Projects
Hay Festival and Acción Cultural Española (AC/E)
Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) is a public organization dedicated to drive an initiative and promoting the culture and heritage of Spain, inside and outside its borders, through a wide program of activities that includes exhibitions, meetings, conference cycles, cinema, theater, music, audiovisual productions and initiatives that promote the mobility of professionals and creators. Within the initiatives that promote the internationalization and mobility of professionals in the Spanish literary sector, AC/E has launched a collaboration program with the Hay Festival held in different parts of the world, co-organizing activities for the promotion and dissemination outside the work of its creators. The Hay Festival Colombia 2024 edition will feature the presence of many Spanish authors: Rocio Bonilla, Álvaro Ortiz, Alana S. Portero and Eduardo Romero García.
Hay Festival and BBC Mundo
To accompany the programming of Hispanic festivals and expand its reach through digital media, Hay Festival partnered with BBC Mundo to prepare complementary programming in which guests to the Hay Festival Colombia, and other great personalities from the world of culture from America and Europe, will discuss current issues, offering suggestions for books and authors they admire, and sharing their views on specific topics. Readers could also find curious notes and put their knowledge of literature and the Spanish language to the test. BBC Mundo journalists will moderate various talks at the festival.
This digital programming, with exclusive videos, texts, images and conversations, will be published on the website and social networks of BBC Mundo and Hay Festival.
Hay Festival and El País América
Hay Festival and El País have established a media alliance for all festivals in Latin America that brings the content of the festival to the readers of the newspaper and the interviews and investigations of the newspaper to the festival's spectators. The newspaper has a talk at each festival with a great international personality, and both organizations share content to bring the Hay Festival closer to the readers of El País. This time, the conversation will be between Laura Aguirre, Carlos Manuel Álvarez and Alfredo Meza, who will talk to Jan Martínez Ahrens, director of El País América, about the dictadorships that persecute journalists. Also, journalist of this newspapwer will take part in some events.
Talento Editorial
The Talento Editorial meetings are events of a professional and international nature open to the public that aim to publicize innovative and successful experiences in the publishing industry. Spaces in which booksellers, publishers and people from the world of books exchange ideas and reflect together. During the last fifteen years the book industry has undergone - or enjoyed - an extraordinary revolution that has affected its economic and creative foundations. The eighteenth edition of Talento Editorial will be held at Cartagena de Indias.
Hay Festival and The Michael Jacobs Grant
Since 2014 the Gabo Foundation and the Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias, as part of an alliance of more than a decade, have taken the initiative to organize, as a tribute to the English writer, Michael Jacobs, the Michael Jacobs travel chronicle scholarship, which awards $ 10,000 to a draft book or travel article about Latin America or Spain, to be published in Spanish or English. Since 2017 the Scholarship has been supported by The Michael Jacobs Foundation for Travel Writing.
In nine editions, the Scholarship has received lots of travel book proposals, of which 8 winners have been selected: Álex Ayala (Spain), Federico Bianchini (Argentina), Diego Cobo (Spain), Sabrina Duque (Ecuador), Ernesto Picco (Argentina) JS Tennat (UK), Santiago Willis (Colombia), Federico Guzmán Rubio (Mexico) and Abraham Jiménez Enoa (Cuba).
The following winner will be selected by Mar Abad, Jon Lee Anderson, Teresita Goyeneche, Abraham Jiménez Enoa and Daniel Samper Pizano at the Hay Festival Cartagena, on January 2024.
More information about the Scolarship at www.fundaciongabo.org
Hay Festival and British Council
The Hay Festival and the British Council launched a global partnership at the 2010 Hay-on-Wye Festival - deepening their joint work since the birth of Hay Festival Cartagena - and have since worked together to bring UK writers and thinkers to global audiences. The British Council's literature team promotes British publishers, poets and writers in different communities and audiences around the world, developing innovative and high-quality events that weave connections between writers, publishers and cultural institutions. The British authors of Hay Festival Colombia 2022 were supported by the British Council. The foregoing in order to ensure that the knowledge and experience of the United Kingdom in the field of literature is recognized and appreciated by different Colombian audiences. This year, with Natalie Haynes, Katy Hessel, Tabitha Lasley and David Olusoga. Besides, British Council is part of two projects: Literary pairs, where Tabitha Lasley and Velia Vidal will have a conversation with Georgina Godwin; and (In)equalities, with Tsitsi Dangarembga, Gloria Susana Esquivel and Tabitha Lasley with Georgina Godwin.
Hay Diálogos with Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos
Hay Diálogos with Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos is a proposal from the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) together with the Hay Festival to try to promote knowledge and exchange between writers of different generations and nationalities, united by the same language and a shared literary tradition. This proposal, which is developed in each of the existing Hay Festivals, and which is part of the critical and informative work carried out by the journal Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos, edited by AECID, has the participation of an author with extensive experience, which in turn proposes a younger one, either from Latin America or Spain. It is, therefore, a dialogue that builds bridges between generations and different countries through a common literature. This year's conversation will be held between Irene Solà (Spain) and Felipe Restrepo Pombo (Colombia).
