Laura Fernández

Invitado de Honor

(Terrassa, 1981) is the author of six novels: Bienvenidos a Welcome (Elipsis, 2008; Literatura Random House, 2019), Wendolin Kramer (Seix Barral, 2011), La Chica Zombie (Seix Barral, 2013), El Show de Grossman (Aristas Martínez, 2013), Connerland (Literatura Random House, 2017) and La señora Potter no es exactamente Santa Claus (Literatura Random House, 2021). Her latest novel received the awards Premio Ojo Crítico de Narrativa 2021, Premio Finestres de Narrativa en Castellano 2021, Premio Las librerías Recomiendan for best fiction book of 2021, and Premio Kelvin 505, in addition to a Special Mention at the Ciutat de Barcelona Awards.

Her work has been translated into French, Italian, English and Japanese, and her stories have been included in numerous anthologies, and eventually gathered in a volume of selected stories entitled Damas, caballeros y planetas (Random, 2023). Her most recent work is a short essay on the world as a fantastic place entitled Hay un monstruo en el lago (Debate, 2024). Her stories have the punch of a Douglas Adams who has read too much Stella Gibbons, and the ambition of Thomas Pynchon's complex alternate world, but with a Stephen King-esque twist.

She is also a journalist and literary and music critic, and a passionate interviewer of writers. She currently writes mainly for El País, although she has contributed to an endless number of outlets. In the past, she also worked at a video rental store and had a band. She has two children and a lot of books by Philip K. Dick.

Other activities involving the participant:

Kafka and the zombie girl

Katixa Agirre

Invitado de Honor

(Vitoria-Gasteiz, 1981) is a Basque writer and professor of Audiovisual Communication at the Universidad del País Vasco. She has published two storybooks: Sua Falta Zaigu (2007, Elkar) and Habitat (2009, Elkar), and some stories for children and young adults, most notably the adventure saga of Amaia Lapitz, which already has three volumes.

In 2015, she published her first novel Atertu arte itxaron (Los turistas desganados), translated into several European languages and winner of the 111 Akademia Prize, as voted on by readers. In 2018, she wrote Amek ez dute (Mothers don't), published in 12 languages and adapted for the screen by filmmaker Mar Coll. In 2022, she published Berriz zentauro (De nuevo centauro), a speculative fiction set in the Paris of the future.

In 2019, she was selected in the “10 de 30” program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the internationalization of authors under 40. In recent years, she has traveled to numerous international fairs and festivals such as the Frankfurt Fair, the Quais du Polar in Lyon, the Toronto Mitive, and others.

She has participated in short story anthologies and film essays, and often collaborates in multidisciplinary projects with other artists from the Basque Country, such as the work Kax-Kax-Kax, together with violinist Maite Larburu, and Gorputzaren atzean, with video artist Josu Rekalde. She is currently working on her fourth novel and a television series.

Alberto Chimal

(Toluca, Mexico, 1970) is a writer and creative writing professor. Among other recognitions, in 2002 he received the Premio Nacional de Cuento and in 2014 the Premio de Narrativa Colima, both granted by Mexico’s National Institute of Fine Arts, for his short story collections Éstos son los días (2004) and Manda fuego (2013), respectively. In 2013, his novel La torre y el jardín was a finalist for the Premio Internacional de Novela Rómulo Gallegos. In 2016, his book La madre y la muerte / La partida, co-authored with Alberto Laiseca and Nicolás Arispe, was selected for the White Ravens catalog of the Frankfurt Book Fair. In 2019, his children’s book La Distante won the Premio internacional de la Fundación Cuatrogatos, and in 2021, his young adult novel La noche en la zona M won the Premio Internacional del Banco del Libro.

In addition, he has published two other novels, two creative writing manuals, two essay collections, and around twenty short story collections. As a screenwriter, he wrote the feature films 7:19 (2016), directed by Jorge Michel Grau, and Confesiones (2023), directed by Carlos Carrera. He has also written comics, including a collaboration for the graphic novel Batman:El Mundo (2021), published by DC Comics. For many years, he has been a promoter of writing through digital media and a prominent figure in fantasy literature in Mexico and Latin America.

His texts have been translated into a dozen languages and have appeared in international anthologies. He lives in Mexico City with his wife, fellow writer Raquel Castro.

www.albertochimal.com

Other activities involving the participant:

Annual International Storytellers Conference
Annual International Storytellers Conference
Annual International Storytellers Conference