Invités


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Roberto Alajmo

Author   |  Italy
Roberto Alajmo - © D. R. - Opale

Roberto Alajmo was born in 1959 in Palermo. A novelist and journalist, he has been engaged for years in a singular enterprise: writing an inventory of all the madmen in Italy. Kidnappings, parricide, men without scruples: all these characters punctuate his stories. Tragic farces, the writing of Roberto Alajmo, tense and extremely sober, explores the torments of the soul and the depravity of Italian society over which hangs the overwhelming shadow of the Mafia.

Bibliography: Mat à l'étouffé (Rivages, 2010 ) Palerme est un oignon (La Fosse aux Ours, 2009 )

Roberto Alajmo will participate in:
« The bookclub readers of the Progrès invite Roberto Alajmo, A. M. Homes et Laurent Mauvignier » , meeting, Friday 28 May, Le Progrès - La Confluence.
« Madness at work » , round-table, Sunday 30 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_ALAJMO_Roberto.pdf

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Rabih Alameddine

Author   |  Lebanon / United States
Rabih  Alameddine - © Basso Carnnarsa - Opale - Flammarion

Rabih Alameddine, author, journalist and painter, was born in Jordan in 1959 to Lebanese parents, and now divides his time between San Francisco and Beirut. In his only book translated into French, Osama’s grandfather is a hakawati (storyteller) and his bewitching stories are mixed with classical legends from the Middle East, and revisited with dazzling wit: Abraham and Isaac; Ishmael, father of the Arab tribes, the legendary Fatima... With this dizzying, funny and exciting fresco, swinging from the Koran to the Old Testament, from Homer to Scheherazade, the author gives us the Arabian Nights for the twenty-first century.

Bibliography: Hakawati (Flammarion, 2009 )

Rabih Alameddine will participate in:
« Phantom works » , round-table, Wednesday 26 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.
« Encounter with Rabih Alameddine » , meeting in a library, Friday 28 May, Médiathèque Jean Prévost - Bron.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_ALAMEDDINE_Rabih.pdf

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Jean-Claude Ameisen

Author   |  France
Jean-Claude Ameisen - © D. R.

Jean -Claude Ameisen, born in 1951 in New York, is a physician, immunologist and researcher in biology. His many contributions to the field of research on cell death are recognised internationally. He is the author of a book as remarkable as it is unclassifiable, La Sculpture du vivant, Le Suicide cellulaire ou la mort créatrice (Seuil, 1999), a scientific work sometimes described as a 'molecular thriller'. Written in a unique language, always rich and poetic, his work offers a fascinating philosophical reflection on life, old age, sickness and death. He is currently Chairman of the Ethics Committee of INSERM (National Institute of Health and Medical Research) and member of the National Advisory Committee on Ethics.

Bibliography: Quand l’art rencontre la science (La Martinière, 2009 ) Écrire la science (ENSTA, 2010 )

Jean-Claude Ameisen will participate in:
« Biology and literature » , interview, Tuesday 25 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

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Aharon Appelfeld

Author   |  Israel
Aharon Appelfeld - © David Ignaszewski - Koboy

Aharon Appelfeld was born in 1932 in Czernowitz, Bukovina, to assimilated Jewish parents. During the Second World War, he experienced the ghetto, the death of relatives, deportation and finally exile across Europe, to Palestine. It is with the Bible that he learned Hebrew, "his adoptive mother tongue", which gave him his style, both concise and eloquent. The numerous references in his works remind the reader that biblical culture is for him, as for many victims of the unspeakable, both the anchor of his identity and his safeguard.

Bibliography: Et la fureur ne s’est pas encore tue (L’Olivier, 2009 )

Aharon Appelfeld will participate in:
« Does the Bible still inspire writers? » , round-table, Thursday 27 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_APPELFELD_Aharon.pdf

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Sefi Atta

Author   |  Nigeria
Sefi Atta - © D. R.

