Liliana Blum

She loves to adopt dogs from the street, feed pigeons, watch horror movies, and combine coffee with cookies, pastries or cake. She was born in Durango, in 1974, and although almost no one knows her city, she really likes it. As a narrator she has published the novels El extraño caso de Lenny Goleman (Young Planet, 2022), Cara de liebre (Seix Barral, 2020), El monstruo pentápodo (Bordes, 2019; Tusquets, 2017), Pandora (MaxiTusquets, 2020; Tusquets, 2015) and the books of short stories Un descuido cósmico (Tusquets, 2023), Todas hemos perdido algo (Tusquets, 2020), Tristeza de los cítricos (Páginas de Espuma, 2019), No me pases de largo (Literal Publishing, 2013), Residuos de espanto (Ficticia Editorial, 2012), Yo sé cuándo expira la leche (Instituto Municipal de Cultura de Durango, 2011), The curse of Eve and other stories (Host Publications, 2008), Vidas de catálogo (Fondo Editorial Tierra Adentro, 2007), ¿En qué se nos fue la mañana? (Instituto Tamaulipeco para la Cultura y las Artes, 2005) y La maldición de Eva (Ediciones de Barlovento, 2003). She studied comparative literature at The University of Kansas, and has a master's degree in education with a specialty in humanities from the Institute of Technology and Superior Studies of Monterrey. 

Other activities involving the participant:

The Pleasure of Reading Gala
Literature with eggs and machaca

Eva Mejuto

(Spain, 1975)

PhD in journalism from the Santiago de Compostela University (USC), she worked in the publishing sector from 1998 to 2016 and since then, until now, she works in the field of cultural management. She taught for ten years at the master's degree in Illustrated Books and audiovisual animation at the University of Vigo, and completed her doctoral thesis on social realism in the illustrated album Álbum testimonio, acercar la realidad a los niños y niñas. Specialist in reader mediation, children's literature and illustrated album, she teaches training courses for teachers and mediators, as well as writing workshops and reader meetings with students from kindergarten to secondary education. She coordinates the International Children's and Youth Book Fair of Pontevedra, and participates in various cultural management projects related to the world of books and reading.

In the field of literary creation, she is the author of various adaptations of traditional tales for illustrated album format, with great success with a wide audience and translated into more than ten languages, among which are The shy fly's house  (Kalandraka 2009) and Run, Pumpkin, Run, Three Wishes and Maria (OQO).

In juvenile fiction, she has published the novels 22 segundos (Xerais, 2017 and Lóguez 2020), the first Galician juvenile novel that deals with trans childhood, with an edition in Spanish by the publisher Lóguez and Memoria do silencio (Xerais, 2019) and A ladroa da biblioteca de Meirás (General 2022), (with these two she was a finalist for the Jules Verne Prize for Youth Literature). 

In 2021, she was awarded the School Libraries Prize as the most read author of the year, and her children's narrative work Neko (Oqueleo, 2021) received the award for the best children's book at the Follas Novas Awards. 

In children's literature, she has also published the novel: O día que choveron gatos, a finalist work for the Merlin Prize for Children's Literature. In theater, she has written the play Os contos do lobicán, winner of the Barriga Verde Theatre Award for puppets of the Galician Cultural Industries Agency. In a short story, with the book Matilde she won the Matilde Bares Award for Equality. 

She manages the collection of illustrated albums Pequena memoria of the Xerais publishing house, on historical memory for young audiences, in which she published: A lavandeira de San Simón, about the civil war in Galicia, with illustrations by Bea Gregores. This collection received the Follas Novas Award for the Best Publishing Initiative in 2020. She has recently released the album Cando leo, a tribute to the book and reading with illustrations by Bea Gregores (Spanish version will appear soon) edited by Xerais. Con Triqueta publishing house, she has recently published the albums: Animalfabeto, with illustrations by Nuria Díaz and El gran circo de las palabras, with illustrations by Fernando Martín.

She has also published in the field of dissemination with the book of interviews Memoria diversa, about the memory of the LGBTIQA+ collective in Galicia, with photographs by Carme Cerviño, edited by Capicúa for the Provincial Deputation of Coruña, work awarded with the Follas Novas Prize for the best dissemination work in 2023. She is currently carrying out the second part of the project, focused on the LGBTIQA+ movements of Galicia in the 90s and the beginning of the 21st century.

She was a literary collaborator in the TVG program Zig-zag diario, and currently does reviews of juvenile children's books at the Cultural Diary of the Galician Radio, and coordinates the podcast of the Xunta de Galicia on books and libraries: Entreliñas. 

Other activities involving the participant:

Illustrated books across oceans: editing, illustrating, writing from Galicia

Ave Barrera

Ave Barrera (Guadalajara, 1980) es escritora y editora. Su primera novela, titulada Puertas demasiado pequeñas (Alianza, 2016), obtuvo el premio Sergio Galindo y se encuentra traducida al inglés como The Forgery (Charco Press, 2022). Su novela Restauración (Paraíso Perdido) obtuvo el Premio Lipp en 2018 y fue publicada en España por Editorial Contraseña. Ha publicado cuentos y ensayos en diversas antologías y medios electrónicos. Desde 2019 coordina la Colección Vindictas, de la UNAM. En 2023 recibió la beca de la Fundación Kislak para realizar una residencia de escritura en la Universidad de Florida, en la ciudad de Gainesville.

Other activities involving the participant:

One Thousand Young People with Mia Couto, FIL in Romance Languages Award

María Emilia Beyer

She is an expert in telling stories about science in exhibitions, radio, television and written media. She loves reading and writing; she is the author of nine popular science books for children and young people. She loves to design interactive exhibitions, such as Ciencia con sabor a chocolate and Mujeres inventoras. She works tirelessly to bring girls closer to science; she has been a master mentor of the New York Academy of Sciences for the international program 1000 Girls, 1000 Futures. Internationally, she is a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) and of the Board of Directors of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) for Mexico. Since 2020 she has held the position of Director of Universum, the Science Museum of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Her favorite role in life is to be Mily's mom.

Other activities involving the participant:

The language of plants and animals
The letters of the garden
Wild sex
Mental health in the virtual world
Space science

Elma Correa

She's a storyteller. She coordinates an international writers' meeting in Baja California and manages @habitaciones_propias, a virtual community where the women of the world share the spaces where they create. She has a degree in Spanish language and literature , a master in sociocultural studies and doctor in society, space and power. She teaches at the Faculties of Arts, Pedagogy and Human Sciences of the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC) and teaches creative writing workshops. She has been a fellow of the Stimulus Program for Artistic Creation and Development of Baja California (PECDABC) and the National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA). Her texts have been published in national and international journals, and have been included in various anthologies. She compiled Vacunas contra la poesía (SCBC, 2020), the Mexican section of Frontera Norte. Antología de narrativa chilena y mexican (Cinosargo, 2020), Ni una sola palabra (UANL, 2021) y Mexicanas 2 (Fondo Blanco, 2022). She wrote Que parezca un accidente (Nitro/Press, 2018), Mentiras que no te conté (UDG, 2021) with which she received the XX Juan José Arreola National Short Story Award; Llorar de fiesta (BUAP, 2022), Lo simple (INBAL, 2023) San Luis Potosí Amparo Dávila Fine Arts Short Story Award 2022, and La novia del león (Nitro/Press, 2024). 

Other activities involving the participant:

The Pleasure of Reading Gala
Literature with eggs and machaca
Annual International Storytellers Conference