The University of Guadalajara, through a project created by the Environmental Sciences Museum as part of the University’s Cultural Center, and with the support of the Guadalajara International Book Fair, has established the José Emilio Pacheco City and Nature Award. The prize, which will be given for the first time this year, will be dedicated to poetry. The winning author, who must write in Spanish and have at least ten unpublished poems or poems published in the last five years that are related to nature, urban sustainability, socio-ecological harmony and environmental conservation, will be given a purse of US $10,000. The award is dedicated to poet José Emilio Pacheco, whose work explores the duality between cities and nature.
Created by the University of Guadalajara, and with the collaboration of the National Institute for Indigenous Languages, the Culture Ministry, the National Commission for the Development of the Indigenous Cultures and Jalisco’s Department of Education, the American Indigenous Literature Award is granted to enrich, protect and promote the legacy and richness of Mexico’s indigenous peoples through literature in all its forms, and to and acknowledge and further develop the careers and works of indigenous authors. The award, which carries a purse of US $25,000, will be given for the fourth time at the 2016 FIL Guadalajara.
The SM Ibero-American Award for Literature for Children and Young People was implemented in 2005, the year of Ibero-American literature, with the goal of promoting literature for children and young people throughout Ibero-America. The award is given out each year during the Guadalajara International Book Fair to recognize writers of literature for children and young people and carries a purse of US $30,000.
With the goal of creating a network that helps to encourage the work of illustrators of books for children and young people in Ibero-America, the SM Foundation and the FIL Guadalajara invites illustrators to submit their work to be included in the Annual Ibero-American Illustration Catalog. The 45 works selected will be displayed in an exposition at the Guadalajara International Book Fair. In addition, illustrators will have the opportunity to work on an illustrated book with Ediciones SM and the winner will be given US $5,000. You can find more information at: www.iberoamericailustra.com
Program Search
Literary Program
Spain, Guest of Honor
Literary Program
Paths in time
Spain, Guest of Honor
Literary Program
Paths in time
The relationship between historical accounts and fiction is a formula that has worked over time, and has had various expressions in Spanish literature. But perhaps never with the success and proliferation of recent years thanks to authors who have given their novels an international setting. As a result, we have readers who are eager to learn about this literary genre who may be looking for clues as to where we come from through the most relevant events of other times. Of their creation, of how these narratives are built and documented.
Participants: María Dueñas, Santiago Posteguillo
Moderator: Winston Manrique Sabogal
María Dueñas
Invitado de Honor(Puertollano, Ciudad Real, 1964) has a PhD in English Philology. After two decades dedicated to academia, she entered the world of literature in 2009 with The Time in Between, the novel that made her a publishing sensation and whose television adaptation by Antena 3 earned numerous awards and spectacular ratings success. Her later works, The Heart Has Its Reasons (2012), The Vineyard (2015) and Las hijas del Capitán (2018), continued to appeal to readers and critics alike.
Translated into more than 35 languages and with millions of copies sold worldwide, María Dueñas has become one of the most highly regarded authors in Spain and Latin America.
Sira is her fifth novel.
Santiago Posteguillo
Invitado de HonorPosteguillo has a European PhD from the University of Valencia and is currently a professor at Jaume I University in Castellón. He has studied creative literature in the United States, and linguistics and translation at various universities in the United Kingdom.
In 2006, he published his first novel, Africanus.El hijo del cónsul, the start of a trilogy that continued with Las legiones malditas and La traición de Roma. He is also the author of the Trilogy of Trajan, made up Los asesinos del emperador, Circo Máximo and La legión perdida.
He received the Premio a las Letras Award from the Government of Valencia in 2010, the Barcino Award for Historic Novel of Barcelona in 2014 and, in 2018, he received the Planeta Award for his novel Yo, Julia, which was followed by Y Julia retó a los dioses in 2020. He is the best-selling author of Spanish historical novels with more than 4,500,000 readers. In 2018, he was a guest lecturer at Cambridge University's Sydney Sussex College.
After the success of I Am Rome, he continued his most ambitious literary project: a series of novels dedicated to the life of Julius Caesar.
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
The "other people": animals and nature in literature
Crossroads. Journalism and literature
European Literature Festival
Two-way journeys of literary agents And a tribute to Antonia Kerrigan
Sunday December 01
13:00 to 13:50
Pabellón de España, Expo Guadalajara
Spain, Guest of Honor
Literary Program
Tradition and modernity in the Spanish and Mexican short story
Spain, Guest of Honor
Literary Program
Tradition and modernity in the Spanish and Mexican short story
The spoken word is one of the distinctive features of story-telling that remains valid to this day. In addition, the popular story has left its mark on a large number of today's authors, who bring back motifs and structures and transform them with an innovative and experimental touch because, as has been noted on various occasions, the story is a "test lab." Fragmentation, disintegration and generic hybridization have been shown to prevail in today's short story. In the literary landscape of recent decades, authors and a plethora of trends coexist, most notably a renewed neo-realism, and a remarkable, unusual or inexplicable fantasy.
