Cosmopoética, Córdoba's international poetry festival, runs its 23rd edition from 25 September to 3 October 2026. The festival has been going since 2004, when the poet Raúl Alonso set it up as its first literary coordinator, and it won Spain's National Prize for the Promotion of Reading in 2009. This year brings 73 poets and writers to the city: 60 from Spain, eighteen of them from Córdoba and its province, and 13 from abroad. The programme runs on one theme across all nine days: Inventar la alegría — invent joy.
Honouring Borges, forty years on
The 2026 edition is dedicated to Jorge Luis Borges, marking the 40th anniversary of the Argentine writer's death. Cosmopoética has hosted Nobel laureates before — Seamus Heaney, Derek Walcott and Dario Fo have all read here — and a full-festival tribute to a single writer is unusual for it. Talks, recitals and literary walks return to Borges's labyrinths and libraries throughout the nine days.
Opening and closing galas
The festival opens on Friday 25 September at 20:00 in the Teatro Góngora, with writer Siri Hustvedt and Carmen Linares, who performs her recital Verso a Verso. It closes on Saturday 3 October, same time and venue, with the first Premio Cosmopoética Ciudad de Córdoba: Romanian poet Ana Blandiana takes the Trayectoria Poética award, and RNE's radio programme La Estación Azul wins for spreading poetry to a wider audience. The closing night ends with Círculo vertical, a concert-recital bringing together Rocío Márquez, Carmen Camacho and Pedro Rojas Ogáyar.
Three strands, one theme
Outside the galas, the daily programme runs on three named strands, most of it at the Sala Orive:
- Poetas en el Espejo — daily poetry recitals from the visiting authors
- Voces en el Aleph — literary talks and conversations
- Noches del Laberinto — evening sessions pairing a musician with a poet
Literary walks (paseos literarios) and street-level artistic interventions move the festival beyond its venues and into Córdoba's neighbourhoods.
Cosmopeque turns ten
Cosmopeque, the festival's family strand, marks its 10th anniversary in 2026. It is built around workshops with children's-literature authors such as Leire Bilbao, plus storytelling sessions pitched from age four upward. The 2026 opener runs Saturday 26 September at 11:00 at the Biblioteca Central Antonio Gala.
Access and inclusion
The programme also reaches audiences poetry festivals often overlook: a dedicated activity for the city's homeless population, and a guided visit to the Mezquita-Cathedral organised with the ONCE Foundation for visually impaired attendees. The festival is run by the Ayuntamiento de Córdoba, with backing from the Diputación de Córdoba, the Junta de Andalucía and the Ministerio de Cultura.
Getting there and getting in
The Ayuntamiento's culture listing states that entry is free until each venue reaches capacity. Registration details for the two Teatro Góngora galas haven't been published for 2026, so treat them as the festival's biggest draw and arrive with time to spare. Most venues sit within walking distance of each other in the historic centre; Córdoba's AUCORSA buses connect the rest. For help picking which evening to build a visit around and what to pair it with, see the full Cosmopoética visitor guide.