Hay Festival Segovia 2008

Letters, numbers and thinking. Everything is more interconnected than you would expect, and the shortcuts provided by maths, which emulate those of nature, help people to think better, thus differentiating ourselves from even the best computer. Though data and artificial intelligence can be extremely beneficial tools in any creative process, humanity is in the numbers.

Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University, won the London Mathematical Society’s 2001 Berwick Prize. He works on television with immensely popular programmes about maths, as well as in the written press. His books include The Music of The Primes, The Number Mysteries, What We Cannot Know, The Creativity Code and Thinking Better. Du Sautoy will be in conversation with Ikhlaq Sidhu, Dean of IE School of Science and Technology in Madrid, as well as being the founder and Academic Director of UC Berkeley's Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology since 2005.

There will be a book signing at the end of the event in the room next to the entrance of IE University

With simultaneous translation from English to Spanish

Sally Helgesen and Marta Williams will present an innovative workshop based on Helgesen's acclaimed book How Women Rise. Designed to transform the careers of professional women, the workshop focuses on practical tools as well as concrete strategies for achieving success in the work environment. Over the course of the workshop, a dozen habits that can limit women's career advancement will be addressed. This unique workshop will offer practical solutions to break these negative patterns, and encourage personal and professional growth. The Amazing Stairway is designed to guide professional women through a process of profound transformation.

Helgesen, cited by Forbes as the world's foremost expert on women's leadership and internationally best-selling author of books on leadership, with a place in the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame. Among the books she has written are How Women Rise (where she includes her now famous "12 Habits Holding You Back"), Rising Together, The Female Vision and The Female Advantage. Williams is a pioneer in coaching and executive leadership in Spain and the U.S.A. with a career spanning over four decades.

There will be a book signing at the end of the event in the room next to the entrance of IE University

With simultaneous translation from English to Spanish

Some structures transcend time and borders, and have an enormous effect on the future of their surroundings. So it is with the Segovia Aqueduct, a magnificent example of the grandeur and vision of the Roman Empire in the lands it conquered. Dominica Contreras from the San Quirce de Segovia Royal Academy of History and Art, and leading expert in the dating of Segovia’s Aqueduct, is the author of the book El misterio del Acueducto de Segovia: vicisitudes y datación. She will explore this theme with the Professor of Archaeology at Madrid’s Autonóma University, Joaquín Barrio. Originally from Segovia, Barrio is a specialist in archaeological heritage conservation and restoration.

There will be a book signing after the event in the room next to the main entrance of IE University.

Event in Spanish

Creators like writers, journalists, poets, storytellers, and filmmakers use different registers to transmit a narrative and images to others. What are their techniques, their voices, what mental and psychological training do those artists need, especially when they are undertaking more than one of these disciplines at the same time? Are there creative masks to put on and take off? Mariana Torres and Hugo Martín will read their own texts and talk about their creative process, their obsessions and their quests.

Torres, Brazilian writer and filmmaker, living in Spain, is a founding member of Escuela de Escritores. In 2015 she published the book of stories The Secret Body. She directed the short film Rascacielos, which won awards at various film festivals. In 2017 she was included in the Bogotá 39 list, a selection of the best young writers in Latin America by Hay Festival. Martín Isabel is a young poet from Segovia who has published Monstruo maúlla (First Prize in Poetry of the XXXIII Young Art Contest of the Junta de Castilla y León, 2021/22) and La sensibilidad enferma (XIX National Youth Poetry Prize Grande-Aguirre , 2023).

The event will be moderated by Laura Ventura, literature professor at Madrid’s Carlos III University and journalist for the Argentinian newspaper La Nación.

Event in Spanish

"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice." Thus begins One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez’s masterpiece. Now, 57 years after its publication, the platform Netflix is bringing it to the small screen.

Directed by Alex García López and Laura Mora, the action unfolds in 16 chapters following the steps of Aureliano Buendía, his extended family and the microcosm of the now legendary Macondo. This is the first time this work has been adapted into a series format, and it has the support of García Márquez's family.

The preview at the Hay Festival Segovia will include an exhibition of photographs from the serie in the cloister of IE University and a conversation with its two scriptwriters, Natalia Santa and Camila Brugés, together with Lourdes Fernández Bencosme, professor at the IE School of Humanities, moderated by the general director of PRISA audio, María Jesús Espinosa de los Monteros.

