José Manuel Fajardo at Blue Metropolis Bleu festival

The 21th edition of “Blue Metropolis Bleu Festival” brings the Spanish writer José Manuel Fajardo to participate in the Spanish and Portuguese literature program.

Spanish writer José Manuel Fajardo has been invited to participate in 21st Blue Metropolis Festival, which runs May 3–5. The Blue Metropolis Foundation produces this annual international literary festival, and offers a wide range of educational and social programs year-round, which use reading and writing as therapeutic tools, encourage academic perseverance, and fight against poverty and isolation.

Fajardo was born in Granada, Spain, in 1957. Besides being a novel-writer, he has contributed with his work in the fields of journalism and history. He is also a French translator. He lived in the Basque Country, Spain, France and Portugal. Some of his novels are Lettre du bout du monde (Flammarion), Les Imposteurs (Métailié, 2000), Les Démons à ma porte (Métailié, 2002) and L’eau à la bouche (Métailié, 2006). In 2002, he received the Charles Brisset Award for Les Démons à ma porte.

The art and craft of the writer-translators

• On Friday, May 3 at 11 am.
• At Hotel 10, 10 Sherbrooke St W, Montreal, QC H2X 4C9.
• With Nicolas Goyer, José Manuel Fajardo, Alberto Manguel and Gloria Macher.
• This free panel discussion will be held in Spanish and English.

In literature, moving from one language to another is not simply a matter of words, but also of emotion. Are writers who also work as translators better situated to recreate a book in its many facets?

The footprint that covers the world: Spanish as a migrant language

• On Saturday, May 4 at 5 pm.
• At Librairie Las Américas 10 Rue Saint Norbert, Montréal, QC H2X 1G3.
• With José Manuel Fajardo and Rafael Osío Cabrices.
• This discussion will be held in Spanish. Buy tickets.

Spanish writer and editor José Manuel Fajardo debates with Venezuelan author, based in Montreal, Rafael Osío Cabrices, about the many mutations of the second most-spoken language of the planet: Spanish. Extended over two continents and with 400 million native speakers, Don Quixote’s language has gained a strong position in the global entertainment industry, as well as in the economy.

Alone facing of the ecological void?

• On Sunday, May 5 at 11 am.
• At Hotel 10, 10 Sherbrooke St W, Montreal, QC H2X 4C9.
• With Aymeric Caron, José Manuel Fajardo and Esther Laforce.
• This panel discussion will be held in French. Buy tickets.

How much weight does an individual gesture have when the whole planet is collapsing? What significance/importance would literature have among all of this?

Readings

• On Sunday, May 5 at 11:30 am.
• At Hotel 10, 10 Sherbrooke St W, Montreal, QC H2X 4C9.
• With Alberto Manguel, Gesuino Nemus, Joséphine Bacon, Melanie Mununggurr-Williams, Pierre Jarawan, Emiliano Monge, Orly Castel-Bloom, Estelle-Sarah Bulle, Jose Manuel Fajardo and Claudia Piñeiro.
• This free event will be held in several languages.

Writers from the world over read excerpts from their work in its original language.