Participants: Luis Mateo Díez, Pilar Adón, Ezra Alcázar
Moderator: Ángeles Encinar
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).
Sunday December 01
20:00 to 20:50
Pabellón de España, Expo Guadalajara
Guest of Honor Pavilion
Spain, Guest of Honor
Guest of Honor Pavilion
Meetings (and misunderstandings). María Zambrano and Alfonso Reyes
Spain, Guest of Honor
Guest of Honor Pavilion
Meetings (and misunderstandings). María Zambrano and Alfonso Reyes
"I was invited to Mexico by the Casa de España, which would soon be called Colegio de México. It was a really unusual gesture, no country wanted us Spanish refugees, only Mexico, only Mexico, I wouldn't tire of saying it, like a prayer." And in this operation by Mexican philosopher María Zambrano to save the Spanish intelligentsia, the Colegio de México, and especially Alfonso Reyes, its director of twenty years, was a central figure in welcoming and protecting the writers and intellectuals of the Second Republic. In February 1939, the young disciple of Ortega y Gasset arrived as a professor at the University of Morelia, where she wrote Filosofía y poesía, one of the essential texts for understanding her approach to poetry. During her months at Morelia, Zambrano would write to Reyes to keep him up to date on her activities. Those first exchanges would soon cross over the threshold of formality to become a deep friendship. Reyes and Zambrano exchanged letters between 1939 and 1959. Despite being of very different backgrounds and ages, both thinkers shared the same feeling, that of citizens of a multiple, heterogeneous and diverse world, in which there is room for all peoples and cultures. It's the love of art, a fascination for the world of classics and mythology; an encyclopedic curiosity, literature and, of course, America, the issues of which these letters speak that forever bonded María Zambrano and Alfonso Reyes in mutual respect and admiration. An enriching friendship that will be discussed by Adolfo Castañón, Mexican writer, poet and essayist, a student of Alfonso Reyes' works, and Mercedes Gómez Blesa, writer, researcher and PhD in Philosophy whose investigation revolves around intellectuals in the Second Republic, and particularly around the figure of María Zambrano.
Participants: Mercedes Gómez Blesa, Adolfo Castañón
Moderator: Marifé Santiago Bolaños
Mercedes Gómez Blesa
Invitado de Honor(Casas Ibáñez, Albacete, 1964)
She holds a PhD in Philosophy from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and is an essayist and art critic. She has focused her research on the work of intellectuals and artists from the Silver Age, particularly María Zambrano, to whom she dedicated the essay La razón mediadora.Filosofía y Piedad en María Zambrano (2008), for which she received the Premio Gran Vía de Ensayo. She has also edited critical editions of many of Zambrano's books, including Las palabras del regreso, Unamuno, Pensamiento y poesía en la vida española, Claros del bosque, and La agonía de Europa. In 2007, she published Las Intelectuales Republicanas.La conquista de la ciudadanía (2007).
In 2018, she produced the critical edition of La mujer moderna y sus derechos by Carmen de Burgos and introduced Modernas y vanguardistas.Las mujeres-faro de la Edad de Plata (2019). The arrival of the pandemic and its consequences inspired her essay Estéticas de la ausencia (2021). In 2023, she collected feminist writings from Concepción Arenal under the title La mujer de transición.
In the field of art, she has curated samples from Natividad Navalón, Suso Barrio, Marta Troya and Luis Moro. She is a trustee of the María Zambrano Foundation and a member of the associations El legado de las mujeres and Clásicas y Modernas, which seek to showcase the works of women in the fields of art, thought, and science.
Adolfo Castañón
(Mexico City, 1952) is a poet, essayist, translator and editor. He is the author of numerous works, including En una nuez: guía de mis libros (1977-2022), published by Bonilla Artigas Editores (2022). His literary calling has found expression in the realm of lyrical poetry: Recuerdos de Coyoacán (2015), Local del mundo (2018); fiction: A veces prosa (2003); non-fiction and literary review: América sintaxis (2009), Passing of Octavio Paz (2014), Por el país de Montaigne (2016), Alfonso Reyes: caballero de la voz errante (2018), Correspondencia Alfonso Reyes y Pedro Henríquez Ureña (2021), Emilio Uranga: Años de Alemania (1952-1956) (2022); aphorism: La belleza es lo esencial (2005), Perfiles del camino (2013); translation (of J.-J. Rousseau, Paul Ricoeur, George Steiner, Alain Rey, Roland Barthes, Louis Panabière); gastronomy: Grano de sal y otros cristales (2017). In 2024, he edited the anthology Corrientes Alternas, by Octavio Paz, for the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) and the Association of Spanish Language Academies (ASALE).
