Hay Festival Cartagena 2025

The twentieth edition of Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias will be held from 30 January to 2 February. In this page you can find the events in the general programme as well as Hay Festival Joven activities for university audiences, Hay Festival Comunitario sessions which took place in different areas of Cartagena, Reading Clubs and Talento Editorial.

For any inquirie, please contact tickets@hayfestival.org and contacto@hayfestival.org

Event 29

Osmundo Pinho in conversation with Flavia Rios

Healing art and knowledge in Brazil

 Palacio de la Proclamación (Auditorio Juan José Nieto)
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The Afro-Latin American movements have been building regional and national links since the 1990s, rising up against racism. According to the 2017 Global Atlas on Violence, for every 100 people murdered in Brazil, 71 are black. Osmundo Pinho (Brazil) will talk to Flavia Rios about how to portray, and also to change, this reality through art. He offers, in his work, detailed ethnographic description, and analyses racist patterns and practices in his country, particularly in Salvador (Bahia).

Simultaneous interpretation from Portuguese to Spanish available

Price: $40,000.00 (COP)
Osmundo Pinho in conversation with Flavia Rios

Event TE3

Adriana Martínez-Villalba and Leidy Johana Galvis Mejía in conversation with Mario Jursich

Libraries

 Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española (Salón Mutis)
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Libraries are not only the primary and most important public cultural facility—widespread, universal, professional, and, indeed, highly valued. They are also fundamental structures for the survival and strengthening of democratic societies. While maintaining their collections and resources, libraries are in a constant state of transformation and change. Adriana Martínez-Villalba (Colombia), Director of the Colombian National Library, and Leidy Johana Galvis Mejía, Head of Library Services at Comfenalco Antioquia (Colombia), will be in conversation with Mario Jursich.


Price: $40,000.00 (COP)
Adriana Martínez-Villalba and Leidy Johana Galvis Mejía in conversation with Mario Jursich

Event HFJ11

María Jimena Duzán and Diana Uribe in conversation with Milton Cabrera

Podcasts

 Universidad de Cartagena, Claustro de la Merced (Salón Eréndira)
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Two of the country’s most popular podcast presenters will talk about their projects, their particular approach, and how to reach a mass audience. With María Jimena Duzán (Colombia), a journalist, political commentator, writer and creator of the podcast A fondo, which looks at Colombian current affairs in considerable depth; and with Diana Uribe (Colombia) a major figure in communicating the history of the country, who has had an impressive career as a writer, radio host and now a podcast presenter. In conversation with Milton Cabrera.
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Event free for the university community
María Jimena Duzán and Diana Uribe in conversation with Milton Cabrera

Event CL3

Piedad Bonnett in conversation with Ana María Aponte

 Casa Hay (Centro de Convenciones)
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At its book clubs, Hay Festival Cartagena offers intimate encounters with a selection of festival guests. These are spaces to talk in greater depth about recent work by some of the festival’s participants. At this event, Piedad Bonnett (Colombia) will talk to Ana María Aponte about her book, La mujer incierta, an autobiographical work that reveals the writer’s different layers: women, human being, creature with feelings. An exercise in observation and reconstruction of identity.

Those attending must have read the book

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Piedad Bonnett in conversation with Ana María Aponte

Event HFJ12

Camila Sosa Villada in conversation with Mercedes Posada

 Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar (sede Manga)
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Winner of the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize for Las malas, Camila Sosa Villada (Argentina) has published poetry, autobiographical essays and fiction. Her most recent book, Tesis sobre una domesticación, dissects the lives of a peaceful middle-class family, one that hides histories of violence and asphyxiation, as well as love and tenderness. The protagonist, a trans actress, finds she is trapped by marriage and social convention. Sosa Villada tells of her experiences, tinged with both passion and guilt, while also reflecting on the male and the female, family and art, maternity and class difference, subjugation and love. In conversation with Mercedes Posada.
Event free for the university community
Camila Sosa Villada in conversation with Mercedes Posada

Event 30

Juan Gómez-Jurado in conversation with Juan Lozano

Todo muere

 Centro de Convenciones (Auditorio Getsemaní)
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The journalist and writer Juan Gómez-Jurado (Spain) is one of the finest thriller writers in his language, and a bestselling author whose work has been translated into over forty languages. His Red Queen trilogy has been made into a Prime series, and is one of the most popular Spanish-language series of all time. Todo muere is the last part of his acclaimed Reina Roja series, and a long-awaited ending to one of the most read and loved contemporary sagas in the Spanish language. In conversation with Juan Lozano.

