Guadalajara International Book Fair

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Guest of Honor Pavilion

Spain, Guest of Honor
Guest of Honor Pavilion
Crossroads. Music, poetry and literature

Troubadours, kharjas, hymns, popular songs, sacred, secular or protest songs, the combination of rhythm and rhyme has allowed human beings to preserve memory, transmit new ideas, create spaces of coexistence. And although, over the centuries, poetry, music, and literature have become established as autonomous and independent arts, they continue to be found in that ancient gift of flow where Federico García Lorca and Leonard Cohen dance a Little Viennese Waltz; where the poet and musician Bob Dylan is recognized with the Nobel Prize. Because Times are changing and songs are also literature. The writers whose literary output does not forgo the sounds, songs, and music that inhabit the streets, bars, and bedrooms, and that resonates with love and discord, know this well. In La educación física, the third novel by Rosario Villajos, her protagonist is a 90s teen who listens to grunge and music in English only, although "the only indulgence she allows herself is that she continues to love Christina y Los Subterráneos." As in her previous books, in this novel the writer introduces music as a soundtrack of an era, as a way of defining the character and her relationship with her period. Songs - words aligned in a metric beat in sync with the music, where multiple blends and influences from all cultures of the world come together - are another way to create.

Christina Rosenvinge, singer, songwriter, poet, in her latest book, Debut.Cuadernos y canciones, reviews her 25-year musical career. In this intimate book, the author describes the songs and the times when they were written, testimonies of life fragments, places, meetings, experiences that took place offstage. Both creators will discuss the inter-artistic relationships that occur between music, poetry and literature, both in their lives and in their books.

Participants: Christina Rosenvinge, Rosario Villajos

Moderator: Marta Fernández

Christina Rosenvinge

Invitado de Honor

Christina Rosenvinge is a Spanish composer and performer of Danish origin who often defines herself as an electric singer-songwriter. One of the most important Spanish voices of her generation, Christina has spent the last forty years displaying creative freedom, passion, talent and courage. Since she began her career in the early eighties, Christina has not stopped. Her track record includes the most diverse projects: over ten studio albums, including the Premio Nacional de las Músicas Actuales for Un hombre Rubio (2018); the book Debut, in which she compiles 26 years of lyrics, texts and an essay in which she connects music and literature; the leading role and composition of the soundtrack for Karen, the film that tells the story of Karen Blixen and, as musical director, composer and performer, her work on the play SAFO, which received excellent reviews. And now with The Sapphic Verses.

Other activities involving the participant:
Christina Rosenvinge

Rosario Villajos

Invitado de Honor

(Córdoba, 1978) is a “supporting author”. Educated in Fine Arts, she has worked in different industries, including music, film, arts and cultural.

She has published a graphic novel, Face (Ponent Mon, 2017), and three novels: Ramona (Mrs. Danvers, 2019), La muela (Aristas Martínez, 2021) and La educación física (Seix Barral, 2023), a work that received the 2023 Biblioteca Breve Award and was nominated for the European Strega Prize in 2024. In it, she addresses, from a teen's perspective, the subject of consent, the female body and the normalized violence it endures over time.

She currently combines life with a 32-hour job in information technology for popular science media and publishers. Since 2017, she has lived in Madrid, but she previously lived in Córdoba, Seville, Granada, Barcelona, Montpellier and London. She still has an Andalusian accent.

Other activities involving the participant:
Speak, wish

Marta Fernández

Invitado de Honor

Journalist and writer who studied Journalism at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She began her career at Diario 16 and Televisión Española (TVE). In 1997, she first appeared on camera on Telemadrid. Two years later, she became part of the founding team of CNN+. She remained with the news channel until 2007. That year, she joined Mediaset to take over the midday news program. She stayed with the Italian group until 2016 as a presenter for Informativos Telecinco and Noticias Cuatro, programs focused on political current affairs and special reports.

A regular contributor to the cultural magazine Jot Down and GQ, she joined El País in 2017.She later collaborated with Vanity Fair, where she directed and presented the book podcast "Nota al pie."Since 2013, she has participated in La Ventana on Cadena SER, and starting this season, she has her own segment on the program "Academia de saberes inútiles." In recent years, she has realized her dream of interviewing the writers she admires most and lending her voice to audiobooks.

She has published a novel, Te regalaré el mundo, and No te enamores de cobardes, a journey through the myths of cinema and literature. Her latest book is a historical essay on imposture: La mentira, Historia de impostores y engañados. However, the literary activity she dedicates the most energy to is being an advocate for Thomas Pynchon in Spain.

Other activities involving the participant:
Encounter with the strange: vibrations, ghosts, homes and insects
Portrait of a time with family
One-way trip from nowhere
The mystery of the imagination that creates (and destroys) worlds
"I'm here for you, no matter what." Friendship
Personal paradises
Speak, wish