Sefi Atta, born in 1964, is a novelist, short story writer and playwright who has been published in England, the United States and Nigeria, her country of origin. In her first novel Everything Good Will Come, which won the Wole-Soyinka prize in 2006, she demonstrates the difficulty of coming-of-age and affirming one’s femininity in a conservative country still searching for its identity. Through the perspective and personal fate of a young girl, Sefi Atta is able to give us both a powerful report and a sensitive testimony to the wounds of Nigeria, from the 1970s to the mid 1990s.

Bibliography: Le Meilleur reste à venir (Actes Sud, 2009 )

Sefi Atta will participate in:
«  "L'humeur vagabonde" on France Inter » , france inter radio broadcast, Monday 24 May, Les Subsistances - Plateau 2.
« Encounter with Sefi Atta » , meeting in a library, Wednesday 19 May, Médiathèque centrale de Tarentaize - Saint-Étienne.
« Why use "I"? » , round-table, Sunday 30 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.
« Sefi Atta reads "Le Meilleur reste à venir" (Actes Sud, 2009) » , reading in the original version, Thursday 27 May, Librairie "La Voie aux Chapitres" - Lyon 7ème.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_ATTA_Seffi.pdf

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Florence Aubenas

Author   |  France
Florence Aubenas - © Patrice Normand - Temps Machine

Florence Aubenas spent most of her career as a journalist with Liberation, before becoming a senior reporter for Le Nouvel Observateur. She has also been president of the International Observatory of Prisons since 2009. In Le Quai Ouistreham, she recreates her hellish experience as a cleaning-lady looking for work with great accuracy. The striking story of her six-month odyssey through the misery of the everyday enables her to examine the current crisis from up close, and confront the reality of job insecurity.

Bibliography: Le Quai de Ouistreham (L’Olivier, 2010 )

Florence Aubenas will participate in:
« Reality stronger than fiction? » , interview, Friday 28 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_AUBENAS_FLorence.pdf

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Gwenaëlle Aubry

Author   |  France
Gwenaëlle  Aubry - © Stéphane Haskell - Mercure de France

Gwenaëlle Aubry is a novelist and philosopher. The starting point of Personne was a manuscript left by her father at his death, with the only indication being this note: "to novelise". Appropriating these diary fragments by inserting them in her own text, she has built a poignant alphabet-book-like novel, in twenty-six chapters, reconstructing the figure of a missing person who, even while living, was a stranger to the world and to himself.

Bibliography: Personne (Mercure de France, 2009 )

Gwenaëlle Aubry will participate in:
« From diary to novel » , round-table, Monday 24 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_AUBRY_Gwenaëlle.pdf

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François Beaune

Author   |  France
François Beaune - © C. Hélie - Gallimard

François Beaune, was born in 1978 and currently lives in Lyon. He has founded several journals including Louche, the digital serial "Les bonnes nouvelles de Jacques Dauphin" and recently the collective fanzine Gonzo. Un Homme Louche is his first novel. Through the diary of a disturbed young man, François Beaune casts a disparaging eye on our times. This unusual and funny novel, in praise of fantasy and freedom, uses dark humour to depict our consumer society.

Bibliography: Un homme louche (Verticales, 2009 )

François Beaune will participate in:
« Madness at work » , round-table, Sunday 30 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.
« Encounter with François Beaune » , meeting in a library, Thursday 27 May, Bibliothèque du Bachut - Lyon 8ème.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_BEAUNE_François.pdf

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Alain Beuve-Méry

Critic journalist   |  France
Alain Beuve-Méry - © David Ignaszewski - Koboy

Alain Beuve-Méry is a journalist for Le Monde des Livres. He follows the world of publishing in France and abroad. He is also one of the chroniclers for the programme "Masse critique" hosted by Frédéric Martel, dedicated to cultural industry, on France Culture.