Price: $40,000.00 (COP)
Juan Gómez-Jurado in conversation with Juan Lozano

Event 31

Yurieth Romero and Gilbert Shang Ndi in conversation with Paula Moreno Zapata

Manos Visibles event

 Centro de Convenciones (Salón Barahona)
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Two participants who explore African and Afro-descendent tales will talk to Paula Moreno Zapata. Gilbert Shang Ndi (Cameroon), author and Doctor in Comparative Literature, is a researcher and expert in matters such as the African dictatorship novel, poetics of the body, violence in literature, visual culture and cybernetic literature. Yurieth Romero (Colombia) is the author of Las visitantes, a transmedia project made up of a book of short stories, a television series and a film.

Price: $40,000.00 (COP)
Yurieth Romero and Gilbert Shang Ndi in conversation with Paula Moreno Zapata

Event 32

Jennifer Ackerman in conversation with Rosie Boycott

Wise owls

 Teatro Adolfo Mejía
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Jennifer Ackerman (United Kingdom), the author of The Genius of Birds, returns with her new book, What an Owl Knows. The tales of the world are full of owls: for different cultures it has represented wisdom, mystery, or even presages of death. Popular culture also features the owl, which appears in the Harry Potter and Winnie the Pooh stories. These birds, which are able to turn their heads a full 180°, have a very special anatomy, but why are these creatures of the night so famous? This new book is a mixture of natural history treatise, a study of behaviour, and a look at the symbolism of these extraordinary animals. In conversation with Rosie Boycott.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

Price: $40,000.00 (COP)
Jennifer Ackerman in conversation with Rosie Boycott

Event 33

Weildler Guerra, Rogelio Mejía, Olimpia Palmar and Gustavo Ulcué Campo in conversation with Martin von Hildebrand

South to North conversations: managing our territory

 Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española (patio)
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We talk about the territory and its community management, about the link between the culture and history of peoples, with their places of residence, and the need for self-management shared among inhabitants. With Weildler Guerra (Colombia) Wayuu anthropologist; Rogelio Mejía (Colombia), Arhuaco social leader and activist who has worked to encourage the export of organic produce and backpacks from the Sierra Nevada; Olimpia Palmar (Colombia), Wayuu expert in human rights, communicator and activist; and Gustavo Ulcué Campo (Colombia), Nasa film producer and activist. They will talk to Martin von Hildebrand.

Price: $40,000.00 (COP)
Weildler Guerra, Rogelio Mejía, Olimpia Palmar and Gustavo Ulcué Campo in conversation with Martin von Hildebrand

Event 34

Txell Feixas and Laura Ortiz Gómez in conversation with Gloria Susana Esquivel

Women who take the reins

 Palacio de la Proclamación (Auditorio Juan José Nieto)
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What happens when women challenge power? In conversation with Gloria Susana Esquivel, two writers explore, through fiction and non-fiction respectively, examples of cooperation among women. Txell Feixas (Spain) has been a correspondent in the Middle East, based in Beirut, for the Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals and she is the author of the book Mujeres valientes, which deals with the struggles of women during the conflicts of the Middle East. She also received the 2024 National Journalism Prize for her book Aliadas. Laura Ortiz Gómez (Colombia) is the author of Indócil, a work of history that explores the “broom strike”, a popular movement that occurred in Argentina in 1907 when women, inhabitants of the conventillos of Buenos Aires, refused to pay their rent and took to the streets.

