Bala Extra · Pedro M. Sánchez

Festival Atlántica II edición, ft. Alma Alanís

·1 hr 4 min·5 clips

Alma reveals how Festival Atlántica aims to challenge Anglo-Saxon dominance by connecting Spanish and Latin American speculative fiction writers.

1. Bala Extra episode 1775, recorded March 27, 2026, is an interview with Alma Alanís about the second edition of Festival Atlántica, a speculative fiction literary festival in Huelva. 2. Alma Alanís is a daily podcast host, short story writer, and co-organizer of Festival Atlántica alongside co-organizer Mar, both journalists by training. 3. The episode serves as advance publicity for the festival's second edition, scheduled for April 10-11, 2026, and as a retrospective on what succeeded in the first edition. 4. Festival Atlántica covers the three speculative fiction genres — terror, fantasy, and science fiction — and is held in Sala El Comercial in central Huelva, with all activities free to attend except the limited-capacity wine-literature tasting. 5. The festival is made possible through Fundación Cajasol, which includes it in its annual cultural programming and provides the venue; Alma and Mar handle all programming, author outreach, and logistics. 6. The second edition features eight authors including Fernando Iwasaki, a Peruvian writer, academic, and professor at Universidad Pablo de la Vida in Seville, invited specifically for his microrelato work. 7. A new microrelato competition invites submissions of up to 100 words with a €100 book prize from Librería Baobab; roughly twenty entries had been received by March 27, with the submission deadline set for March 31. 8. A maratón de microrelatos is scheduled for Saturday April 11 at 1pm, where contest participants gather to read selected texts aloud — winners must attend in person to claim the prize. 9. Friday April 10 opens with a live sculpture session by Huelva sculptor Martín Lagares, who will sculpt in real time while a literary fragment — likely from Mercedes Rodoreda's La Muerte y la Primavera — is read aloud. 10. Folklorist and illustrator Javier Prado will deliver a talk on the mythological creatures and monsters of Huelva's oral tradition, described as material that has never been compiled or presented this way before. 11. Fantasy writers Aranzazú Serrano and Eva Muedo will hold a panel discussion on epic fantasy; Eva Muedo also participated in the first edition and continues publishing her literary saga. 12. The wine-and-literature tasting, a signature activity from the first edition using wines from Bodegas Contreras Ruiz in Rociana del Condado, returns trimmed from four wines to three and moved from Saturday midday to Friday evening. 13. The first edition's biggest surprise was that people traveled from other provinces specifically to attend despite the limited advance publicity Alma and Mar were able to generate. 14. The festival was born when Alma and Mar, both fans of the Celsius festival in Avilés, asked why there was nothing comparable near them in southern Spain and decided to organize it themselves with two months of preparation. 15. Alma is candid about the anxiety involved in organizing the second edition, describing unresolved problems and the need to remind herself that the first edition was equally precarious and still went well. 16. The festival's long-term goal is to bring major Iberoamerican speculative fiction writers — Alma names Mariana Enríquez, Mónica Ojeda, Samantha Scheibling, María Fernanda Ampuero, and Elaine Vilar — to Huelva, a vision currently limited by budget. 17. The interview is conversational and warm, with frequent digressions into Andalusian geography, travel tourism in Huelva and Almería, and the broader Spanish speculative fiction festival landscape including Celsius (Avilés), Festival 42 (Barcelona), Hispacón, Terramur (Murcia), Golem (Valencia), and Inusual (Albacete). 18. The host and Alma also discuss the uchronia genre using For All Mankind on Apple TV+ as an example, and the host proposes a future episode dedicated entirely to Huelva's travel highlights. 19. Best suited for Spanish-speaking listeners interested in speculative fiction literature, independent cultural festivals, or the Huelva region of Andalusia. 20. Less relevant for listeners seeking analysis of specific novels, publishing industry news, or content from outside Spain and Latin America.

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