http://www.lemonde.fr/

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Jean Birnbaum

Critic journalist   |  France
Jean Birnbaum - © David Balicki

Jean Birnbaum, a journalist for Le Monde, has also worked for France Culture. He is the author of the last interview with Jacques Derrida, Apprendre à vivre enfin (Galilée / Le Monde 2005), and Leur jeunesse et la nôtre. L’espérance révolutionnaire au fil des générations (Stock, 2005) and Les Maoccidents. Un néoconservatisme à la française (Stock, 2009). He is currently assistant manager at Le Monde des Livres.

http://www.lemonde.fr/

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David Boratav

Author   |  France
David Boratav - © C. Hélie - Gallimard

The first novel by David Boratav, Murmures à Beyoglu, considers the city, whether it be Paris, London or Istanbul, as a vessel containing a whisper, the point where languages and cultures mix. This novel, teeming with urban legends, is at the same time the story of a quest, accompanied by a reflection on the troubled identity of immigrants who keep within themselves the magnetism of the cities where they grew up, and a less then flattering portrait of Istanbul, this city-character, this "old lady who lies about her age".

Bibliography: Murmures à Beyoglu (Gallimard, 2009 )

David Boratav will participate in:
« The city and urban energy » , round-table, Saturday 29 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_BORATAV_David.pdf

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Geneviève Brisac

Author   |  France
Geneviève Brisac - © David Ignaszewski - Koboy

Geneviève Brisac, novelist and essayist, is also editor at the École des Loisirs. She has, moreover, co-written the film Non ma fille, tu n’iras pas danser,  with Christophe Honoré. In Une année avec mon père, a deeply moving autobiographical tale, Genevieve Brisac attempts to describe the slow decline of her father. At once bright, funny, light and serious, this story is a powerful hymn to life, carried by lively, sharp writing of great sensitivity.

Bibliography: Une année avec mon père (L’Olivier, 2010 )

Geneviève Brisac will participate in:
« A novelist at the museum » , breakfast, Sunday 30 May, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon.
« To say and not to say: self-censorship » , round-table, Sunday 30 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.
« Encounter with Geneviève Brisac » , meeting in a library, Friday 28 May, Maison du livre, de l'image et du son - Villeurbanne.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_BRISAC_Geneviève.pdf

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Sergey Buntman

Critic journalist   |  Russian Federation
Sergey Buntman - © D. R.

Sergey Buntman is a journalist born in Moscow in 1956. He is one of the founders of the independent radio station "Echo of Moscow", where he is first assistant editor, presenter and political observer. Awarded the annual "Golden Pen" prize and the Maurice Vakhsmakher prize in 2005, he is also a translator (Jean Cocteau, Antonin Artaud, Jacques Roubaud).

http://www.echo.msk.ru/

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A. S. Byatt

Author   |  England
A. S.  Byatt - © David Ignaszewski - Koboy

A. S. Byatt, a novelist and short story writer born in the north of England, was formerly a teacher of art history and literature in London. In 1990, her novel Possession (translated into French by Jean-Louis Chevalier, Flammarion, 1993) won the Booker Prize and was met with worldwide success. She now devotes her time to literature. Her first novel, The Shadow of the Sun, has at long last been published in France, in a splendid translation by the late Jean-Louis Chevalier. All the themes of her future work were present in this first text, written when Byatt was a student at Cambridge: conflict between ambition, family life and personal achievement, rebellion and liberation from morals, and the intellectual and moral upheaval of the 50s.

Bibliography: L’Ombre du soleil (Flammarion, 2009 )

A. S. Byatt will participate in:
«  "L'humeur vagabonde" on France Inter » , france inter radio broadcast, Thursday 27 May, Les Subsistances - Plateau 2.
« And you, A. S. Byatt? Short conversations with ghosts » , conversation avec des revenants, Friday 28 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.
« Is the novel a tired genre?  » , debate, Saturday 29 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_BYATT_AS.pdf

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Antonio Caballero

Author   |  Columbia
Antonio Caballero - © David Ignaszewski - Koboy

Antonio Caballero, a journalist and novelist born in Bogota, is famous in Colombia for his satirical drawings and for creating the left-wing journal Alternativa. Un mal sans remède, a Fellinian odyssey of devastating humour, paints a scathing portrait of Colombian society. This masterpiece, the fruit of twelve years of work, is a brilliant reflection on the role of the writer, revealing Caballero as a major writer of Latin American literature.

