Hay Festival has today announced the full programme for its twelfth edition in Arequipa, Peru, taking place 5-8 November 2026.
Discover the full programme and book tickets now at hayfestival.com/arequipa
Launching the best new fiction and non-fiction, the Festival brings together leading writers, thinkers, artists and cultural figures from Peru and around the world. The programme explores literature, politics, society, the environment, art, technology and new forms of storytelling, in a series of conversations with the Peruvian public.
More than 156 artists from 20 countries include the following: South African novelist JM Coetzee, Romanian novelist and poet Mircea Cărtărescu, Mexican writer Alma Delia Murillo, Italian-Egyptian writer Andre Aciman, French writer Sophie Demange, Mexican novelist Elma Correa, Argentine writer and literary critic Patricio Pron, Mexican short-story writer Liliana Blum, Bolivian writer Edmundo Paz Soldán, British-Nigerian novelist Irenosen Okojie, French author Vidya Narine, Colombian writers Juan Esteban Constaín and Cristina Bendek, Puerto-Rican author Mayra Santos-Febres and Peruvian journalist Rosa Chávez Yacila; philosophers Renata Salecl and Carlos Peña; writer and screenwriter Santiago Roncagliolo; social scientist Gerald Bronner; illustrator Quan Zhou; journalist Sara Babiker; literary scholars Claudia Apablaza and Álvaro Bisama; singer-songwriter Elisa Tokeshi; science and tech communicators Aldo Bartra and Philip Chu Joy; former Peruvian Finance Minister Toni Alva; historian Cecilia Bákula, and an opening concert by the KNM Ensemble Berlin.
Major Hay Festival Global projects, including the South to North conversations and Eccles Institute partnership, are woven through 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.
Hay Festival CEO Julie Finch said:
“Hay Festival Arequipa is a space where literature and ideas travel in every direction. This year’s programme brings together extraordinary writers, artists and thinkers with the people of Arequipa, creating opportunities to imagine a world of different possibilities. With a range of talks covering everything from nature and poetry to democracy and AI, we hope these conversations stay with audiences long after the Festival ends. See you there!”
Hay Festival International Director, Cristina Fuentes La Roche said:
“We are delighted to present another year of a high-quality and diverse programme for the 12th edition of Hay Festival Arequipa with a new stop in Tacna. This programme reflects the diversity and curiosity of the city, connecting Peruvian voices with thinkers from around the world. Thanks to the support of our partners, we are able to continue this important work of maintaining spaces for listening, exchanging ideas with the world, and celebrating culture.”
Programme in detail
Literature and poetry take centre stage as Arequipa hosts some of today's most brilliant writers including Nobel laureate J M Coetzee with Mariano Melgar: Poetry of Love and Rebellion, the bilingual edition he compiled with Valerie Miles,plusan evening where the two recite Melgar's poems to traditional and contemporary music; while Mircea Cărtărescu (Romania) will discuss his dreamlike universe, from the Blinding trilogy to Solenoid; André Aciman (Idyll); Patricio Pron (There is a Crack in Everything, That's how the Light gets in); and Irenosen Okojie (Healer); as well as Álvaro Bisama (Chile); Liliana Blum, Alma Delia Murillo and Elma Correa (Mexico); Sophie Demange and Vidya Narine (France); Catherine Fletcher and Cal Flynn (UK); Greta García and Nerea Pallares (Spain); Juan Esteban Constaín (Colombia); and Melanie Pérez Arias (Venezuela).
Peruvian literary highlights include the centenary of Blanca Varela's birth, with Fietta Jarque and Alonso Ruiz Rosas on her life and work; while Ximena López Bustamante and Giovanna Pollarolo stage an imagined conversation between Ferrer and Varela; and Mayra Santos-Febres, Morella Petrozzi and Romina Silman share their poetry; writer Elisa Tokeshi presents her debut novel Borderline Sagrada; and we hear from Rosa Chávez Yacila, Ulises Gutiérrez Llantoy, Karina Pacheco, Alessandra Pinasco and David Silva Rojas. Claudia Apablaza and Santiago Roncagliolo lead the conversation on Cuadernos hispanoamericanos; and Talento Editorial features panels with Enrique Redel, Valerie Miles, Soledad Cunliffe and Ruhuan Huarca.
Peru’s political, social and economic challenges are dissected as former ministers Toni Alva and Patricia Salas O'Brien, along with historian Cecilia Bákula and lawyer Maria Emilia Ladrón de Guevara, seek a common vision for the country; while Julio Arbizu, Cecilia Bákula, Javier Ciurlizza, and José Luis Ramos discuss the challenges the country faces regarding truth and memory.
