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Annual International Storytellers Conference
Annual International Storytellers Conference
The International Storytellers Conference is a space to celebrate the brevity, magic and intensity of short stories. This nineteenth edition brings together authors from different languages, traditions and geographies who share the same passion: to narrate the essential with a few powerful words.
Family ties, memory, indifference, home, desire, body, grief, motherhood, and loss make up the stories of eleven writers who come together to reveal the vitality and diversity of contemporary storytelling, and invite us to explore unique worlds, to explore the intimate, the social, the imagined and the lived, all in the precise and powerful space of the story.
The three dialogue tables will be moderated by the Mexican writer Alberto Chimal, who, in addition to collaborating with the selection of participants, will take the helm of the conversations between authors and readers.
Participants: Huda Al-Naemi, Jan Carson, Andrés Montero, Laksmi Pamuntjak
Moderator: Alberto Chimal
Huda Al-Naemi
(Qatar)
Writer, doctor in medical physics, she worked for years in the scientific field before devoting herself completely to literature. She received the Qatar National Prize in Healthcare Medical Sciences (2018). Precocious, both in her literary and journalistic production, her first collection of short stories Al-Mikhala saw the light in 1997. It was followed by Untha , 1998, and Abatil , 2000. Two years later she would publish Ayn tara, a compilation of articles that appeared in various Qatari and Arabic newspapers. In 2010, she published a new anthology of short stories, Hala tushbihuna, which was followed in 2012 by a children's play, al-Naba al-dhahabi . She has been part of a good number of technical commissions and juries under the Ministry of Culture of Qatar, especially for the awarding of prizes for theatrical work. In the international scene, she was a member of the jury of the Arabic Novel Prize, known as Arab Booker, in its 2012 edition, as well as that of Katara, also for the novel written in Arabic, of the year 2018.
In 2021, she published a new collection of short stories, Qumut (Diapers), set in the shops of goods and clothes for babies in the seventies and eighties of the last century. Among her most recent works we find a fictionalized autobiography, Hina jabuhu al-najil 2023, and her novel Zaafarana, 2024.
The most recent sample of his literary work we have in the Huda wa Kalila collection (Huda and Kalila), published by the Hamad ben Khalifa University Press, Doha, in 2025, from where the short stories presented in the summer publication of the magazine have been extracted from Banipal.
Other activities involving the participant:
Echoes of FIL
Jan Carson
(Ireland)
Jan Carson is a writer based in Belfast. She has published three novels, three short story collections and two microfiction collections. Her novel, The Fire Starters won the European Literature Prize for Ireland, in 2019. Her most recent novel, The Raptures, was published by Doubleday in early 2022 and was subsequently shortlisted for the An Post Irish Novel of the Year and Kerry Group Novel of the Year awards. Her short story collection Quickly, While They Still Have Horses was published by Doubleday (UK) in April 2024, and by Scribner (USA) in July 2024. Her work has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and 4 and RTE. She is a 2025 Seamus Heaney Centre Fellow at Queen's University Belfast, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her first play, an adaptation of the children's classic The Velveteen Rabbit, was produced by the Replay theatre company at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast in March 2025. Her next novel is Few and Far Between, which is to be published in early 2026.
Other activities involving the participant:
Territory of Affections, Silences and Encounters
Echoes of FIL
Andrés Montero
(Santiago de Chile, 1990)
He is a writer and oral narrator, author of Tony Ninguno, Taguada, La muerte viene estilando and El año en que hablamos con el mar, among others. He has received several literary prizes in Chile and abroad, among which the X Iberoamerican Prize of Novel Elena Poniatowska of Mexico City stands out. His books have been published in Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Greece and Denmark. Together with Nicole Castillo, he integrates the oral narration company La Matrioska; he directs the Literature and Oral Arts School Casa Contada, and hosts the television program Los cuenteros en ruta.
Other activities involving the participant:
Latin America Viva
Laksmi Pamuntjak
(Indonesia, 1971)
Award-winning bilingual Indonesian novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, food critic and literary curator. She writes widely on culture and politics for Indonesian and international publications including opinion pieces for The Guardian.
Pamuntjak’s debut novel, Amba/The Question of Red, has been translated into several languages and won Germany’s LiBeraturpreis in 2016. The novel was also on the shortlist of Indonesia’s Khatulistiwa Literary Award and #1 on Germany’s Weltempfaenger list of the best works of fiction from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Arab World translated into German.
In March 2024, The Economist named Amba/The Question of Red one of Six Books to Read about Indonesia.
The movie adaptation of Pamuntjak’s second novel, Aruna dan Lidahnya (published in the US as The Birdwoman’s Palate), won two Citra awards, Indonesia’s version of the Oscars. The movie had its European premiere at the 2019 Berlinale International Film Festival and is playing on Netflix.
In 2018, Pamuntjak’s first English novel, Fall Baby, was published in Germany under the title Herbstkind. A year later, the original version was published by Penguin Random House SEA and won the 2020 Singapore Book Award for Best Literary Work.
In June 2025, The Book of Mating, the English translation of Pamuntjak’s short story collection, Kitab Kawin (transl. Annie Tucker), won the 2025-2026 Humanities in Translation (HiT) Prize. A few short stories in the collection have been published in various literary journals, with “Anna and Her Daughter’s Partner” being one of Words Without Borders’ 5 Top Fiction Picks of 2022.
The Book of Mating will be published in the US by Northwestern University Press in Fall 2026.