Bibliography: Un mal sans remède (Belfond, 2009 )

Antonio Caballero will participate in:
«  "L'humeur vagabonde" on France Inter » , france inter radio broadcast, Thursday 27 May, Les Subsistances - Plateau 2.
« How about a coffee, Antonio Caballero? From one writer, another: an invitation » , interview, Friday 28 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.
« Encounter with Antonio Caballero » , meeting in a library, Saturday 29 May, Bibliothèque municipale - Lyon 1er.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_CABALLERO_Antonio.pdf

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Emmanuel Carrère

Author   |  France
Emmanuel Carrère - © Hélène Bamberger

Emmanuel Carrère, a novelist and essayist, was witness to two tragic events: the death of a little girl, Juliet, victim of the tsunami in Sri Lanka, and the death of another Juliet, his step-sister. In D’autres vies que la mienne, a poignant, sober book, there is at stake a matter of life and death, of sickness, extreme poverty, justice and love. This empathetic story told with great reserve does much more than relate these events: it skillfully transforms the real world into literature.

Bibliography: D’autres vies que la mienne (P.O.L, 2009 )

Emmanuel Carrère will participate in:
« To say and not to say: self-censorship » , round-table, Sunday 30 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_CARRERE_Emmanuel.pdf

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Sophie Chérer

Author   |  France
Sophie Chérer - © D. R.

Sophie Chérer est née en 1961, en Lorraine. Dès l’âge de huit ans, elle adore écrire des lettres à la rubrique courrier des lecteurs de différents journaux. Vers treize ans, la lecture de Chiens perdus sans collier de Gilbert Cesbron lui donne envie de devenir juge pour enfants, comme le héros du roman. Elle entreprend donc, après le bac, des études de droit et obtient en 1984 un DEA de droit pénal et criminologie. Mais elle ne passera jamais le concours de la magistrature. Car entre-temps, elle est entrée, grâce à un autre concours – de critiques de cinéma, celui-là –, dans l’équipe de 7 à Paris. D’abord simple revue de programmes de spectacles, en un an, le magazine devient un vrai journal où elle tient successivement les rubriques cinéma, théâtre et littérature. À la mort de 7 à Paris en 1991, la rédaction intègre L’Autre Journal qui disparaît aussi, peu de temps après. Sophie Chérer est au chômage. Sa maison natale, à Courcelles-Chaussy en Lorraine, est en vente. Elle la rachète et s’y installe pour écrire, avec sa fille Mathilde. Elle est l’auteur des romans Les Loups du paradis (1996), À ceux qui nous ont offensés (1999) ou encore L’Enjoliveur (Stock, 2002), un roman en hommage à Jean Giono. Elle anime régulièrement des ateliers d’écriture. Elle publie également des romans pour la jeunesse à L’École des Loisirs et des mini-biographies dans la revue Je lis des histoires vraies (Fleurus).

Sophie Chérer participera, dans le cadre des Assises, à un projet pédagogique avec des écoliers. Pour en savoir plus, cliquez ici.

Bibliography: Mathilde met son grain de sel (L'École des Loisirs, 2009 )

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_CHERER_Sophie.pdf

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Antoine Compagnon

Author   |  France
Antoine Compagnon - ©

Antoine Compagnon, who is chairman of Modern and Contemporary French literature at the Collège de France, is a professor at the Sorbonne and at Columbia (New York). He is also the author of Proust entre deux siècles (Le Seuil, 1988), and Les Antimodernes (Gallimard, 2005).