He received the award Premio Xavier Villaurrutia in 2008, the award Premio Internacional Alfonso Reyes in 2018, and the award Premio Nacional de Artes y Literatura in 2020. He is creator emeritus of the National System of Art Creators (SNCA), Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters of the Government of France, and a member of the Mexican Academy of Language, of which he is the secretary.
Marifé Santiago Bolaños
Invitado de HonorBolaños has a PhD in Philosophy. Professor of Aesthetics at the Complutense University of Madrid, her studies on the dialogue between philosophy and artistic creation, and theater as a path of knowledge, are reflected in works such as La palabra detenida: una lectura del símbolo en el teatro de Buero Vallejo; Mirar al dios: el Teatro como camino de conocimiento; El secreto de Ofelia: teatro, tejidos, el cuerpo y la memoria; Arturo Baltar: el caminante que deshoja paisajes; Espejos de la nada: Marina Tsvietáieva y María Zambrano; Bailar sobre el demonio del olvido: apuntes para una estética de la danza; El honor: ensayo a partir de recetas apócrifas de Celestina; Reflexiones a la orilla del tiempo: algunos tés imprescindibles o Envidia.
She is on the board of the María Zambrano Foundation and a corresponding member of the Real Academia de Historia y Arte de San Quirce. She belongs to the Instituto de Teatro de Madrid (ITEM), the Instituto de Investigaciones Feministas (INITIFEM) and the Academia de las Artes Escénicas de España.
She coordinated the epistolary book against gender-based violence Quiero ser una caja de música: violencias machistas en la juventud adolescente; the dictionary Vislumbres de España, Italia e Iberoamérica, and the stage project “Cuadernos de la niña escondida” for equality through music learning.
She has written the novels El tiempo de las lluvias, Un ángel muerto sobre la hierba, El jardín de las favoritas olvidadas and La canción de Ruth, and her poetry books include Tres cuadernos de bitácora, Celebración de la espera, El día los días, La orilla de las mujeres fértiles, El país de los pequeños placeres, Nos mira la piedad desde las alambradas, Las constelaciones del Capitán, Teoría de los matices and La violencia es una veta miserable que cubrimos con canciones.
Sunday December 01
18:00 to 18:50
Pabellón de España, Expo Guadalajara
Spain, Guest of Honor
Guest of Honor Pavilion
Meetings (and misunderstandings). En otro país
Spain, Guest of Honor
Guest of Honor Pavilion
Meetings (and misunderstandings). En otro país
Uprooted writing, outside the country of origin, has been a common practice in Spanish literature. For various reasons - political or economic exiles, or other personal reasons - many Spanish and Latin American authors have written their work in a country other than their own, but within the Spanish-speaking world. These journeys within the diverse geography of Spanish-speaking countries have allowed these authors to observe their home from far away and with greater clarity, to contrast their different realities, and to intermingle their experience in their homeland with the places that subsequently welcomed them or became their home.
Against this backdrop, En otro país is an anthology of chronicles co-published by AECID and Candaya publishers, featuring 12 authors from Latin America and Spain with texts in which they describe an episode that took place in a country other than their own, but within the scope of the Spanish-speaking world.
Participants: Aitor Romero Ortega, Felipe Restrepo Pombo
Moderator: Javier Serena
Aitor Romero Ortega
Invitado de Honor(Barcelona, 1985) studied Industrial Engineering in Barcelona and Lyon. Since 2012, he has lived in Madrid. He is the author of the novel Deflagración (2015, Amor de madre, 2015), finalist for the Chambéry Début Novel Award. In 2018, he published the book of stories Fantasmas de la ciudad (Candaya), which includes eight stories in which urban spaces play a prominent role in the development of the plot and the characters' emotions. This collection of short stories received positive reviews in the leading literary supplements in Spain. In 2023, he published the book of chronicles or autobiographical essays El arte de escribir de pie (Candaya), in which he takes a personal and intimate journey through the history of modern and contemporary travel, exploring eight chronicles about cities or regions from Rome to Benidorm. El arte de escribir de pie has also garnered praise in the media and supplements that focus more on non-fiction and travel literature.
He has also taught workshops on storybooks and collaborated with literary magazines such as Altaïr Magazine, Negratinta, Culturamas, Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos, Casapaís and Kopek, where he has published chronicles, essays, poems and short stories. He is currently writing a novel.
Felipe Restrepo Pombo
Writer, editor and journalist. He has written six books that have been published in different languages. In 2017, he was selected as one of the best writers under 40 in Latin America. In 2021, he received the Premio Nacional de Periodismo Simón Bolívar in Colombia. He is the coordinator of the Premio Anagrama de Crónica and editor of the Crónica collection. He has worked with dozens of international media outlets. He has taught writing workshops in the United States, Spain, Mexico and Latin America. He is an occasional columnist for El País and Letras Libres. He was the editor of the Gatopardo magazine for six years.