Price: $40,000.00 (COP)
Txell Feixas and Laura Ortiz Gómez in conversation with Gloria Susana Esquivel

Event 35

Rafael Navarro de Castro in conversation with José Zuleta

 Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española (Salón Mutis)
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Rafael Navarro de Castro (Spain) has a degree in Sociology and a diploma in Rural Development. He lived in Madrid, working in the film and television industry for years before he decided to leave it all and move to Monachil, a village in the mountains, where he now works in traditional agriculture, raising hens, as well as in ecological activism. After his novel La tierra desnuda, he presents Planeta invernadero, a novel with stories and characters that will change readers’ ways of understanding what they consume, what they eat and how they live. In conversation with José Zuleta.
Price: $40,000.00 (COP)
Rafael Navarro de Castro in conversation with José Zuleta

Event HFJ13

Cristina Rivera Garza in conversation with David Lara

 Universidad de Cartagena, Claustro de San Agustín (Biblioteca)
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Cristina Rivera Garza (Mexico), translator, essayist and fiction writer, is the founder of the Creative Writing in Spanish doctorate at the University of Houston. MacArthur Fellow, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz prizewinner and recent recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Liliana’s Invincible Summer, Rivera Garza presents a collection of her poetry, Me llamo cuerpo que no está, in conversation with David Lara.
Event free for the university community
Cristina Rivera Garza in conversation with David Lara

Event HFJ14

Jorge Eljaik, Lusdary Martínez and Katherinne Vidal talk to Daniela Pabón and Óscar Daniel Campo

Why publish what we write? Creative processes in university spaces

 Universidad de Cartagena, Claustro de la Merced (Salón Eréndira)
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A conversation with students and lecturers from the Master’s programme in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of the North about the encounter with other views and other forms of reading encouraged by seminars and literary workshops. Writing communities that are built in these spaces enable reflections on the desire to be read and heard, and show that creative processes are imbued with exchange. With the students Jorge Eljaik, Lusdary Martínez and Katherinne Vidal in conversation with the educators Daniela Pabón and Óscar Daniel Campo.
Event free for the university community
Jorge Eljaik, Lusdary Martínez and Katherinne Vidal talk to Daniela Pabón and Óscar Daniel Campo

Event HFJ15

Lecture and poetry performance with María Buelvas and Luisa Ochoa, together with Katherine Osorio

 Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar (sede Manga) - Explanada Auditorio Jorge Tahua
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María Alejandra Buelvas and Luisa Ochoa, from Cartagena, offer an immersive experience that celebrates the word and sound as complementary elements, which experiments with the poetry in music and the melody of verse. Buelvas writes and researches; she studied Anthropology and she is interested in taking writing to other media, including visual and audio formats; Y ahora qué hago yo con esta cuchara is her first book, for which she won the Tomás Vargas Osorio National Poetry Prize. Luisa Ochoa is a lawyer, but music has been part of her life since her earliest years, given that she was raised in a family of musicians. They will talk to Katherine Osorio from Muévela Poesía, followed by a poetry performance with noisy props and word in movement.
Event free for the university community
Lecture and poetry performance with María Buelvas and Luisa Ochoa, together with Katherine Osorio

Event HFJ16

Bocafloja in concert

 Universidad de Cartagena, Claustro de la Merced
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Bocafloja offers an immersive experience in which experiments with words come together with the urban rhythms of rap. This Mexican poet and rapper is known for his use of hip hop as a tool for raising social awareness in Latin America, tackling themes such as systemic racism, colonialism and oppression. We will hear from this artist, now in his third decade making music, and who has been a member of groups such as Lifestyle and Microphonk. He has also made influential albums as a soloist, and has been included on Rolling Stone and Billboard lists of the 50 most important artists in the history of Spanish-language hip hop.
Free event for the university community
Bocafloja in concert

Event 36

Salman Rushdie in conversation with Juan Gabriel Vásquez

 Centro de Convenciones (Auditorio Getsemaní)
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Salman Rushdie (India / United Kingdom / United States) is a major figure in contemporary literature and a very prolific author. His Midnight’s Children won the Booker Prize in 1981, and was deemed the best of all winners on the 25th and 40th anniversaries of the prize’s creation. He has been the President of PEN America, a member of the UK’s Royal Society of Literature, is a French Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters, and was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time in 2023. On 12 August 2022, he suffered an attack that nearly killed him, 30 years after the proclamation of a fatwa following the publication of The Satanic Verses. The author relates these events, his recovery, and gives a powerful reflection on literature, art and freedom of expression in his most recent publication, Knife. He will talk about this and his most recent novel, Victory City, with Juan Gabriel Vásquez.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