Antoine Compagnon will participate in:
« Is the novel a tired genre?  » , debate, Saturday 29 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

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Lucy Dallas

Critic journalist   |  England
Lucy Dallas - © David Ignaszewski - Koboy

Lucy Dallas is in charge of content for the TLS (Times Literary Supplement) website as well as the section "In Brief". She writes regularly in the TLS (and elsewhere) on French literature, the arts and fiction.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/

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Marie Darrieussecq

Author   |  France
Marie Darrieussecq - © Hélène Bamberger

Marie Darrieussecq, a novelist and psychoanalyst, has often written about corporeal transformations. In Truismes (POL, 1996), she recounts the journey of a young woman who transforms little by little into a sow, and becomes infatuated with a very seductive wolf. Writer of the senses and of sensations, she shares with us, from the inside, the physical and metaphysical changes wrought by giving birth in Le Pays(POL, 2005) and reflects on motherhood in Le Bébé (POL, 2002), always with a very subtle humor and quasi-scientific precision.

Bibliography: Rapport de Police (P.O.L, 2010 )

Marie Darrieussecq will participate in:
« The body as it imposes itself » , round-table, Tuesday 25 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.
« Encounter with Marie Darrieussecq » , meeting in a library, Wednesday 26 May, Médiathèque Le Toboggan - Décines.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_DARRIEUSSECQ_Marie.pdf

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Erri De Luca

Author   |  Italy
Erri De Luca - © David Ignaszewski - Koboy

Erri De Luca was born in Naples in 1950. Several of his novels have been published with great success by Gallimard, including Au nom de la mère (Gallimard, 2006), a liberal and delicate interpretation of the Nativity, as well as two sets of commentaries and reflections on the Bible: Noyau d’olive (2004) and Comme une langue au palais (2006), translated from Italian to French by Danièle Valin. A veritable surveyor of Scripture, he is fascinated by the sacred texts, which he reads and translates regularly, drawing from them a real source of new emotions and food for today’s thought.

Bibliography: Le Jour avant le bonheur (Gallimard, 2010 )

Erri De Luca will participate in:
« Erri De Luca: the Bible, day after day » , interview, Thursday 27 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_DE_LUCA_Erri.pdf

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Vincent Delecroix

Author   |  France
Vincent Delecroix - © C. Hélie - Gallimard

Vincent Delecroix, philosopher and protean writer, has published novels and short stories with Actes Sud and Gallimard. Born in Paris in 1969, he has lived among the Greek heroes since childhood thanks to his parents, both teachers of Classics. In his essay Tombeau d’Achille, he pays an elegant and sensual tribute to the demigod, and tells his own story through the link he has sustained with this mythical figure, the hero who contributed to the construction of his identity.

Bibliography: Tombeau d’Achille (Gallimard, 2008 )

Vincent Delecroix will participate in:
« Does the Bible still inspire writers? » , round-table, Thursday 27 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_DELECROIX_Vincent.pdf

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Agnès Desarthe

Author   |  France
Agnès Desarthe - © Guillaume Binet - Myop

Agnès Desarthe est née en 1966 à Paris. « J’ai fait du russe à l’école, du yiddish à la fac, je suis allée en Russie quand j’avais quinze ans, mais c’est lorsque j’ai lu Singer que je me suis enfin représenté ma famille maternelle. Cela a été pour moi un immense soulagement. Isaac Bashevis Singer m’a appris à lire. Il continue de m’apprendre à écrire. » Elle publie son premier roman, Quelques minutes de bonheur absolu, aux Éditions de l’Olivier en 1993 et obtient la bourse de la fondation Hachette en 1995. Un secret sans importance obtient, quant à lui, le prix du Livre Inter 1996. Agrégée d’anglais, elle a traduit des romans et nouvelles de Cynthia Ozick, Aimee Bender, Alice Thomas Ellis, Elena Lappin, Emma Richler, Jay McInerney, et a cosigné avec Geneviève Brisac un essai sur Virginia Woolf, V.W. ou le Mélange des genres en 2004, de même que des émissions pour France Culture (Virginia Woolf, Flannery O’Connor’). Par ailleurs, elle a publié de nombreux livres pour enfants et adolescents à L’École des Loisirs.