Other activities involving the participant:
Naming Central America because Central America counts
The Pleasure of Reading Gala
Javier Serena
Invitado de HonorSerena is the director of the magazine Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos, published by the Directorate of Cultural and Scientific Relations of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) since its founding in 1948, and dedicated to literary criticism in Spanish.
He is the author of the novels Atila.Un escritor indescifrable (2015, Tropo; 2022, Srobo) and Last words on Earth (2018, Agadir). Both books are being translated into English in the United States by Open Letter Books.
He has been a fellow at the Antonio Gala Foundation, the Valparaíso Foundation, the Axóuxere Foundation, and the Les Récollets residency.
Other activities involving the participant:
Meetings (and misunderstandings). Challenges of recent Spanish narrative
Sunday December 01
19:00 to 19:50
Pabellón de España, Expo Guadalajara
Spain, Guest of Honor
Guest of Honor Pavilion
On literature in other formats. A crossroads. Ethics and literature Punzadas Sonoras (Podcast. Live episode)
Spain, Guest of Honor
Guest of Honor Pavilion
On literature in other formats. A crossroads. Ethics and literature Punzadas Sonoras (Podcast. Live episode)
In this live episode of Punzada Sonoras (podcast by Radio Primavera Sound), philosophers Inés García and Paula Ducay will talk to writer Pau Luque about the crossroads between literature and moral philosophy. What do the two disciplines have to say to each other? How are they related? Does literature have political potential, or is it able to catalyze philosophical reflection? Can it be associated with moral philosophy to have an impact on public life? They will address these questions through Luque's work, especially his books Las cosas como son y otras fantasías, Ñu and Hipocondría Moral. They will also consider what great thinkers like Plato, María Zambrano, Martha Nussbaum and Iris Murdoch have said about this intricate crossroads.
Participants: Inés García Hernáez, Paula Ducay, Pau Luque
Inés García Hernáez
Invitado de HonorShe graduated in Philosophy from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) and holds a Master’s in Applied Ethics and another Master’s in Cultural Management and Social Innovation, both from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM). She co-founded the cultural project "Punzadas" together with Paula Ducay, where they run the podcast "Punzadas sonoras" and organize various cultural activities. She is interested in researching topics such as spatial justice and rurality.
Other activities involving the participant:
On literature in other formats. A two-way journey. Philosophy. Punzadas Sonoras (Podcast. Live episode)
Onliterature in other formats. Love and other paths . Punzadas sonoras (Podcast. Live episode)
Paula Ducay
Invitado de HonorGraduated in Philosophy and holds a Master's in Publishing from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM). She co-founded the cultural project “Punzadas” alongside Inés García, where they direct the podcast “Punzadas sonoras” and organize various cultural activities. Since childhood, she has cultivated a passion and interest in the world of books and contributes professionally to its various branches as a writer, editor, and translator. In February 2024, she published her first novel, La ternura.
Other activities involving the participant:
On literature in other formats. A two-way journey. Philosophy. Punzadas Sonoras (Podcast. Live episode)
Onliterature in other formats. Love and other paths . Punzadas sonoras (Podcast. Live episode)
Pau Luque
Invitado de HonorBorn in Barcelona in 1982, he has lived in Mexico City since 2014. He trained as a legal philosopher at the University of Genoa (Italy) and as a humanist at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona (Spain). In 2020, he published Las cosas como son y otras fantasías (Anagrama Argumentos), a literary essay offering a way out of the deadlock that has constrained the relationship between art and morality in the 21st century. He argues that neither superficial moralism, which demands art to be correct, nor the moral indifference promoted by a misunderstood liberalism captures the essence of ethics or its relation to artistic impulse. Luque suggests that imperfect moral virtues, literary or narrative imagination, and worldly vicissitudes are the ethical sources from which any work with something human to say draws.
In collaboration with Natalia Carrillo, he published Hipocondría moral (Nuevos cuadernos Anagrama) in 2022, where they identify a strange but omnipresent contemporary phenomenon: we feel guilt when we are guilty, but especially when we are not. In this essay, they critique the contemporary choice (or imposition) of guilt as the primary emotion structuring our relationship with the world's calamities. They propose that it would be much more fruitful politically, morally, and even philosophically to replace guilt with responsibility.
With Ñu (Anagrama Narrativas hispánicas), published in 2024, Luque gives a new twist to genre hybridization, inventing the essay with characters. Real and fictional creatures wander and converse in Ñu about their lives, their ideas, love and friendship, and the unsettling possibility that what we call "solution" might be nothing more than an inevitable fantasy.
