On the days November 13, 14 and 15, the Circulo de Bellas Artes in Madrid will host one of Festival Eñe’s boldest bets: the cycle 27 hours with the 27 will bring together more than sixty voices in a cultural marathon that will pay homage to a foundational generation in Spanish literature as one of the first acts of celebrating its centenary.
Alberto Conejero, Ana Belén, Miguel Poveda, Roberto Saviano, Gioconda Belli, Luis García Montero, Alana S. Portero, Juan Manuel de Prada or Piedad Bonnett are among the highlights of this gathering.
Meetings, readings, music, performances, and children’s activities will animate a grand festival that over three days will celebrate the spirit of rupture, freedom, experimentation, and beauty of a generation that expanded the boundaries of culture and art.
There Were a Thousand Federicos
Beginning with a grand opening act, the show There Were a Thousand Federicos —a transdisciplinary dialogue on the figure of Federico García Lorca created for Festival Eñe by Alberto Conejero that will feature Raül Refree, Ana Belén, Jesús Carmona, Carmen Linares and Miguel Poveda, among others—, 27 hours with the 27 will extend through the Circulo de Bellas Artes to offer a journey through the legacy of a generation that transformed literature, art, and thought, and whose influence remains present in contemporary creation.
A grand celebration that will honor the spirit, the courage, the beauty, and the commitment of the Generation of ’27 in a program curated by the writer Jesús Ruiz Mantilla together with the poet Antonio Lucas and driven by the Ministry of Culture through the General Directorate of the Book, of Comics, and of Reading.
Festival Eñe 2026 reclaims poetry as a tool to understand the world, defend critical thinking, and counteract discouragement. In the words of Ruiz Mantilla: “When the language of hate dominates, when falsehood is a seductive path for the masses, when people are once again detained in the streets for their origin or their skin color, when reason cannot grasp the brutalities of power, when democracy and those who should defend it stay silent before those who trample sovereignty, after they have been elected by it… When drums of war sound again and the trumpets of the apocalypse resound, one of our best weapons to stop their horsemen is poetry.”
Three days to celebrate the spirit of a generation
Pure and Impure Poetry, a meeting between Luis Antonio de Villena and Unai Velasco in conversation with Antonio Lucas, will survey the rich arc of tendencies represented by poets such as Pedro Salinas, Jorge Guillén, Gerardo Diego, or Rafael Alberti. Meanwhile, Narrators of the 27, featuring Juan Manuel de Prada, will highlight narrative, novel, essay, and journalism as major genres of a generation not exclusively confined to poetry.
The figure of Luis Buñuel will be the focus of an event organized with the collaboration of the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA), which will count on the participation of Raül Refree among others.
Meanwhile, writer Luis García Montero together with Antonio Sáez Delgado will hold a conversation about the figures of Lorca and Pessoa, accompanied by the poetry of both poets performed by the singer Soleá Morente and the Portuguese actor Pedro Lamares in an event organized with the Embassy of Portugal, who also promote Pessoa’s presence through the monologue Ode Marítima performed by the Portuguese actor Diogo Infante.
Alana S. Portero, Lucía Solla Sobral and Raquel Lanseros will bring to the present the life and work of major creators and thinkers such as Concha Méndez, María Teresa León, and Ernestina de Champourcín in the meeting Fundamental Female Voices in the 27. The Legacy of Las Sinsombrero. And in Thinking the 27, Elizabeth Duval and Marifé Santiago will explore the essayistic works of pioneering writers like María Zambrano, Rosa Chacel, and Carmen Conde.
On the fractures arising from the lack of freedom, renowned writers such as Gioconda Belli, Pedro Mairal, Margo Rejmer, or Marcin Kurek will discuss The Poetics of Exterior and Interior Exiles.
Meanwhile, the relationship between historical memory and democratic health will guide the conversation Poetics for a Chronicle of Memory between reporters Katarzyna Kobylarczyk and Paco Cerdá, notable journalists and writers in two countries that have known the imprint of totalitarianism — Poland and Spain.
27 hours with the 27 will also make space for spectacle, with the performance of Mónica de la Fuente and a very special close on Saturday night with The 1927 Top Hat, a poetry party orchestrated by Gonzalo Escarpa, coordinator of the #LdeLírica cycle at Ámbito Cultural and La Piscifactoría, who will bring together, among others, Juan Carlos Mestre, Daniel Rovalher, Juan Cañas, Luz Arcas, Daniel Migueláñez, Juan Carlos Bonet, Pablo Rosal, Gonzalo Hormigo, all under the wit of playwright Julieta Soria.
The weekend will close with humor on Friday night in Laughs with the 27 (humor still free), a program that will celebrate figures such as Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Edgar Neville, Tono, Enrique Jardiel Poncela, K-Hito, or Miguel Mihura, among others, under the guidance of Juan Carlos Ortega, Paloma Rando and Edu Galán.
Other playful activities complete the program, such as 27 Minutes of Nap, organized by Miguel Ángel Hernández.
With the collaboration of the Loewe Foundation, a selection of Festival Eñe events will include readings from authors who are laureates of the LOEWE Poetry Prize. This joint initiative seeks to bring poetry closer to new audiences and celebrate its encounter with other voices and disciplines.
Festival Eñe will again open its Windows to Catalan, Galician, and Basque literatures to celebrate linguistic and creative diversity at the Circulo de Bellas Artes as part of the program 27 hours with the 27.
The Catalan Window, curated by narrator and poet Pol Guasch and supported by the Institut Ramon Llull, will propose a poetic itinerary where space and word intersect to give voice to some of the most interesting voices in contemporary Catalan poetry: Mireia Calafell, Blanca Llum Vidal, Biel Mesquida, and Guim Valls.
Meanwhile, The Galician Window, curated by poet Yolanda Castaño with the collaboration of the Xunta de Galicia, will feature authors such as Silvia Penas and Jesús Andrés Tejada, in a dialogue that will unite poetry, electronic music, and videocreation around the Lorca universe, or cultural editor and poet Antón Lopo, who, in conversation with Ana Romaní, will revisit the figure of Serafín Ferro, one of the most fascinating yet little-known characters in 20th-century Galician culture. Chus Pato, 2024 National Poetry Prize winner, and Jesús Castro Yáñez will participate in a conversation and a performative reading created specifically for the occasion.
Iñigo Astiz, Maialen Berasategi, Oier Guillan, Felipe Juaristi, Edu Zelaieta or Ane Zubeldia are among the authors taking part in The Basque Window, alongside filmmaker Lur Olaizola, musician Ibon RG and actor Oier Guillan, in a program curated by writer and poet Miren Agur Meabe with the collaboration of the Etxepare Euskal Institutua.