Ernesto Delgado, the winner of the 36th edition of the Loewe Poetry Prize for Creation for his work Pálpito, will have a conversation about his influences and his work with the poet Ben Clark, winner of the Loewe prize in 2017, as well as the 2023 Premio de la Crítica de poesía castellana.

There will be a book signing at the end of the event

Event in Spanish

James Massiah is a poet and musician from South London. His work is known for exploring topics such as sexuality, mortality or hedonism through performance, writing and visual media.

Massiah has been commissioned to produce work for the BBC, The Guardian and it has been features in campaigns for Dior, Nike or Lotus, among others. He has performed readings of his work in spaces such as the Tate Modern, the Institute of Contemporary Arts in Boston and the Houses of Parliament (UK). Throughout the last few years, he has also become one of the most sought-after DJs within London’s underground movement.

On this occasion, James will perform a reading from his ongoing series New Poems in which he details his day-to-day experiences of life, love and labour in London. He will also share other pieces that he has been working on lately.

There will be a book signing at the end of the event in the room next to the entrance of IE University.

Simultaneous translation from English into Spanish with subtitles on the screen.

Women in literature often star in powerful stories that always seem to have a fissure of a wound running through them. And that wound is portrayed not as an impediment, but as their incentive to move on in life and, especially, in love. These many truncated stories, which rise together in transcendence over hurt, is what Elvira Sastre and Eva Orúe will talk about.

Sastre, born in Segovia, has published the collections of poems Cuarenta y tres maneras de soltarse el pelo, Baluarte, Ya nadie baila and La soledad de un cuerpo acostumbrado a la herida. She works with musicians, singer-songwriters and other poets. Her novel Días sin ti won the Biblioteca Breve Prize (2019), and she has released Las vulnerabilidades, in which she combines drama with psychological suspense. The writer fills theatres and concert halls with her poetry recitals, and shares her poetry, experiences and her personal world with readers online.

Orúe is a journalist, writer and cultural manager, and currently directs the Madrid Book Fair.

There will be a book signing at the end of the event at the bandstand in the Plaza Mayor

Event in Spanish

William Graves, son and literary executor of Robert Graves, comes to the Hay Festival Segovia to talk about his father's literary legacy. An important part of this legacy were his letters from Mallorca, an intense correspondence which Graves maintained with writers, artists, muses and celebrities of the time. This immense archive is kept at the Robert Graves Foundation in Deià, the town to which Graves moved after leaving the United Kingdom with a resounding Good-Bye to All That. William will read excerpts from the letters, and other narrative and poetic texts by his father. And what better way to celebrate the recent publication of Goodbye to All That, in an unabridged edition with a new translation.

The voices of other writers and artists present in Segovia will accompany the reading, including Caroline Michel, Giles Tremlett, Ana Bosch, Andrew Brown, Pilar Álvare, Almudena Bermejo and Debbi Christophers, and His Britannic Majesty's Ambassador to the Kingdom of Spain, Alex Ellis, who will read paragraphs from his other works including I, Claudius, and The White Goddess. The readers will be joined by Félix Valdivieso as master of ceremonies.

In case of rain, the event will be moved to the IE University Sala Capitular

With readings in Spanish and English

Tamara Duda is a Ukrainian writer, journalist and translator born in Kyiv, and author of two novels. Her literary debut, Daughter, won her the prestigious BBC Book of the Year Award 2019.

With the outbreak of war in the Donbas, she abandoned everything to serve as a volunteer at the front. In 2014 and 2015, she and her husband raised funds and bought and delivered equipment and aid to Ukrainian soldiers. The author spent two years in combat areas and refers to the period as the most tragic, fascinating, intense and inspiring time of her life. The novel chronicles this experience, unfolding in Donetsk during the spring and summer of 2014. The events and stories in the novel are not fictional, but based on the author's experiences and the people she met while volunteering with the Ukrainian Army.

Duda will talk about her experiences in life and as a writer with Juan Carlos Galindo, a journalist for El País, author of the novel Hontoria, and contributor to Onda Cero’s literary talk show.

There will be a book signing at the end of the event in the room next to the entrance of IE University

With simultaneous translation from English to Spanish

How can philosophy promote fundamental values to help us understand today's society?