Other activities involving the participant:
Inaugural Talk: The Recovery of the Lost Home… That Perhaps We Don’t Want to Recover
Monday December 02
16:00 to 16:50
Pabellón de España, Expo Guadalajara
Literary Program
Spain, Guest of Honor
Literary Program
I want to see you again
Spain, Guest of Honor
Literary Program
I want to see you again
In 1995, Cris Mazza and Jeffrey DeShell coined the term "Chick-Lit" for the title of a post-feminist fiction anthology. "Chick" refers to girl, and "lit" to literature. Romantic stories that border on the fantastical, promising continuity (or not) with a possible "I want to see you again" and that lead us to wonder about the consequences of a modern romantic experience. Alice Kellen and Joana Marcús, two of the most important Spanish authors of the genre, will talk about the creative process and the keys to the contemporary romantic experience represented in the sagas with which they have captivated so many readers.
Participants: Alice Kellen, Joana Marcús
Moderator: Raquel Castro
Alice Kellen
Invitado de Honor(Valencia, 1989) is a lover of cats, art and endless visits to bookstores. She loves experiencing the characters and emotions she tries to capture on paper.
Her novels Donde todo brilla, La teoría de los archipiélagos, El mapa de los anhelos, Tú y yo, invencibles, Las alas de Sophie, Nosotros en la luna and the duology Deja que ocurra have fascinated over two million readers.
Joana Marcús
Invitado de Honor(Mallorca, 2000)
She is a Spanish writer of fantasy, science fiction and youth romance. Thanks to the success of her novels, she stopped working in the hospitality industry and began to devote her time to university. She currently divides her time between her Psychology studies and promoting her books.
She began as a writer on the Wattpad digital reading and writing platform at the age of 13. Today, she is the only Spanish writer in the top global rankings. In 2021, with Antes de diciembre, she became one of the youngest writers to achieve international sales success. That same year, Antes de diciembre ranked among the ten best-selling novels in various countries. In 2022, she was the best-selling author just behind the Harry Potter books.
She has published Antes de diciembre (2021), Ciudades de humo (2022), Ciudades de cenizas (2022), Ciudades de fuego (2022), Después de diciembre (2022), Tres meses (2023), Las luces de febrero (2023) and Etéreo (2024).
She has received the award Premio Un Año for best young adult literature for Antes de diciembre (2022), the award Premio Libro de Oro for children's and young adult literature for Después de diciembre (2023) and the award Premi Diario de Mallorca Cultura (2023).
Raquel Castro
(Mexico City, 1976) is a writer, screenwriter, journalist and cultural promoter. In 2012, she won the Premio de Novela Juvenil Gran Angular with her first novel, Ojos llenos de sombra, and in 2022 she received a special mention in the Cuatrogatos Foundation Awards for her short story collection El ataque de los zombis (parte mil quinientos), published by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in its first young adult literature series, Hilo de Aracne.
Her other works include the young adult novels Exiliados (2013), Lejos de casa (2013), Dark Doll (2014), Un beso en tu futuro (2017) and El método infalible para ligarte a quien tú quieras (2021); the essay Cambiamos para ser más como somos (2017), and the storybooks ¡Pirañas del mundo, uníos! (2017) and Playlist (2023). With Alberto Chimal she co-wrote the writing manual Cómo escribir tu propia historia (2018) and the novel El club de las niñas fantasma (2021).
In 2024, she wrote the fiction podcast El corazón de la Vía Láctea, produced by Loqueleo and available on Spotify. She runs a YouTube channel dedicated to literature and outreach (www.youtube.com/AlbertoyRaquelMx) and her own literary blog at www.raxxie.com.
Other activities involving the participant:
Drawing the world: the invention of books
Science fiction written by women
Monday December 02
17:30 to 18:20
Salón Enrique González Martínez, Área Internacional, Expo Guadalajara
Spain, Guest of Honor
Literary Program
In the lost footsteps of the family
Participants: Agustín Fernández Mallo, Juan Pablo Villalobos
Moderator: Nuria Barrios
Agustín Fernández Mallo
Invitado de Honor(La Coruña, 1967) is a physicist and writer, and his literature has been translated into more than ten languages. Critics and readers alike in each country note the high literary quality and conceptual openness to other symbolic spaces and other ways of telling our present.
His latest novel is Madre de corazón atómico (Seix Barral). He is also the author of the novels El libro de todos los amores (Seix Barral); Trilogía de la guerra (Seix Barral, Biblioteca Breve Award, in English The Things We've Seen, English PEN Award, published by Fitzcarraldo and FSG); Proyecto Nocilla (Nocilla Dream, Nocilla Experience, Nocilla Lab, European Literature Award 2022, presented in the Netherlands); El hacedor (de Borges), remake and Limbo (Alfaguara).
His poetry collections, some of which have received awards, are collected in Ya nadie se llamará como yo (Seix Barral).
As a non-fiction author, he has written Postpoesía, hacia un nuevo paradigma, shortlisted for an Anagrama de Ensayo Prize; Teoría general de la basura (Galaxia Gutenberg, Award Premio Cálamo Extraordinario); La mirada imposible (Wunderkammer); La forma de la multitud (Galaxia Gutenberg, 1st Award Premio de Ensayo Eugenio Trías), and co-author, together with Bernardí Roig and Fernando Castro Flórez, of Wittgenstein, arquitecto (Galaxia Gutenberg).
