Benengeli, the Instituto Cervantes’ literary festival, reaches its sixth edition.
Established as a benchmark within the Spanish language, its in‑person and digital activities will take place over the course of a week across all five continents, turning it into a unique and truly global phenomenon.
It is worth highlighting that Benengeli 2026 will focus thematically on the space of libraries—those splendid places where the memory of humanity is preserved, access to knowledge is democratized, and communities are forged around the mystery of words, information, and dialogue.
A form of paradise, as Borges imagined them, libraries are a recurring presence in the lives and works of many writers who understand real or imagined libraries, private or public, as spaces of imagination.
This year, thirteen cities from the Instituto Cervantes network will take part in this major gathering, bringing together prominent voices from the Spanish‑language literary world. It is within this landscape that the aesthetic and generational plurality through which literature in Spanish approaches the realities of this century unfolds.
Sydney, Manila, Brussels, Bordeaux, Madrid, Manchester, Paris, Oran, Dakar, Belo Horizonte, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles will host these virtual and in‑person encounters. They will be joined by the guest cities of Caguas, Caracas, Edinburgh, and Quito.
Within this broad global circuit, multimedia activities created by collaborators in Prague, Seville, Bogotá, Panama City, and Miami are also included, together forming a vast mosaic of letters.
In this way, Benengeli elevates its proposal to consolidate a great global cultural network—one that, like a spiritual library, embraces a rich melting pot of literary cultures.