In this conversation, Santiago Iñiguez de Onzoño, PhD in Moral Philosophy, President of IE University, and author of several books including Pensadoras y visionarias: Las ideas de diez filósofas aplicadas a la gestión and Global Leaders: la importancia de la formación para los directivos del futuro, will reflect on education and philosophy by exploring the importance of critical thinking and the humanities in business management. He will address how these disciplines can prepare future leaders to face the ethical and social challenges of business and society.

Santiago Iñiguez de Onzoño will speak with Beatriz González Cristóbal, entrepreneur, expert in the luxury sector with top international positions in companies such as Bvlgari, LVMH and Hermés and media advisor, Beatriz Cortázar, a journalist, writer and contributor to television programs, and Gloria Lomana, a journalist and expert in communication and female leadership, founder of 50x50 Gender Leadership.

There will be a book signing at the end of the event in the room next to the entrance of IE University.

Event in Spanish

The British Council School Orchestra is formed by school students, teachers from the Music21 programme, and alumni who get together to enjoy musical expression. Their repertoire includes from baroque and classical pieces to popular and current ones. The school is committed to musical development, not only for the artistic results that are gained through learning, but also for the values that are acquired through teamworking, which include loyalty, challenge, flexibility, resilience, and care for one another.

The British Council School is a bicultural School which contributes to the British Council’s global mission of promoting British culture and its language, as well as building connections with cultures from all around the world.

To improve on an emotional and sexual level, the first thing is to know yourself. From there, we can help others in their personal growth. That is why advice is very important, putting yourself in the hands of those who can help us and being the people we want to be.

María Esclapez is a health psychologist with training in Clinical and Health Psychology, Clinical Sexology, couples therapist and sex coach. As a popularizer she has collaborated with numerous media outlets, both written (El País, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Elle), and audiovisual Telecinco and RTVE. She has published five books: Sexual Intelligence, Love Your Sex, I Love Me, I Love You, Your Safe Place and the novel Mujeres que arden. Marta Segrelles is a psychologist and has written Hug the Girl You Were and Dear Mom: You Hurt Me.

At the end of the event, the author will sign copies of her work

Event in Spanish

Human beings are conditioned by multiple factors that shape their lives. In the past, women were born into a masculine world, put at a disadvantage from the start simply by being women. However, reality and literature are full of stories of people who defied the role that others had chosen for them, or rather for her. Sonsoles Ónega explores this in Las hijas de la criada, the latest Premio Planeta prize-winner that has garnered a legion of followers.

Ónega is a journalist, writer and host of the leading afternoon television program Y ahora Sonsoles. Author of other novels such as Calle Habana, esquina Obispo , Donde Dios no estuvo and Después del amor, she will talk about her work and the characters within it with Ana Gavín, director of Editorial Relations at Grupo Planeta.

There will be a book signing at the end of the event in the room next to the entrance of IE University

Event in Spanish

Culture doesn’t live in an ivory tower, it’s a street weapon, like technology. Both are dual, like today's digital products. They can be used to call your mom, or trigger a military objective. This is the New Cultural Revolution of China & Co., making us all barbarians. Culture and technology are soft power spearheads, born in the USA. They are the faithful squires of hard power – economy and armies. Technology can be a military as well as a cultural weapon. From this perspective, two polemicists, Enrique Dans and José Félix Valdivieso, will try to shed light on the barbaric technological nature of culture.

There is no technology issue that Enrique Dans has not touched. His blog >ED is among the most read in the world. He is also the author of the bestseller Todo vuelve a cambiar ('Everything Changes Again'). José Félix Valdivieso is the author of several books of poetry, short stories and graffiti. His essay China para los nuevos bárbaros ('China for the New Barbarians') was chosen as Book of the Week by leading Spanish dailies El País and El Mundo.

"Spain is obsessed with British culture", "British writers can’t get enough of Spanish history". Two writers who have lived in and written about each other’s countries will consider whether these truisms hold water. We will look at where this mutual fascination comes from, where it’s going and the role of culture in the wider UK/Spain relationship. Anna Bosch is a journalist for RTVE, specialising in international news. She has been correspondent in London, Washington and Madrid, is co-author of Europa soy yo and author of El año que llegó Putin. Giles Tremlett is an author, journalist and biographer based in Madrid. He has written six narrative non-fiction books and biographies that have been published in the US, UK and Spain. A former foreign correspondent, he has travelled widely across Iberia, the Maghreb and Latin America.