As a poet, Laksmi has published two poetry collections, with Ellipsis appearing in the 2005 Herald UK Books of the Year list. In 2012, she became the Indonesian representative at Poetry Parnassus, UK’s largest poetry festival in conjunction with the London Olympics.
As a food writer, her most notable contribution to Indonesian culinary history is five editions of the Jakarta Good Food Guide series, published for the first time in 2001. The series is widely acknowledged as Indonesia’s first independent and literary good food guide.
Along with her poems, short stories and essays, Pamuntjak’s writing on art has appeared in numerous international literary journals. In 2022, she co-curated a literary exhibition in Jakarta to celebrate the centennial of the great Indonesian poet Chairil Anwar. Between 2009 and 2011, she served as an international jury member for the Amsterdam-based Prince Claus Award, an international philanthropy organization.
Pamuntjak’s latest work (2024) is Selaput Biru (Blue Iris). Begun and completed during her Fall 2023 residency at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris, it is a memoir of sorts based on her reflections on art and life.
Between August and December 2024, she was Literaturhaus Zurich Writer-in-Residence.
Laksmi Pamuntjak’s body of work can be accessed through her personal website, www.laksmipamuntjak.com
Other activities involving the participant:
Echoes of FIL
Alberto Chimal
Alberto Chimal (Toluca, Mexico, 1970) is a writer and professor of creative writing. In 2002 he won the National Short Story Prize, and in 2014 the Colima Narrative Prize, awarded by the National Institute of Fine Arts of his country; in 2013 his novel La torre y el jardín was a finalist of the Rómulo Gallegos International Prize; in 2019 his children's book La Distante he received the International Prize of the Cuatrogatos Foundation; in 2021 his novel La noche en la zona M he won the International Book Bank Award, and in 2024 he was awarded the FILEM International Prize for his literary career. His other works are the novels Los esclavos (2009) and The visitor (2022); a score of short story books, of which the most recent is Las estancias secretas (2024); the scripts of the films 7:19 (2016), directed by Jorge Michel Grau, and Confesiones (2023), directed by Carlos Carrera; "Funeral", an illustrated story within the Batman graphic novel: El Mundo (2021), and the fiction podcast La señal (2025). His texts have been translated into a dozen languages and have appeared in international anthologies. He lives in Mexico City; with his wife, the writer Raquel Castro, he maintains a literary dissemination channel on YouTube. In Páginas de Espuma, he has published Los atacantes (2015) and Manos de lumbre (2018).
Other activities involving the participant:
Annual International Storytellers Conference
Annual International Storytellers Conference
A shared look at literature: stories between east and west
Thursday, December 04
19:00 to 20:50
FIL for Young People
Echoes of FIL
Participant: Laksmi Pamuntjak
Laksmi Pamuntjak
(Indonesia, 1971)
Award-winning bilingual Indonesian novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, food critic and literary curator. She writes widely on culture and politics for Indonesian and international publications including opinion pieces for The Guardian.
Pamuntjak’s debut novel, Amba/The Question of Red, has been translated into several languages and won Germany’s LiBeraturpreis in 2016. The novel was also on the shortlist of Indonesia’s Khatulistiwa Literary Award and #1 on Germany’s Weltempfaenger list of the best works of fiction from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Arab World translated into German.
In March 2024, The Economist named Amba/The Question of Red one of Six Books to Read about Indonesia.
The movie adaptation of Pamuntjak’s second novel, Aruna dan Lidahnya (published in the US as The Birdwoman’s Palate), won two Citra awards, Indonesia’s version of the Oscars. The movie had its European premiere at the 2019 Berlinale International Film Festival and is playing on Netflix.
In 2018, Pamuntjak’s first English novel, Fall Baby, was published in Germany under the title Herbstkind. A year later, the original version was published by Penguin Random House SEA and won the 2020 Singapore Book Award for Best Literary Work.
In June 2025, The Book of Mating, the English translation of Pamuntjak’s short story collection, Kitab Kawin (transl. Annie Tucker), won the 2025-2026 Humanities in Translation (HiT) Prize. A few short stories in the collection have been published in various literary journals, with “Anna and Her Daughter’s Partner” being one of Words Without Borders’ 5 Top Fiction Picks of 2022.
The Book of Mating will be published in the US by Northwestern University Press in Fall 2026.
As a poet, Laksmi has published two poetry collections, with Ellipsis appearing in the 2005 Herald UK Books of the Year list. In 2012, she became the Indonesian representative at Poetry Parnassus, UK’s largest poetry festival in conjunction with the London Olympics.
As a food writer, her most notable contribution to Indonesian culinary history is five editions of the Jakarta Good Food Guide series, published for the first time in 2001. The series is widely acknowledged as Indonesia’s first independent and literary good food guide.
Along with her poems, short stories and essays, Pamuntjak’s writing on art has appeared in numerous international literary journals. In 2022, she co-curated a literary exhibition in Jakarta to celebrate the centennial of the great Indonesian poet Chairil Anwar. Between 2009 and 2011, she served as an international jury member for the Amsterdam-based Prince Claus Award, an international philanthropy organization.
Pamuntjak’s latest work (2024) is Selaput Biru (Blue Iris). Begun and completed during her Fall 2023 residency at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris, it is a memoir of sorts based on her reflections on art and life.
Between August and December 2024, she was Literaturhaus Zurich Writer-in-Residence.
Laksmi Pamuntjak’s body of work can be accessed through her personal website, www.laksmipamuntjak.com
Other activities involving the participant:
Annual International Storytellers Conference
Friday, December 05
17:00 to 18:30