Agnès Desarthe participera, dans le cadre des Assises, à un projet pédagogique avec des collégiens. Pour en savoir plus, cliquez ici.

Bibliography: Le remplaçant (L’Olivier, 2009 )

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_DESARTHE_Agnès.pdf

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Marie Desplechin

Author   |  France
Marie Desplechin - © Harcourt

Marie Desplechin, a journalist and writer, is the author of novels, short stories and tales for young people. Bobigny centre ville (Actes Sud, 2006) is an original, sensitive portrayal of a city marked by the social and political challenges resulting from the rapid urbanisation of post-war France. It is the result of a collaboration with her photographer friend Denis Darzacq. Combining narrative with images, this journey to the heart of the housing estate, to meet its inhabitants, is a story of destinies, friendship, culture, urban planning, architecture, history, memory and utopia.

Bibliography: La Galerie de Psyché (Nicolas Chaudun, 2009 )

Marie Desplechin will participate in:
« Reality stronger than fiction? » , interview, Friday 28 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_DESPLECHIN_Marie.pdf

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Margot Dijkgraaf

Critic journalist   |  Netherlands
Margot Dijkgraaf - © D. R.

Margot Dijkgraaf is a literary critic for the NRC Handelsblad. Specialist in French and European literature, she has published Littérature francophone d’aujourd’hui  (De Geus) and La plume de l’Europe (Prometheus). She has participated in numerous literary programmes for radio and directs Spui 25, an academic and cultural centre in the heart of Amsterdam.

http://www.nrc.nl/

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Fabienne Dumontet

Critic journalist   |  France
Fabienne Dumontet - © D. R.

Fabienne Dumontet, a contributor with Le Monde des Livres since 1999 in foreign and French literature, is also a lecturer in French literature and French as a foreign language at the École Normale Superieure de Lyon.

http://www.lemonde.fr/

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Anne Enright

Author   |  Ireland
Anne  Enright - © Joe O'Shaugnessy

Anne Enright, an Irish novelist, describes with uncompromising humour in Making Babies (translated into French by Chloé Baker, Actes Sud, 2008) what becoming a mother meant for her: routine, fatigue, clumsiness, confusion, restrictions... but also joy. Between the unexpected truth of clichés and the discovery of new wisdom, it is with the same lucidity and generosity that she explores the anatomy of feelings and family ties in The Gathering, a raw chronicle of an Irish family in mourning, lost between Eros and Thanatos.

Bibliography: Retrouvailles (Actes Sud, 2009 )

Anne Enright will participate in:
« The body as it imposes itself » , round-table, Tuesday 25 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.
« Encounter with Anne Enright » , meeting in a library, Wednesday 26 May, Lycée Rosa Parks - Neuville-sur-Saône.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_ENRIGHT_Anne.pdf

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Kathleen Evin

Critic journalist   |  France
Kathleen Evin - © Christophe Abramowitz

Kathleen Evin has worked for France Inter since 1988, where she has produced and hosted "L’Humeur vagabonde" since 2002. She has also worked for several television channels, newspapers and magazines. She is the author of several books including À table avec les politiques, with Etienne de Montpezat (Gallimard / GaultMillau, 2002).

http://sites.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/accueil/

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Chapelier Fou

Musician   |  France
Chapelier  Fou - © Franck Loriou

Louis Warynski, aka Chapelier Fou (Mad Hatter), is a teacher at the Conservatoire de Metz, a classical violinist, and constitutes all by himself a factory of universes and electronic dreams. A remarkable one-man orchestra, he dexterously carves frenetic melodies on stage, somewhere between acoustic melancholy and unbridled electronica, the heir to Yann Tiersen and Wax Tailor. Praised by Dominique A and acclaimed by critics, he received the Fabrice-Ragris Prize at the Eurockéennes in 2009.

