Festival 42 | Gencat Cultural Agenda

the sixth Festival 42Barcelona’s fantasy genre literary contest, is knocking on the door. It will be held from November 4 to 8 at the Fabra i Coats site. The curatorship this year falls to cultural journalist Karen Madrid Ribas and Susana Vallejo, writer and founder of the online school Phantastica.

The program revolves around different thematic axes, such as atavistic and contemporary fears, world-building, art in fantasy genres and reflections on artificial intelligence. The festival will also have moments to honor Richard Matheson, one of the fathers of contemporary horror and fantasy, on the occasion of the centenary of his birth, and the architect Antoni Gaudí,

There will be Naomi Ishiguro, author of The Orphans of Rainshadowwhich deals with political alternatives to the fears of the present; Django Wexler, writer and specialist in artificial intelligence, known for biology The Dark Lord; Agustín Fernández Mallo, who in his latest novel fuses AI and fallen angels; Jaume Oliver Ripoll, winner of the Ciutat de Palma award with a uchrony of time travel; Alicia Kopf, visual artist and author of Eco reporton technological mediation and representation of the self; and Carlos di Urarte, specialist in grimdark fantasy and one of the most prominent emerging voices in the genre.

Consult all the details of the Festival 42.

Last update: 19/06/2026