2018 Guests

Álex de la Iglesia

The director, producer and scriptwriter Álex de la Iglesia (Bilbao, 1965) became known as a cartoonist, in the mid-eighties, while studying Philosophy at the University of Deusto. After several projects as an artistic director, he directed the legendary short film ‘Mirindas asesinas’, whose originality and talent seduced, among others, Pedro Almodóvar, the producer, via “El Deseo” of his first feature film, ‘Acción mutante’. Since then, Álex de la Iglesia, has produced truly iconic films in contemporary cinema such as ‘El día de la Bestia’ (The Day of the Beast), ‘Perdita Durango’ (Dance with the Devil), ‘La comunidad’ (Common Wealth), ‘Balada Triste de Trompeta’ (The Last Circus), ‘Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi’ (Witching & Bitching) and ‘Perfectos desconocidos’.

Forges

Antonio Fraguas, Forges. (Madrid, 1942-2018). He worked at TVE (Spanish Television) until 1973, the year when he began his long and fertile period of professional dedication to graphic humour. Among other media outlets, he collaborated on Diez Minutos, Hermano Lobo, Por Favor, El Jueves… From 1995 on he published a daily joke in El País. He participated in radio programs and directed two films and four comedy series for TV. In 1972 El libro de Forges (The Book of Forges) was published, and it was followed by several titles. He received important awards in recognition of his immense amount of work. Forges was a creator of language, an artist of great stature and his splendid humour will live on among us.

forges.com

Berta Fraguas

She is the second daughter of Antonio Fraguas “Forges”, and has developed her professional career in the non-profit sector. Since 1994 she has headed up the educational foundation United World Colleges, working at the same time in consulting for Foundations and other third sector entities. In 2014, her father, Forges, commissioned her to select the jokes that would be used to create “El libro de los 50 años de Forges” (The Book of 50 Years of Forges). To do so, she spent months immersed in an archive of more than 80,000 cartoon strips.

Alfonso Mateo-Sagasta

(Madrid, 1960), an historian and writer, thus far he has published several stories and articles, two essays and seven novels, notably including the trilogy starring Isidro Montemayor. ‘Ladrones de tinta’, (Ink Thieves), ‘El gabinete de las maravillas’ (The Cabinet of Wonders) and ‘El reino de los hombres sin amor’ (The Kingdom of Men without Love). The three received the “Spartacus Historical Novel Prize” and the first also obtained the “City of Zaragoza International Historical Novel Prize”. His other novels are ‘El olor de las especias’ (The Smell of Spices), ‘Caminarás con el sol´ (You´ll Walk with the Sun), winner of the 2011 Caja Granada Historical Novel Prize and ´Mala hoja´, published by Reina de Cordelia, the same publisher where you can find his essay ´La oposición´ (The Opposition).

alfonsomateosagasta.es

Fernando Savater

He has been a professor of philosophy for more than thirty years. He has written more than fifty works, including political, literary and philosophical essays, narrative works and theatre, as well as hundreds of articles in both Spanish and foreign press. Some of his books have been translated into more than twenty languages. He holds several honorary doctorates awarded by universities in Spain, Europe and America, as well as different honours. ‘Ética para Amador’ (Ethics for Amador), ‘Política para Amador’ (Politics for Amador) and ‘Las preguntas de la vida’ (The Questions of Life) in which he has attempted to attract young people to philosophy, have become true best sellers.

fernandosavater.com

Jeanette Winterson

Born in Manchester and the adopted daughter of a couple with scarce financial resources, Jeanette Winterson grew up in an environment where there was a lack of books and an abundance of religious fervour. She left home at the age of sixteen in order to study at Oxford and experience her first love affair with a girl. At the age of twenty-four she enjoyed great success with the publication of ‘Oranges are Not the Only Fruit’, which was followed by, among others, ‘The Passion’, ‘Sexing the Cherry’, ‘Written on the body’ and ‘Lighthousekeeping’, the novel with which Lumen began its library devoted to the most notable works by the author. In 2012 she published her extraordinary memoir ‘Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?’, followed by ‘The Daylight Gate’, ‘The World and Other Places’ and ‘The Gap of Time’. ‘Christmas Days’ is her latest book.

jeanettewinterson.com

Javier Cansado

Half of the cult comic pairing Faemino y Cansado, Javier Cansado (Madrid, 1955) is one of the greatest Spanish comedians. He collaborates in several radio and television programs. They notably include his participation for more than a decade in ‘Ilustres Ignorantes’, alongside Javier Coronas and Pepe Colubi, ‘Todopoderosos’ directed by Arturo González Campos and ‘A vivir que son dos días’, the program of Javier del Pino on Cadena SER. He has also participated as an actor in several Spanish films such as ‘Airbag’, ‘Torrente’ and ‘El fin de la comedia’.