The discussion will be moderated by Debbi Christophers, cultural attaché at the British Embassy in Madrid.

At the end of the event, the authors will sign copies of their books

Event in Spanish

Journalism, a fundamental pillar of democratic societies, has become a symbol of the illiberal attrition which has taken off over the second decade of the 21st century, with emerging strands of populism, the victory of Trump, Brexit, Bolsonaro, and the situation in Catalonia to name but a few factors. These phenomena, which have demonstrated the weakness of journalism to defend the strength of the right to information, illustrate the loss of respect for the old fourth power of politics. If journalism is not feared, its function is not respected. What is more, the digital environment —atomising news into short bursts of reports that generate echo chambers within social networks, from which information is consumed according to the biases of each community of identity— has debased the currency of journalism. If truth lacks value, journalism loses its meaning.

Journalist Teodoro León Gross, author of the recent La muerte del periodismo, will explore this subject with three leading Spanish journalists: Jorge Bustos, Carlos Franganillo and Karina Sainz Borgo. Gross has worked with newspapers including El País, El Mundo and ABC. Bustos is Deputy Editor of El Mundo; political commentator in current affairs programs on Cope, La Sexta and Telecinco. He published Casi in 2024, adding to his other works Asombro y desencanto, Crónicas biliares and El hígado de Prometeo. Franganillo moved from his time at TVE to direct and present the evening news at Telecinco. He is the winner of the Ondas Award (2019), the gold medal at the New York Festival (2014) and the International Press Club’s award for best correspondent (2016). Venezuelan journalist and writer based in Spain, Sainz Borgo is currently a columnist and reporter for ABC; she has also worked with Onda Cero and Vozpópuli. A prominent figure in literature of the Venezuelan diaspora, her first novel, La hija de la española, was translated into 20 languages and became an international success. This was followed by Crónicas barbitúricas, El tercer país; and La isla del doctor Schubert.

There will be a book signing at the end of the event in the room next to the main entrance

Event in Spanish

Can you write about a misfortune and at the same time read it as restorative? People have many faces, and pain and also redemption are imprinted on them. A multipresence to which is added the gaze that others place on us and that also shapes us. This is what the Dutch writer Jente Posthuma explores in her writing. She will talk to Irene Hernández Velasco about her work and how her personal experiences influence it.

Posthuma debuted with Mensen zonder uitstraling in 2016, a critical and sales success, which was nominated for the Dioraphte Literatour awards, the Hebban Debuut Award and the ANV Debutanten. Her second novel, What I'd Rather Not Think About, has placed her as a finalist for the International Booker Prize 2024. Hernández Velasco is the head of the Culture section of El Confidencial.

The event will be presented by the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Spain, Roel Nieuwenkamp.

At the end of the event, the author will sign copies of her book in a room next to the IE University entrance

Event with simultaneous translation from English to Spanish

Science and art are disciplines that often take seemingly opposite paths. But each, in its own field, seeks to provide answers to society's most important questions. The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, an eminently scientific institution, is aware of the need to involve agents from across society’s spectrum, especially artists, so that both disciplines may learn from each other's research and output.

Ana Prendes, assistant curator at Arts at CERN, will talk with Guillermo Solana, Spanish philosopher, doctor of Philosophy, professor of Aesthetics and Theory of the Arts at the Autonomous University of Madrid and artistic director of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid.

The event will be moderated by Ángel Cárdenas, expert manager in Latin America.

Event in Spanish

They walk among us. And they are part of our everyday lives. The gods of Mount Olympus and the heroes of classical antiquity are the protagonists of a fascinating series of myths that underpin what we call Western culture. And they never cease to amaze us. Modernising these myths and making them accessible to all is the aim of Pequeña historia de la mitología clásica by Emilio del Río, with illustrations by Julius. Del Río will talk about modernity and the relevance of myths in our lives with writer and journalist Carlos Aganzo.

Del Río is an academic, writer, communicator, and professor of Latin Language and Linguistics at Madrid’s Complutense University. His feature on RNE, Verba volant, has become a real radio success, after the success of books such as Latin lovers, Calamares a la romana or Locos por los clásicos. Aganzo is the author of some twenty books of poetry and as many travel books. Former director of Diario de Ávila and El Norte de Castilla, he is currently director of the Vocento Foundation.

Event in Spanish