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Annual Reading Promoters Conference

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Annual Reading Promoters Conference
Workshop-Talk: �Does the algorithm dream of electric verses?�

An algorithm can describe a lump in the throat, but it has no idea what that actually means. It can process millions of words without pause, recite—from memory—the most beautiful stories without its voice faltering, and yet it is incapable of trembling at a haiku or beating in time with a sonnet. The emotion and pleasure of reading remain distinctly human territory.

In this talk, Jorge Gonzalvo—recipient of Spain’s 2022 National Reading Promotion Award—invites us to reflect on the use of AI to foster reading, but also on how to maintain critical thinking, combat various biases, and decide when it is time to turn off the screen. Reading mediation professionals face new challenges related to AI: digital overexposure, scheduling disconnections to safeguard attention—our scarcest resource—and developing best practices that connect technology with ethics and well-being.

It is not only about knowing what AI can do, but also about deciding the role we wish to assign it. The algorithm is a powerful tool, an amplifier of imagination, but it is neither a replacement nor a substitute for the reading mediator. And that decision—how to read, how to guide, how to feel—remains, irrevocably, in our hands. After all, the capacity to dream—whether of sheep or electric verses—remains, exclusively, ours.

Participant: Jorge Gonzalvo

Jorge Gonzalvo

(Zaragoza, Spain)

He is a writer, editor, screenwriter and cultural manager. What he loves most about writing is teaching people how to create stories, which is why he has been teaching courses and workshops on the subject for over 20 years. As an author he has published several illustrated albums in the company of illustrators such as Cecilia Varela or Elena Odriozola. His best-known works are: Te regalo un cuento (Lóguez), Despedida de tristeza (Lóguez) and Tropecista (Bárbara Fiore). In May 2025 he plans to publish an illustrated album about the life of María de Luna, which will be accompanied by the images of Marina Velasco.

He is a founding member of the Atrapavientos Association, awarded with the National Prize for the Promotion of Reading 2022 granted by the Ministry of Culture of Spain. Atrapavientos is a Spanish organization with more than fifteen years of experience and committed to promoting reading, especially among the youngest, but also in rural areas or with groups at risk of reading exclusion. Atrapavientos has collaborated with entities such as the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development (AECID), the Cultural Center of Spain in Mexico, the Cultural Center of Spain in Costa Rica, the Cultural Center of Spain in Tegucigalpa, the Instituto Cervantes, Ministry of Culture of Spain, CaixaForum, Ibercaja Foundation, Writers School, Aldeas Infantile, Believe in Art or Atades, among others.

Some of the most recognized reader development projects of Atrapavientos are: Libros que Importan (a book exchange in public spaces that was created in 2016 and that to date has connected more than 15,600 readers from almost a hundred Spanish towns and also from Mexico, Sweden and the Netherlands), Plantadores de Historias, Cuentos al Viento, RecoLectores (an initiative of reader development in rural areas), La Asombrosa Máquina de Generar Historias, Leer es un Vicio (possibly the worst campaign to promote reading in the world) or Magia en los Libros. To date, about 85 thousand people have participated in the activities of Atrapavientos during its fifteen years of trajectory.

Other activities involving the participant:
The Pleasure of Reading Gala

Wednesday, December 03
13:10 to 14:00
Sal�n Enrique Gonz�lez Mart�nez, �rea Internacional, Expo Guadalajara

Follow the live broadcasts through our channel See live

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