The Eccles Centre for American Studies
The Eccles Center & Hay Festival Writer’s Award is an annual literary award that awards £ 20,000 to a writing project that explores a theme related to America; the award is announced by the Eccles Center for American Studies at the British Library, in association with the Hay Festival. The award is aimed at writers working on non-fiction or fiction books, in English or Spanish, that require the use of the collection of the Americas, at the British Library. Ayanna Lloyd Banwo and Jarred McGinnis won the 2023 Writer's Award. The Hay Festival is pleased to support this award and contribute to the dissemination of the call and the work of the winners, inviting the winners to their festivals. This year's conversation, supported by Eccles Centre, will be about Alexander von Humbold, in a conversation with two authors that have written about him: William Ospina and Andrea Wulf.
South to South conversations
With the South to South series of encounters, the Hay Festival aims to create a space for dialogue among the most innovative voices of the Global South to share different perspectives on the world and non-Western solutions to pressing issues. This series is supported by the Open Society Foundations. During the Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias 2024, we will have four South to South conversations. One on literature and freedom of expression, featuring In Koli Jean Bofane, Adania Shibli, and Jon Lee Anderson; another on different ways of seeing the world, with Tsitsi Dangarembga, In Koli Jean Bofane, Pankaj Mishra, Erna von der Walde, and Juan Esteban Lewin Pinzón; a third discussion with Pankaj Mishra, David Olusoga, and Juan Esteban Lewin Pinzón; and a final one on cultural management with Cristina Fuentes La Roche, Wanjiru Koinange, Angela Wachuka, and Margarita Valencia.
Shared Truths: ICTJ
Ten authors contribute to an anthology of texts, Verdades compartidas ('Shared Truths'), about the Colombian peace process, delving into the testimonies, impact, and context of a unique historical moment, inspired by the Truth Commission's own report. This anthology presents an interpretation from the perspective of writers from different countries, aiming to unravel recent history through narratives, sharing with readers and prompting reflection. Simultaneously, it provides space for the diverse experiences of the protagonists, conveying different points of view, experiences, and solutions that collectively enable peace, memory, and societal learning to prevent conflicts like the Colombian one from happening again. Verdades compartidas is a project of the Hay Festival and the International Center for Transitional Justice, published by Planeta
Explorers, dreamers and thieves: SDCELAR
Explorers, Dreamers and Thieves is a new book that arises from the collaboration between the Santo Domingo Center of Excellence for Latin American Research (SDCELAR) at the British Museum and the Hay Festival. They have invited six Latin American authors to write short fiction stories or non-fiction texts, critically exploring the complex, compelling, and political histories of acquiring objects that constitute the collections of this institution. The authors have delved into the Museum's archives, including diaries, letters, sketches, reflections, and contracts—documents that all form part of the process of acquiring the objects.
DOW: Sustainability
Dow joins the Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias, helping us make it more sustainable and aiming to enhance the public space around the event in collaboration with the local community and artists. This will be achieved through a mural created with photocatalytic paint that neutralizes CO2. Additionally, with Dow's support, the event's carbon footprint will be measured and offset. Finally, the company sponsors one of the most anticipated talks of the festival, featuring Nobel laureate in Physics, Venki Ramakrishnan.
Universidad del Norte
The Hay Festival brought the festival closer to the students of Barranquilla with three face-to-face activities in collaboration with the Universidad del Norte, on January 29, 2024, with Jorge Comensal, Katy Hessel, Arnaldo Kraus, Jesús Sanjurjo and Anil Seth.
Hay Joven
Hay Joven is a program aimed at the university community at our festivals in Latin America. Hay Joven is the 100% free program aimed at students, teachers, administrative and service personnel at universities that seeks to provide an adequate space for a close and assertive conversation. The Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias 2023 presents a program of 16 events with writers, journalists, educators, scientists and activists designed with the needs of the university public in mind and in collaboration with Universidad de Cartagena and Universidad Tecnológica del Bolivar.
Casa Hay Festival – SURA y Bancolombia
Our partner for Latin America, SURA, together with Bancolombia, will offer a meeting place for all those attending the Cartagena de Indias festival: La Casa Hay Festival - SURA y Bancolombia, a space to relax, regain strength, meet and engage in conversation with other attendees. It will be located at Claustro de las Animas of the Centro de Convenciones.
Hay Comunitario
Every year since 2005, communities celebrate and enjoy art, reading and culture at Hay Festival Comunitario. The PLAN Foundation and the Hay Festival have jointly developed this social inclusion initiative that seeks to stimulate curiosity, interest in learning and love and the habit of reading in girls, boys, adolescents and young people from vulnerable communities in Cartagena, and in municipalities of the department of Bolívar.
There are already hundreds of people including artists, writers, illustrators, journalists and personalities who have accepted the invitation to exchange experiences and knowledge in these spaces full of smiles, questions and curiosity, where more than 17,000 girls, boys and young people from communities such as: Bayunca, El Pozón, La Boquilla, Sincerín, Turbaco, Santa Rosa, Turbana, Membrillal, Nelson Mandela, Gambote, among others.
