Hay Festival Cartagena 2025

Álex Grijelmo (Spain) is a writer and journalist, former Head of EFE press agency and the author of novels and non-fiction. In 1977 he started working at Europa Press, and in 1983 moved to the Spanish newspaper El País, where he worked for 16 years. In April 2018, he entered the Colombian Academy of the Language. Author of La perversión del anonimato. El nombre propio y el peligro de sus máscaras, which explores the dilemmas created by the state of anonymity. In conversation with Mario Jursich.

All Sunday 2 February events will be free for people from the department of Bolívar. Complimentary tickets can be requested at the box office of the Hay Festival (Centro de Convenciones) showing your ID, between 27 Janaury and 2 February.

Four Afro-descendent Latin American writers talk to Amanda Hurtado about creation and race. Cindy Herrera (Colombia), audiovisual media producer and linguistics and literature professional who is in the final stages of her doctorate in Latin American literature, is the author of the short story book El manifiesto del espejo and the book of hybrid narratives Des-entierro; Yuliana Ortiz Ruano (Ecuador) is a poet and writer, the author of Fiebre de carnaval, a novel that pays homage to dance, to Latin American culture, and African roots; Yurieth Romero (Colombia) is the author of Las visitantes, a transmedia project composed of a book of short stories, a television series and a film; and Mayra Santos-Febres (Puerto Rico), a novelist, poet, essayist and author of Lecciones de renuncia, which tells the story of the relationship of a woman with language and knowledge, and of different texts which informally incorporate questions of status, ethnicity and sexual identity. In conversation with Rudy Amanda Hurtado.

All Sunday 2 February events will be free for people from the department of Bolívar. Complimentary tickets can be requested at the box office of the Hay Festival (Centro de Convenciones) showing your ID, between 27 Janaury and 2 February.

This year we celebrate 20 years in Colombia: two decades of conversations, debates, questions, music, film, photography and books. Through the voices of some of the festival’s most iconic guests, as well as those who make this great festival of ideas possible, we mark the date and wish a long life to the Hay Festival in Colombia through this special documentary.

Duration: 1 hour, 23 minutes

Direction: Gustavo Gordillo

Yomi Adegoke (UK) is a multi-award-winning journalist and author. She is currently a columnist at the Guardian and British Vogue. She’s written for the Sunday Times, the Independent, Stylist, and the New Statesman, among others, and in 2018, she cowrote the bestselling book Slay in Your Lane and in the same year was named one of the most influential people in London by the Evening Standard. She was named in 2021 one of Forbes 30 under 30. She speaks with Jonathan Levi about her last book, The List.

Simultaneous interpretation available from English to Spanish

All Sunday 2 February events will be free for people from the department of Bolívar. Complimentary tickets can be requested at the box office of the Hay Festival (Centro de Convenciones) showing your ID, between 27 Janaury and 2 February.

Rodrigo Quian Quiroga (Argentina) is a physicist, mathematician and neuroscientist, as well as an authority on the neuronal mechanisms of visual perception and memory. In his latest publication, Cosas que nunca creeríais. De la ciencia ficción a la neurociencia, the author explores the working of the brain. Quian Quiroga is the discoverer of “concept neurones”, sometimes known as “Grandmother cells”, and he investigates neurological advances that, in some cases, are bringing us close to possibilities that, until now, seemed to be from the realm of science fiction. Since 2019 he has been a member of the UK’s Academy of Medical Sciences, and he currently lectures at the Hospital del Mar’s Research Institute in Barcelona. He will offer his conference What makes us Human? In conversation with Pilar Garavito.

Horario por confirmar

The Ecuadorian poet and writer Yuliana Ortiz Ruano is the author of Fiebre de carnaval, a novel that pays homage to dance, Latin American culture, and African roots. She presents this book and talks about her experiences as an author and activist. In conversation with Josef Amón.

Horario por confirmar

Susan Neiman (United States) is an outstanding philosopher and writer known for her contributions in the fields of moral philosophy, the Enlightenment, metaphysics and politics. Educated at Harvard, Neiman has taught at Yale and the University of Tel Aviv, and, since 2000 has directed the Einstein Forum in Potsdam, Germany. Her new book, Left Is Not Woke, is a critical examination of the distinction between the principles of the left and the phenomenon sometimes known as woke, arguing that the true spirit of the left is based on universalism, justice and the possibility of progress, values that she considers have been distorted by some contemporary currents which prioritise tribal identities, tending towards conservatism. In conversation with Iván Luzardo Luna.

Horario por confirmar

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 Daniela Pabón.

With simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish