Luis Mateo Díez

Invitado de Honor

(Villablino, León, 1942) is a writer and member of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) since his election in 2000. He co-founded the poetry magazine Claraboya and, in 1972, his poetry book Señales de humo was published.

His published novels include: Apócrifo del clavel y la espina (1974 Café Gijón Award), La fuente de la edad (1986, Premio Nacional de Narrativa and Premio de la Crítica awards), Las horas completas (1990), La ruina del cielo. Un obituario (1999, Premio Nacional de Narrativa and Premio de la Crítica awards), Los frutos de la niebla (2008, Premio de la Crítica de Castilla y León award) and El amo de la pista (2024). El reino de Celama (2003) brings together his three novels set in this imaginary land, and in Fábulas del sentimiento (2013), he grouped the four short volumes of novels from that narrative cycle.

His short stories include: Relato de Babia (1981), El árbol de los cuentos. Cuentos reunidos (1973-2004) (2006), La cabeza en llamas (2012, Francisco Umbral Award), Celama (un recuento) (2022) and El limbo de los cines (2023, with illustrations by Emilio Urberuaga).

 His books of non-fiction and diverse genres include El porvenir de la ficción (1992), La mano del sueño (Algunas consideraciones sobre el arte narrativo, la imaginación y la memoria) (Induction speech into the RAE, given on May 20, 2001), Orillas de la ficción (2010) and Los desayunos del Café Borenes (2015).

In addition to those already mentioned, he has received the Premio Castilla y León de las Letras and the Premio de Literatura de la Comunidad de Madrid awards. In 2020, he received the award Premio Nacional de las Letras Españolas, and in 2023, the Cervantes Award.

Other activities involving the participant:

Writing goodbye
Bibliodiversity, reading and critical thinking. A meeting with Lorenzo Silva

Pilar Adón

Invitado de Honor

(Madrid, 1971) has received the National Narrative Award, the Critics’ Award, the Francisco Umbral Book of the Year Award and the Cálamo Otra Mirada Award for her novel Of Beasts and Fowls (2024, Open Letter).

She has also published the novels Las efímeras (2015, Galaxia Gutenberg) and Las hijas de Sara (2003, Alianza), as well as the long, illustrated storybook Eterno amor (2021, Páginas de Espuma), and the collections of short stories La vida sumergida (2017, Galaxia Gutenberg), El mes más cruel (2010, Impedimenta), which earned her the FNAC New Talent award, and Viajes inocentes (2005, Páginas de Espuma), for which she won the Ojo Crítico de Narrativa Award.

She has written several books of poetry: Da dolor (2020), Las órdenes (Madrid Booksellers' Guild Book of the Year Award 2018), Mente animal (2014) and La hija del cazador (2011), all published by La Bella Varsovia.

She has translated works by Penelope Fitzgerald, John Fowles, Iris Murdoch, Edith Wharton, and others.

Other activities involving the participant:

Encounter with the strange: vibrations, ghosts, homes and insects
Poetry Room

Ezra Alcázar

(Mexico City, 1993) is a short story enthusiast, journalist, editor, cultural promoter, and reader. He studied Communication Sciences at the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences at UNAM. He worked on the Creative Writing Program at the Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana, where he is currently on the Editorial Board of its Inundación Castálida magazine. In 2018, he edited and selected the book Románov.Crónica de un final 1917-1918 for the publisher Páginas de Espuma, and in 2021 he edited the Antología de poesía mexicana del sido XIX for the 21 for 21 collection, which was given away to one hundred thousand people throughout Mexico.

He is currently a member of the management team at the Economic Culture Fund, he collaborates with several media outlets, where he discusses culture, and he spearheads the political and social analysis TV program “El Desfiladero” on Canal Once.

Other activities involving the participant:

Poetry Room

Ángeles Encinar

Invitado de Honor

(Madrid) is a professor of Spanish Literature at Saint Louis University, Madrid, and a corresponding member of the Royal Spanish Academy since 2021. She has a degree in Philosophy and Letters from the Complutense University of Madrid, and a doctorate in Hispanic Philology from Washington University in Saint Louis (1988).

She has been a visiting professor at the University of Texas in Austin, Stanford University, Saint Louis University in Missouri, Washington University in Saint Louis and Växjö Universitet (Sweden).

She has published more than thirty books on contemporary Spanish and Latin American literature. These include: edition of Voces del espejo (2024) by Luis Mateo Díez;edition of Territorios imaginarios by Luis Mateo Díez (2023); edition of Celama (un recuento) (2022) by Luis Mateo Díez; critical edition of Las cuatro esquinas (2022) by Manuel Longares;El arte de contar. Los mundos ficcionales de Luis Mateo Díez y José María Merino (2017, co-editor); Siguiendo el hilo. Estudios sobre el cuento español actual (2015); Cuento español actual (1992-2012) (2014); En breve. Cuentos de escritoras españolas (1975-2010). Estudios y antología (2012, co-editor); critical edition of La orilla oscura (2011) by José María Merino;Escritoras y compromiso. Literatura española e hispanoamericana de los siglos XX y XXI (2009, co-editor); Género y géneros. Escritura y Escritoras iberoamericanas, vols. I y II (2006, co-editor); La pluralidad narrativa. Escritores españoles contemporáneos (1984-2004) (2005, co-editor); Cuentos de este siglo. 30 narradoras españolas contemporáneas (1995, co-editor); Cuento español contemporáneo (1993), and Novela española actual: La desaparición del héroe (1990).