The first Hay Festival of Arequipa took place from December 5-8, 2015. Four days of literary and cultural exchange with an audience of more than 15,200 people, a success that ensured its continuity in this city in Southern Peru, as confirmed Cristina Fuentes, director of the Hay Festival for the Americas.
Anna Soler-Pont attended the Hay Arequipa on behalf of the Pontas Agency after having signed the contract of representation with Peruvian author Renato Cisneros, the local best-seller of the moment, and participated in three panels. She moderated the conversation about literature and cinema with Alberto Fuguet (Chilean novelist, producer, scriptwriter and filmmaker), Vicente Molina Foix (Spanish writer of all genres, scriptwriter and filmmaker) and David Trueba (filmmaker, scriptwriter and novelist).
She also had a dialogue in front of the audience with Somali-British author Nadifa Mohamed and a discussion about the publishing industry and the role of literary agents in Latin America with Sergio Vilela, publisher of Planeta for Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela.
Arequipa received authors and thinkers from all over the world, such as the British Irvine Welsh (in the photo below reading his Trainspotting), Martin Amis and Gerald Martin, American Jon Lee Anderson, Argentinean Leila Guerriero and Lebanese Joumana Haddad. The “photographer of writers”, Daniel Mordzinski, was also there and took lots of his special shots (in the photo below, a large group of authors and participants pointing at his camera).
One of the most successful panels was about literature and journalism, with Renato Cisneros moderating and Peruvian authors Gabriela Wiener, Santiago Roncagliolo and Jeremías Gamboa. In the next photo: Paloma Reaño (editor at Penguin Random House Peru) and Jerónimo Pimentel (editor at Planeta Peru), also confirmed the new era publishing is entering in the country.
Anna Soler-Pont had also many meetings with new authors, editors, publishers and booksellers in Lima before and after the Hay Arequipa. And, as a producer of Pontas Films, she signed an agreement of co-production with Peruvian production company Señor Z for the film adaptation of El Sistema Solar, the acclaimed theater play by Mariana de Althaus. In the photo below, with Bacha Caravedo (scriptwriter of the adaptation, co-director together with Daniel Higashionna and producer) and Lorena Ugarteche (producer). By the way, Mariana and Bacha had the chance to discuss about the future film adaptation of the play in front of the audience in Arequipa.