Mircea Cărtărescu

(Bucharest, 1956) is a poet, narrator and literary critic. He is considered the most important Romanian narrator at present and is a strong candidate to become the first author who writes in Romanian to obtain the Nobel Prize in Literature. His works, all published in Spain by the publisher Impedimenta, notably include the collection of poems ‘The Levant’, the volumes of stories ‘Nostalgia’ (that opens with his famous short story ‘The Roulette Player’), ‘Beautiful Strangers’ and the autobiographical stories ‘The Brown Eye of Our Love’. ‘Solenoid’ is his latest novel and, according to the critics, his most mature work until now. In 2018 he is going to receive the Prix Formentor Literature Award.

Enrique Redel

He was born in Madrid in 1971. In 2004 he founded the publisher Funambulista, which he left in 2007 in order to set up the publisher Impedimenta, alongside his wife, Pilar Adón. In 2008 the publishing company won the National Prize for Best Cultural Publishing Work, alongside the other publishers of the Contexto group. His catalogue proposes a dialogue between the old and the new with authors such as Mircea Cărtărescu, Kingsley Amis, Iris Murdoch, Siegfried Lenz, Dubravka Ugrešić, David Lodge, Eduardo Berti, Jon Bilbao and Penelope Fitzgerald. His works have been recognised on several occasions with prizes such as the Libreter prize and the Euskadi de Plata award. He currently lives and works in Madrid.

impedimenta.es

Paco Plaza

(Valencia, 1973) He is one of the icons of new national fantastic and horror films that have projected Spain´s image abroad in terms of the cultivation of the genre. After co-directing with Jaume Balagueró (with whom he also collaborated on the chilling “Rec”) the documentary ‘OT: La película’, he produced his first solo feature film, ‘El segundo nombre’, which was followed by ‘Romasanta’, ‘Rec3: Genesis’ and his last film, ‘Veronica’.

Sílvia Abril

She is Yoko Ono, Kim Kardashian, Victoria Abril… and Shrek´s Daughter. She is an actress (‘La que se avecina’, ‘Torrente’, ‘Cuerpo de élite’), comic (‘Homo Zapping’, ‘Tu cara me suena’), dancer (with Chiquilicuatre on Eurovision), presenter (‘Caiga quien caiga’) and chef (‘Celebrity Masterchef’). ‘Late Motiv’, the program that she collaborates on with her husband, Andreu Buenafuente —‘Huevosfuertes’—, also describes her as “A mutant being that dances, sings, pesters, smells, and even presents gadgets. A whirlwind of vitality. A genre in herself for which a definition has not yet been invented”.

Soledad Puértolas

(Zaragoza, 1947), holds a degree in Journalism, and has lived in Norway and California, where she obtained an M. A. in Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and she is a member of the Royal Spanish Academy. Among her books, translated into several languages and mainly published by Anagrama, we can cite ‘El bandido doblemente armado’, ‘Una enfermedad moral’, ‘Queda la noche’ (Planeta Prize 1989), ‘Una vida inesperada’, ‘Gente que vino a mi boda’ and ‘Historia de un abrigo’. With La vida oculta (The Hidden Life), she won the 1993 Anagrama Essay Prize.

Pablo Berger

He began his film career in 1988 with the short film ‘Mamá’, thanks to which he obtained a grant to study film directing in New York. During his time in the United States, he directed the short film ‘Truth and Beauty´, nominated for an Emmy Award, taught classes at the New York Film Academy and directed courses at the universities of Cambridge, Princeton and Yale. With ‘Torremolinos 73’, his first feature film in Spain, he triumphed at several international festivals. His second film ‘Blancanieves’, a silent movie filmed in black and white, obtained ten Goya awards, including best film and director. His latest work is the comedy ‘Abracadabra’.

David Foenkinos

Barry Manley

(Cork, 1961) or Barry Barrez, his performing name, is a lecturer, writer and stand-up, as well as a singer and musician; he plays the accordion and the Irish whistle. He has spent eight years performing monologues in Basque, after more than four decades living in the Basque Country, where he arrived at the age of 22 without knowing either Basque or Spanish, in order to give English classes. The texts of his shows are inspired by his native land, the history of Ireland and Cork as well as Basque customs and the Basque language. Barry Manley is also the author of the novel ‘New Europeans’ and has collaborated in several programs of the EITB (Basque television service).

Mamen Moreu

She was born in Huesca in 1985 and has adopted Bilbao as her city. She published her first comic strips in the satirical magazine El Jueves in 2009, a collaboration that she maintained intermittently up until 2016. Since then she has published a weekly page, Dolores and Lolo and collaborates on the website of this magazine. In 2014, she published her first graphic novel, ‘Resaca’ with Astiberri, which earned her a nomination for Best New Author at the 2015 Barcelona International Comic Fair. She has also just published her second long work with Astiberri,  ‘Desastre’. Moreu combines her work as a script writer and cartoonist with other illustration projects, she gives talks about comics and runs drawing workshops.

mamenmoreu.com