Other activities involving the participant:
Algorithms, modern demons?
Juan Pablo Villalobos
(Guadalajara, Jalisco, 1973) is the author of the novels Down the Rabbit Hole, Si viviéramos en un lugar normal, I’ll Sell You a Dog, I Don’t Expect Anyone to Believe Me (Premio Herralde de Novela award 2016), Invasion of the spirit people, Peluquería y letras and El pasado anda atrás de nosotros. He has also published the chronicle The other side: stories of Central American teen refugees who dream of crossing the border and the children's novel Un viaje cósmico a Puerto Ficción.
His books have been translated into more than 15 languages. His novel I Don’t Expect Anyone to Believe Me was adapted for the cinema by Fernando Frías de la Parra, and Down the Rabbit Hole by Manolo Caro.
He teaches writing at Pompeu Fabra University and Literature and Cultural Studies at the Escuela Superior de Cine y Audiovisuals de Cataluña.
He has lived outside Mexico since 2003. He currently resides in Barcelona, where he teaches literary workshops in his own space.
Other activities involving the participant:
Crossroads. Humor, illustration and literature
Nuria Barrios
Invitado de HonorWriter and translator with a PhD in Philosophy. She is the author of the essay La impostora, winner of the Premio Málaga de Ensayo; of the novels Todo arde and El alfabeto de los pájaros; of the storybooks Ocho centímetros, El zoo sentimental, Amores patológicos and Balearia; and of the poetry books La luz de la dinamo, winner of the Premio Iberoamericano de Poesía Hermanos Machado, Nostalgia de Odiseo and El hilo de agua, winner of the Premio Ateneo de Sevilla.
Her first book, Amores patológicos, has been revised and d to commemorate its 25th anniversary.
Nuria Barrios is the translator into Spanish of Irish novelist John Banville/Benjamin Black. Her latest translations are The Dead, by James Joyce, and Call Us What We Carry, by Amanda Gorman. She is a professor in the Master's program in Literary Creation and Diploma in Writing, Style and Creativity at the Universidad Internacional de Valencia (VIU).
Other activities involving the participant:
Do you write too? Family constellations of a trade
Toxic relationships in literature
Monday December 02
17:00 to 17:50
Pabellón de España, Expo Guadalajara
Spain, Guest of Honor
Literary Program
Worldly ailments of the Earth
Spain, Guest of Honor
Literary Program
Worldly ailments of the Earth
Through their respective works, Yayo Herrero and Marta Peirano will talk about the need to reflect on our relationship with the environment, and the relationship between humans and non-humans. Far from apocalyptic visions, the authors will discuss climate feudalism and disaster capitalism, but also the various forms of organization and modern technical tools with the ability to transform the ecological crisis. Proposals for the present that, together with ideas of "ecofeminism," force us to rethink the world and its priorities in order to guarantee a future with a decent life for all those who live in it.
Participants: Yayo Herrero, Marta Peirano
Moderator: Giselle Etcheverry Walker
Yayo Herrero
Invitado de Honor(1965) Herrero has a PhD in Social and Political Science, a degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology, and a degree in Social Education and Agricultural Technical Engineering. She is a member-worker at Garúa Sociedad Cooperativa, as well as a consultant, researcher, teacher and writer in the fields of political ecology, eco-feminism, eco-social transitions and education for the sustainability of life. For decades, she has been combining her work with active participation in social movements, especially the environmental movement.
Her latest publications are Toma de Tierra (2023, Caniche), Ecofeminismos. La sostenibilidad de la vida (Icaria, 2023), Educar para la sostenibilidad de la vida. Una mirada ecofeminista a la educación (2022, Octaedro), Derechos Humanos (2022, Litera), Ausencias y extravíos (2021, Ediciones Contextatarias y Libros en Acción) and Ecofeminismos para tiempos de crisis (2020, Pabellón 6).
She has coordinated and written in works such as Tiempo para la vida (Charo Morán, Helena Pariente and Yayo Herrero; 2022, Ayuntamiento de Barcelona), Cambio climático (Yayo Herrero, María González Reyes and Berta Páramo; 2019, Ediciones Litera), La vida en el centro. Voces y relatos ecofeministas (Yayo Herrero, María González, Marta Pascual, illustrated by Emma Gascó; 2018, Libros en Acción), La gran encrucijada. Sobre la crisis ecosocial y el cambio de ciclo histórico (Fernando Prats, Yayo Herrero, Alicia Torrego; 2016, Libros en Acción), Cambiar las gafas de ver el mundo. Una nueva cultura de sostenibilidad (Yayo Herrero, Fernando Cembranos and Marta Pascual (coords.); 2011, Libros en Acción), Educación y Ecología. El currículum oculto antiecológico de los libros de texto (Fernando Cembranos, Yayo Herrero y Marta Pascual (coords.); 2007, Editorial Popular).
