Andrés Cota Hiriart

He is a zoologist, writer and science communicator. He studied biology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and a master's degree in a scientific documentary at the Imperial College London. He is the author of the books Fieras familiares (finalist I Libros del Asteroide Nonfiction Prize, 2022), El ajolote (Elefanta 3ed., 2024), Faunologías (Festina 2ed., 2024), Cabeza ajena (Moho, 2017) and from the children's book Madam Cuc, la dueña del paraíso (Elefanta, 2023). His texts are found in anthologies and media such as Revista de la Universidad, Gatopardo, Vice, Nexos, Letras Libres, Este_País, Wiered, among others. He has been a member of the National System of Art Creators (2018-2021), a speaker at TEDx and is the founder of the Society of Anonymous Scientists. He is currently the host of the podcast Masaje cerebral; he is a professor of literature at the Higher School of Cinema, and conducts the program Revista de la Universidad, on TV UNAM.

Other activities involving the participant:

Panel 4: The Communication of Science
Psychedelic biology. Secret colors of nature
Axolotl, traces of the little water monster in literature
Kamazootra, the most extravagant modes of reproduction in the animal kingdom

Berta García Faet

Invitado de Honor

(Valencia, 1988) She is the author of the essay El arte de encender las palabras (2023, Barlin) and several poetry collections, all published by La Bella Varsovia, including Corazonada (2023), which was awarded the TodosTusLibros Prize for Best Poetry Book of the Year by CEGAL (Spanish Confederation of Booksellers' Guilds and Associations); Una pequeña personalidad linda (2021); Los salmos fosforitos (2017), Premio Nacional de Poesía Joven Miguel Hernández 2018, presented by the Ministry of Culture; La edad de merecer (2015), translated into English by Kelsi vanada with the title The Eligible Age (2018, Song Bridge Press); and four other books of poetry, compiled in Corazón tradicionalista:Poesía 2008-2011 (2017).

She has translated Caren Beilin (for Los Tres Editores), Paul Legault (for Kriller71) and Blanca Llum Vidal (for Ultramarinos), and co-edited Estrellas vivas.Antología de poesía cursi (2024, Letraversal) with Juanpe Sánchez.

With a doctorate in Hispanic Studies from Brown University (USA), her academic research delves into topics such as childishness and sentimentality (her monograph Poéticas de la niñería will be published by Peter Lang in late 2024), animal rights, and areas of friction between Romance languages.

Winston Manrique Sabogal

He is a Colombian-Spanish journalist and founder and director of WMagazín, a global digital literary and cultural magazine based in Spain. His vocation is pan-Hispanic and itinerant, participating in the leading fairs and gatherings of writers and the book universe in both America and Europe. This pioneering project caters to a dual, analog, and virtual world, featuring special editions in PDF and print that enrich journalistic genres and explore new narratives through individual and group video interviews, photo stories, video stories, and video chats with both established and emerging authors, as well as professionals in the field.

He collaborates with the Spanish newspaper El País, where he worked for 19 years as an editor and head of books and literature for the Babelia supplement and the Culture section, and was co-editor of its digital edition and the blog Papeles perdidos. He has interviewed leading writers and book professionals from around the world over the past few decades and has written reports on literary creation, the publishing industry, and the promotion of reading. From this work came the titles El destino del libro, Latinoamérica contra los tópicos and Historias del Boom.50 años de la literatura que cambió el español (El País-Amazon).

In Colombia, he worked for the newspapers El Espectador and El Tiempo, the Colombian news agency Colprensa (Research Unit), and the radio newspaper Agrohuila. He reported on issues ranging from the coffee crisis and alliances between paramilitary and religious sects, to social and cultural trends.

He is the author of La gran transformación: la belleza, el amor, el sexo y la felicidad en el siglo XXI (Galaxia Gutenberg), a work that analyzes the accelerated metamorphosis of these four great desires that are changing life. Over two hundred people, from writers and artists to philosophers and sociologists, have contributed to his journalistic articles since the 1990s.

Other activities involving the participant:

"Childness" Landscape in motion
A question of class: stories of fiction and non-fiction
Paths in time
Crossroads. Journalism and literature
European Literature Festival
Two-way journeys of literary agents And a tribute to Antonia Kerrigan