María with authors Carla Arce, L.M. Bracklow, Laura G. De Rivera, Alejandra Moffat, Rodrigo Quian Quiroga, Enrique Redel, Darío Sztajnszrajber, as well as a BBC Mundo digital journalism workshop.
Hay Festival Presenta events in Barranco and Jugo on Wednesday 5 November feature a trio of conversations at La Noche de Barranco with writers Pilar Quintana, Carlos Granés, Alberto Vergara, Patricia del Río and Fernanda Trías will participate, while events in Lima Monday 10 November and Tuesday 11 November feature neuroscientist Rodrigo Quian Quiroga and writer Mircea Cărtărescu.
Find out more here.