She has published dozens of articles in anthologies. Part of her work has been translated into Catalan, Basque, Italian, French, English, German and Korean.
Other activities involving the participant:
Written with ink and chlorophyll
Marta Peirano
Invitado de HonorPeirano is a columnist for El País and a contributor on Radio Nacional de España (RNE). She has been the Culture Director at ADN and deputy director at eldiario.es. She has curated the Barcelona Thought Biennial and created “(re) programming - Strategies for Self-Renewal,” a program of interviews on technology and climate change at the Institute of Contemporary Art of Ljubljana, and “In-depth Journalism,” a seminar on new journalism at Medialab-Matadero.
She has published El rival de Prometeo, a manual of famous automatons (2011, Impedimenta); El pequeño libro rojo del activista en la Red (2015, Rocaeditorial), a cryptography manual with a foreword by Edward Snowden, and El enemigo conoce el sistema (2019, Debate), an instant hit on the capitalism of surveillance. Her latest books are Contra el futuro (2022, Debate), a critical analysis of climatic technologies and apocalyptic stories, and (re) programming, a book of discussions with thinkers and visionaries about alternatives to the end of the world (2022, Aksioma).
Other activities involving the participant:
Crossroads. Mathematics, technology and literature
Giselle Etcheverry Walker
Invitado de HonorGiselle Etcheverry Walker is a curator of literary and thinking projects, as well as a freelance editor. She holds a degree in Philosophy and an MBA in Business Management and Cultural Institutions. From 2004 until its closure in 2009 she worked at the literary agency of the Prisa Group, “La Oficina del Autor”. From 2009 to 2019 she was deputy director of the Culture Area of the Santillana Foundation, where she participated in the development and consolidation of projects such as the Formentor Literary Conversations and the Formentor Prize for Literature, the Cultural Journalism Congress, the Cultural Industries Forum and the Philosophy Festival, among others. As an editor, she has edited and coordinated the publication of essays and correspondence for various publishing houses. For more than ten years she was co-editor of the literary portal El Boomeran(g). She has curated the programme of literary activities for Madrid Book Night (2022-2024), the Madrid-Dublin Bloomsday around James Joyce's Ulysses (2023 and 2024), and the first Book Friday. A storehouse of stories of the material world in literature (2023). Since 2020 she has been curator of The sin of reading, a cycle of meetings celebrating Alianza Publishing House catalogue, and curator of the programme of the Contemporary Culture Centre Condeduque’s (Madrid) Thinking and Debate Area, among other projects related to public exhibition activities. Just as in 2022 she contributed to the preparation of the literary programme for Spain's guest of honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair, in 2024 she is working on the design of the content of the literary and pavilion programmes for Spain's presence as guest of honour at the Guadalajara International Book Fair. She is a member of Policrits, Network of Contemporary Iberoamerican Critical Thinking.
Monday December 02
18:00 to 18:50
Pabellón de España, Expo Guadalajara
Spain, Guest of Honor
Literary Program
The "other people": animals and nature in literature
Spain, Guest of Honor
Literary Program
The "other people": animals and nature in literature
In Why Look at Animals?, John Berger noted that it would not be the least bit strange to imagine that the first metaphor invented by humans was inspired by an animal. But, what about today? How are animals portrayed in today's literature? What do books say about our current relationship with the animal world and nature? What space, what relevance do these living beings occupy? Writer Manuel Rivas and zoologist Andrés Cota Hiriart, two authors who have shown that emotional and fantastic connection between animals and nature in their books, will discuss animals and their representation in contemporary literature.
Participants: Andrés Cota Hiriart, Berta García Faet
Moderator: Winston Manrique Sabogal
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
Monday December 02
19:00 to 19:50
Pabellón de España, Expo Guadalajara
Spain, Guest of Honor
Literary Program
Free time with a tourist personality
Spain, Guest of Honor
Literary Program
Free time with a tourist personality
In the 1970s, writer and journalist Jorge Ibargüengoitia used the term "tourist personality" to refer to one that only exists for as long as a trip lasts, and that therefore "disappears as soon as the airport employee rifles through the dirty socks in your luggage." In these times of savage capitalism, tourists - and the places they visit in "their free time" - have turned into an invasive and voracious species that threatens every corner of the planet, and into a very interesting literary character. Azahara Alonso, Ana Penyas and Albert Pijuan will share their first-hand knowledge of this with us.
Participants: Azahara Alonso, Albert Pijuan, Ana Penyas
Moderator: Inés Martín Rodrigo
Azahara Alonso
Invitado de Honor(Oviedo, 1988) has a degree in Philosophy. She has published the book of aphorisms Bajas presiones (Trea, 2016), the poetry book Gestar un tópico (RIL, 2020) and the novel Gozo (Siruela, 2023), recognized as the Best Non-Fiction Book of 2023 by the Spanish Confederation of Guilds and Associations of Booksellers.
