Making Hay, Latin-style

Hay-on-Wye’s sister literary festival in the altogether sunnier climes of Colombia’s Caribbean coast begins next week, and I will be writing a daily blog for Prospect from Cartagena to cover the event, as well as interviewing some of the authors present. There’s an enticing line-up of literary and cultural figures due to attend: Salman Rushdie, Martin Amis and Jon Snow, chief among the British guests, and several of Latin America’s most interesting contemporary novelists also.

The festival takes place in former Spanish colonial buildings, and a stone’s throw from the house of the Colombia’s literary giant Gabriel Garci­a Marquez (whose biographer, Gerald Martin, will also be in attendance).

Rushdie is set to talk about his most recent novel, The Enchantress of Florence, and the influence that Marquez’s magical realism has had on his work. Amis will be in conversation with Peter Florence, director of the Hay festival. And Jon Snow, fresh from the inauguration in Washington DC, is to talk on the theme of viviendo con los gringos, taking in his career covering events from Central America to Iraq. Climate change, the global press and Colombia’s political situation will also receive ample coverage.

Novelists from across Latin America will present and read from their work; Alberto Ruy Sanchez (Mexico), William Ospina (Colombia), Junot Di­az (Colombia) and Alberto Manguel (Argentina) amongst the most celebrated of those present. It promises to be a fascinating encounter.