The event, organized by the Institut de Cultura de Barcelona, will be held at Fabra i Coats and the Biblioteca Ignasi Iglésias-Can Fabra. The program features 73 activities, including literary conversations, round tables, workshops, literary routes, exhibitions, and stage performances, in addition to 15 activities for the +42 program. The festival will bring together nearly 160 national and international participants.
This year, the festival will host renowned international authors such as Ken Liu, Sequoia Nagamatsu, Naomi Ishiguro, Mahmud El Sayed, Laila Lalami, Christopher Buehlman, Anna Starobinets, Django Wexler, and Charles Stross, among others. Catalan representation includes names like Olga Xirinacs, Maite Carranza, Alicia Kopf, Laia Aguilar, Iván Ledesma, Jaume Oliver Ripoll, Ada Castells, and Martí Gironell. From Spanish-language literature, notable participants include Agustín Fernández Mallo, Cristina Fernández Cubas, Elaine Vilar Madruga, Patricia Esteban Erlés, Jorge Volpi, Elia Barceló, and Victoria Álvarez.
Curated by Karen Madrid Ribas and Susana Vallejo, this edition focuses on how fantastic genres interpret present-day concerns and imagine alternative realities. Debates will cover topics such as artificial intelligence, world-building, dystopias, environmental collapse, and the relationships between art, politics, and power. New narrative territories like 'romantasy' and conceptual horror will also be explored.