She has featured in several anthologies, including Bajo el signo de Atenea (Renacimiento, 2017), El gran libro de Satán (Blackie Books, 2021) and El gran libro de los pájaros (Blackie Books, 2023).
She was the coordinator of the Hotel Kafka writing school, and the cultural manager at the José Hierro Poetry Center Foundation. She also coordinated Ámbito cultural, published by El Corte Inglés, she was part of the editorial board of the magazine Nayagua, and she was the copy editor of the Diario Kafka cultural supplement at eldiario.es. She proofreads and writes literary criticism and teaches writing classes.
Other activities involving the participant:
Journeys. Tribute to Carmen Martín Gaite
Albert Pijuan
Invitado de Honor(Calafell, 1985) is a writer, playwright and translator with a degree in Political Science and Philosophy. He has written novels and non-fiction books, and has premiered and published fifteen dramatic pieces, some of them abroad, performed in Chile, Italy, Iraq, and other countries. He has written stories for several magazines and anthologies, and some of his stories can be found in the book Seguiràs el ritme del fantasma jamaicà (Angle, 2017).
His first young adult novel, I diumenge, meteorit (Animallibres, 2023), was recently nominated for the Premi Llibreter 2024.
Originally published in Catalan under the title Tsunami (Angle, 2020), his work La gran ola is available in Spanish. It won the Pin i Soler Novel and Finestres de Narrativa prizes, as well as the Premio Nacional de la Crítica for fiction in Catalan; ¿Y si nos replanteamos el canibalismo? in an illustrated edition published by Libros del Zorro Rojo (2021), and in autumn 2024 his latest novel, El Gran Remplazo, will be published by Sexto Piso. He has also translated from English authors such as H. G. Wells, Lara Williams, Dalton Trumbo, Evelyn Waugh and Robert W. Chambers.
Ana Penyas
Invitado de Honor(Valencia, 1987) is an illustrator and author of comics. In 2016, she won the VII Catálogo Iberoamericano Ilustra with the series Buscando un sitio. In 2017, she received the Premio Internacional de Novela Gráfica Fnac-Salamandra Graphic, thanks to which she published her first graphic novel We're all just fine (2017, Salamandra Graphic), where she talks about her grandmothers and the generation of women who grew up in the Franco era, and for which she received the Premio de Autora Revelación Nacional at the Salón del Cómic in Barcelona and the Premio Nacional de Cómic 2018.
She has published several illustrated albums, highlighting her work around historical memory: En transición (2017, Barlin libros) and Mexique, el nombre del barco (2017, El zorro rojo). She has worked as an illustrator on various feminist projects such as Pikara Magazine, the Jo tambè vaig ser piquetera calendar, and the illustrated notebook Biosindicalismo desde los territorios domésticos (2021, La Laboratorio and Fundación Rosa Luxemburg).
In 2021, she published Todo bajo el sol (2018, Salamandra Graphic), a reflection on the transformation of the Spanish Mediterranean coast as a result of tourism, which won the Éco-Fauve RAJA Award for Sous le soleil at the Festival de la Bande Dessinée d’Angoulême (2023, 50th edition) and the ACDCómic Award for the best national work 2021.
In 2022, she developed, with anthropologist Alba Herrero Garcés, En una casa.Genealogía del trabajo del hogar y los cuidados, at the Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, IVAM (11/2022-04/2023). The exhibition aimed to create a dialogue between ethnography and artistic creation, expanding collective, subaltern memory based on the experiences of workers and employers.
She is currently working on a new comic book, again with Salamandra Graphic, to be published in the fall of 2025.
Other activities involving the participant:
Social Context: Album and Comic as Engines of Change
#LeemosCómics con Ana Penyas y María Luque
Inés Martín Rodrigo
Invitado de Honor(Madrid, 1983) is a writer and journalist. In 2022, she won the Nadal Prize with the novel Las formas del querer, which also received the Premio de la Crítica de Madrid. She is also the author of the biographical fiction Azules son las horas (2016), the anthology of interviews with women writers Una habitación compartida (2020), the children's story Giselle (2020), and the essay Una homosexualidad propia (2023).
In 2019, she was included in the “10 de 30” program of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), which every year recognizes the best Spanish writers under 40 years old. For 14 years she worked for the Culture section of the ABC newspaper and in June 2022, she joined the Prensa Ibérica group, where she is on the team of the literary supplement abril and writes opinion pieces.
Other activities involving the participant:
In no man's land: the place of war
Rain without ice, please: the world is thirsty
Journeys. Tribute to Carmen Martín Gaite
Journeys. Tribute to Ana María Matute
Monday December 02
20:00 to 20:50
Pabellón de España, Expo Guadalajara