Price: $55,000.00 (COP)
Salman Rushdie in conversation with Juan Gabriel Vásquez

Event 37

Wolfram Eilenberger in conversation with Óscar Guardiola-Rivera

 Centro de Convenciones (Salón Barahona)
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Wolfram Eilenberger (Germany) is a philosopher, journalist and writer. His passion is the application of philosophical ideas in everyday life, whether politics, culture or sport. Founding Editor of Philosophie Magazin, he has published Time of the Magicians. The Invention of Modern Thought 1919-1929, and now presents Geister der Gegenwart, an exploration of the thought of Theodor W. Adorno, Susan Sontag, Michel Foucault and Paul Feyerabend. The book follows the path of a set of ideas that are essential for our times: from dismantling the myth of blind faith, to the progress of conspiracy theories; from sexual liberation to the most reductionist wokeness. In conversation with Óscar Guardiola-Rivera.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

Price: $40,000.00 (COP)
Wolfram Eilenberger in conversation with Óscar Guardiola-Rivera

Event 38

María Negroni in conversation with Mario Jursich

 Teatro Adolfo Mejía
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María Negroni (Argentina) is an Argentine writer and poet, with a doctorate in Latin American Literature from Columbia University in New York. His work covers various genres, including poetry, essay and fiction, and she has received important fellowships, including the Guggenheim and the Rockefeller. Her publications include the poetry book Islandia, which won an award from the PEN American Center, and the novels El sueño de Úrsula and La Anunciación. Her latest books are La idea natural (2024) and Utilidad de las estrellas (2024), which presents a fusion of austere and minimalist language with intense, expressionist images. She will talk about this book with Mario Jursich.

Price: $40,000.00 (COP)
María Negroni in conversation with Mario Jursich

Event 39

Carlos Vives and Ricardo Silva Romero in conversation

The art of writing songs

 Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española (patio)
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A singer who composes and a music-loving writer talk about the art of creating songs. The tune gives life to the words, and the words give meaning to the music. The participants at this event explore the magic of these complementary forms. With Carlos Vives (Colombia), one of our greatest musicians, and Ricardo Silva Romero (Colombia), a prize-winning fiction writer and journalist.
Price: $40,000.00 (COP)
Carlos Vives and Ricardo Silva Romero in conversation

Event 41

Ana María Belique, Ochy Curiel and Lyonel Truillot in conversation with Yuderkys Espinosa

Racism in Haiti and the Dominican Republic

 Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española (Salón Mutis)
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There are 134 million Afro-descendent people living in Latin America, but most of this population lives in a state of inequality. How can we change this scenario? Ana María Belique (Dominican Republic) is the co-founder and leader of Reconoci.do, a movement for empowering Afro-descendent Dominicans in their struggle for equality and nationality rights, and to be free of racial discrimination; she is also the author of the children’s book La muñeca de Dieula. Ochy Curiel (Dominican Republic), activist and Latin American and Caribbean feminist theorist, social anthropologist and singer-songwriter. She is a spokesperson for autonomous, lesbian, antiracists and decolonial feminism. Lyonel Trouillot, born in Port-au Prince, teaches Creole and French literature. As well as publishing the literary magazine Demembre, he also offers participants the chance to seek advice from experienced writers at his Ateliers du Jeudi Soir workshops. Author of La belle amour humaine, he won the 2012 Geneva Book Fair Literary Prize. In conversation with Yuderkys Espinosa (Dominican Republic), Afro-Caribbean philosopher and writer and decolonial feminist.

Consecutive interpretation from French to Spanish available

Price: $40,000.00 (COP)
Ana María Belique, Ochy Curiel and Lyonel Truillot in conversation with Yuderkys Espinosa

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