Bibliography: 613 (Ici d'ailleurs, 2010 )

Chapelier Fou will participate in:
« Alice's Adventures in Wonderland » , reading, Saturday 29 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

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Julia Franck

Author   |  Germany
Julia  Franck - © Thosten Greve - Flammarion

Julia Franck, a novelist born in 1970 in East Berlin, has worked as an editor and journalist for numerous newspapers. La Femme de midi, her first novel translated into French, tells the cruel and chilling story of a seven-year-old boy abandoned by his mother in a German train station in 1945. In this astonishing panorama, inspired by the story of the author’s own father, she immerses the reader in a reflection on humanity and monstrosity, with for background the Berlin of the 20s, jazz clubs, alcohol, drugs and mad passion, before the rise of Nazi ideology.

Bibliography: La Femme de midi (Flammarion, 2009 )

Julia Franck will participate in:
« The power of the plot » , round-table, Saturday 29 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_FRANCK_Julia.pdf

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James Frey

Author   |  United States
James Frey - © Circe Hamilton - Camera Press - Gamma - Eyedea

James Frey, one of the most famous and controversial authors from the United States, presents us with a breathtaking chronicle of contemporary Los Angeles in L. A. Story. In the creases and folds of a saga populated by millions of lives and lost souls in the City of Angels, another character gradually rises: the city itself. Through joys, horrors and unexpected chances, and with the strength of Dos Passos (Manhattan Transfer), the author turns L. A. into a creature as irresistibly attractive as it is worrisome and ruthless.

Bibliography: L. A. Story (Flammarion, 2009 )

James Frey will participate in:
« The city and urban energy » , round-table, Saturday 29 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.
« James Frey reads "L. A. Story" (Flammarion, 2009)  » , reading in the original version, Friday 28 May, Librairie "Le Bal des Ardents" - Lyon 1er.
« Encounter with James Frey » , meeting in a library, Saturday 29 May, Médiathèque Lucie Aubrac - Vénissieux.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_FREY_James.pdf

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Fabio Gambaro

Critic journalist   |  Italy
Fabio Gambaro - © D. R.

Fabio Gambaro was born in Milan in 1958. Essayist and literary critic, he now lives in Paris, where he works as cultural correspondent for the Italian newspapers La Repubblica and L'Espresso. Author of several books, he has published L’Italie par ses écrivains in France (Liana Levi, 2002).

http://www.repubblica.it/

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Nicole Garcia

Actress   |  France
Nicole Garcia - © Sylvie Lancrenon

Nicole Garcia, actor and director, is one of the major figures of French cinema. She has acted under the direction of Bertrand Tavernier, Claude Sautet, Alain Resnais, Claude Lelouch, Bertrand Blier and Bruno Podalydès. She was awarded the Cesar for Best Supporting Actress in 1980. In 1999, she directed Place Vendôme, which was nominated for twelve Cesars. Since then, she has skillfully combined directing (L’Adversaire, Un balcon sur la mer) and acting, both in films (La Petite Lili, Les Bureaux de Dieu) and in theatre plays (Molière award for Best Actress in 1991).

Nicole Garcia will participate in:
« Nicole Garcia reads the Diary of Virginia Woolf » , reading, Monday 24 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

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Jérôme Gautheret

Critic journalist   |  France
Jérôme Gautheret - © David Ignaszewski - Koboy

Jérôme Gautheret joined Le Monde in 2004. He was editor of Le Monde des Livres from 2005 until January 2009, before joining the "Décryptages" section of the paper. In summer 2009, he was entrusted with the launching of Le Mensuel du Monde, of which he is currently the editorial director.

http://www.lemonde.fr/

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Mark Greif

Critic journalist   |  United States
Mark Greif - © Mark Crop

Mark Greif is one of the editors of N +1, the American journal of literature, politics and culture. He teaches at the New School in New York. N +1’s first anthology was published in Germany under the title Ein Schritt weiter: Die n+1 - Anthologie (Suhrkamp).