Global politics are reimagined as Farid Kahhat presents The World has Become a Strange Place; Renata Salecl (Slovenia) and Sarah Babiker Moreno (Spain) will explore critical thinking to arrive at fairer forms of co-existence; while Farid Kahhat, Josefina Townsend and Alberto Vergara examine our disenchantment with politics; Branko Soban (Slovenia) and Townsend discuss challenges threatening democracies; while Gerald Bronner (France) addresses truth, propaganda, and democracy in the digital age; and Carlos Granés (Colombia) and Fietta Jarque (Peru) explore Latin American politics through art.
Music takes centre-stage as The KNM Berlin Ensemble, one of Europe's most prestigious contemporary music groups, opens the Festival; Miguel Rubio, Luis Nieto Degregori, and Karina Pacheco will discuss 50 years of Yuyachkani, Peru’s leading independent theatre collective; while Miguel Almeyda Morales, Greta García and Morella Petrozzi explore theatre, dance, and cultural management; British-Peruvian filmmaker Rose Lowder discusses experimental cinema in her first public appearance in Arequipa; and Rember Yahuarcani will discuss Amazonian art with the Peruvian-German researcher Katherina Valdivia.
The art of the podcast is dissected by some of the world’s best audio creators including Javier Peña, creator of Grandes infelices (Great Unhappy People), one of the most listened-to literary podcasts in Spanish; while Eliezer Budasoff will interview Phillip Chu Joy in a live recording for El hilo (The Thread), from Radio Ambulante Estudios; Quan Zhou, creator of Mi familia española (My Spanish Family), will discuss identity and racist discrimination; and Serge Barbet and Carlos Rivadeneyra will look at podcasts as a tool for critical thinking and informed citizenship.
Five episodes of the Festival's own podcast, Hay Festival en Español, will be recorded live at Casa Moral on Friday 6 November and Saturday 7 November, with free admission thanks to Credicorp. Guests include Carlos Caamaño, Rossana Díaz Costa, Xabier Díaz de Cerio, Alma Delia Murillo, Edmundo Paz Soldán, Alessandra Pinasco, Giovanna Pollarolo, Patricio Pron, Mayra Santos-Febres and Rosa Vásquez Espinoza.
There is a focus on science and nature as environmental journalist Xabier Díaz de Cerio and explorer and chemical biologist Rosa Vásquez Espinosa discuss listening to nature and sharing its stories as we become more climate-aware; Aldo Bartra, of the YouTube channel El Robot de Platón (Plato's Robot), will argue that science is for everyone; Claudia Apablaza, Cal Flynn and Frank Steinhofer invite us to see the world differently; while Mariana Matija (Colombia) and Micaela Chirif (Peru) will explore our relationship with nature through literature.
Hay Festival Global’s South to North conversations continue to present voices from the Global South, as writers of a new Hay Festival publication – Cristina Bendek, Carlos Fonseca, Carlos Granés, Karina Pacheco, Edmundo Paz Soldán and Mayra Santos-Febres –come together for three special events to discuss the General Archive of the Indies in Seville. The project, Unveiling Stories, developed by Hay Festival, Anagrama and Charco Press, invited contemporary Latin American writers to explore the Archive as a starting point for new writing.
The importance of community and inclusivity are central to Hay Festival Arequipa’s Comunitario projects. Its most diverse programme yet includes sessions at the men's and women's prisons, the COAR (High-Performance Schools), Plaza San Francisco, Santa Catalina Street, and the Mario Vargas Llosa Library. Events range from readings, workshops, and the Book Tent to sound experiences, the 2026 Outstanding Award, concerts, film screenings, improv, plays, and even a mini marathon.
University students also take part thanks to Universidad Continental, partner of Hay Festival Joven (Youth) – a free programme exclusively for the university community, featuring Javier Calvo Pérez, Daniel Sacro, Mariana Matija, Serge Barbet, Toni Alva, Quan Zhou and Luis Carlos Arias Schreiber.
Senior citizens and university students from Arequipa and Peru can request up to ten free tickets to the general programme, subject to availability, through a form on the Festival website.
The Festival's activities in Peru will again extend beyond Arequipa, through the Hay Festival Presents Tacna and Hay Festival Presents Lima programmes. In Tacna, with sponsorship from Southern and support from the Regional Directorate of Culture, six events will take place on Wednesday 4 November with Xabier Díaz de Cerio, Alessandra Pinasco, Rosa Chávez Yacila, Fietta Jarque, Alberto Vergara and Santiago Roncagliolo.
The Festival is also strengthening its ties with the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP). In Arequipa, it will hold a continuous reading of A World for Julius and a screening of the 2021 film, among other community activities. In Lima, three free talks at the university's Cultural Centre, open to the public, will feature Quan Zhou on Tuesday 3 November; Mircea Cărtărescu on Wednesday 4 November and Renata Salecl on Monday 9 November.
Find out more here.