http://www.nplusonemag.com/

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Wendy Guerra

Author   |  Cuba
Wendy Guerra - © Mathieu Bourgois

Wendy Guerra, born in Havana in 1970, is a poet, film maker and novelist. She has been a diarist since childhood and often uses the diary as a template for her work. Tout le monde s’en va (translated from Spanish into French by Marianne Million, Stock, 2008) portrays a generation through the diary of Nieve, who grew up on the island in the 1980s. In Mère Cuba, the author explores Cuba through the diaries of three women. Her next work, currently being translated, is Poser nue à la Havane. Sur les traces d’Anaïs Nin, Cuba 1922. It is a hybrid text, between essay and fiction, inspired by the life of the Franco-Cuban writer.

Bibliography: Mère Cuba (Stock, 2009 )

Wendy Guerra will participate in:
« From diary to novel » , round-table, Monday 24 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.
« "Cosmopolitaine" on France Inter » , france inter radio broadcast, Wednesday 26 May, Les Subsistances - Plateau 2.
« Wendy Guerra reads "Mère cuba" (Stock, 2009) » , reading in the original version, Tuesday 25 May, Librairie "Ouvrir l’Œil" - Lyon 1er.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_GUERRA_Wendy.pdf

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Leonid Guirchovitch

Author   |  Russian Federation
Leonid Guirchovitch - © David Ignaszewski - Koboy

Leonid Guirchovitch, a Russian writer born in 1948, is first violinist in the Hanover Opera and the author of several novels and essays on music. In Têtes interverties, a young Russian violinist is hired as a co-soloist in the orchestra of a large city in West Germany. There he meets his grandfather, whom he thought dead, in extraordinary circumstances. In this detective novel, a stunning virtuoso, an identity quest meets with a real investigation, and puzzles and revelations await the reader at every step.

Bibliography: Têtes interverties (Verdier, 2007 )

Leonid Guirchovitch will participate in:
« The power of the plot » , round-table, Saturday 29 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_GUIRCHOVITCH_Leonid.pdf

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Judith Henry

Actress   |  France
Judith Henry - © David Fresson

Judith Henry is an actress and co-founder of the Compagnie Sentimental Bourreau. She acts in all the projects of the Compagnie, and also collaborates with many theatre and film directors. She is known in particular for La discrète (Christian Vincent - Cesar award for most promising actress) and Germinal (Claude Berri). In the theatre, we have seen her recently at Les Subsistances in Tristan et… (by Lancelot Hamelin, adapted from Richard Wagner, directed by Mathieu Bauer).

Judith Henry will participate in:
« Alice's Adventures in Wonderland » , reading, Saturday 29 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

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Paul Holdengräber

Critic journalist   |  United States
Paul Holdengräber - © David Ignaszewski - Koboy

Paul Holdengräber is director of LIVE from the NYPL, the public programming series at The New York Public Library. Since 2005, he has hosted, among others, Zadie Smith, Peter Nadas, Umberto Eco, Lou Reed, Werner Herzog, Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, Toni Morrison, Daniel Barenboim, William Forsythe, Isabelle Allende, Frank Gehry, Orhan Pamuk, Peter Sellars, Slavoj Zizek with Bernard-Henri Lévy, John Hope Franklin with President Bill Clinton, Günter Grass with Norman Mailer. In 2003, the French government awarded him the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres medal. In 2008 and 2009, at the International Forum on the Novel, he conducted interviews with the Italian historian Carlo Ginzburg, the English psychoanalyst Adam Phillips and the pianist Alfred Brendel.

Paul Holdengräber will participate in:
«  "L'humeur vagabonde" on France Inter » , france inter radio broadcast, Tuesday 25 May, Les Subsistances - Plateau 2.
« The interviewer interviewed » , interview, Wednesday 26 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

http://www.nypl.org/

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A. M. Homes

Author   |  United States
A. M. Homes - © Marc Melki

A. M. Homes, a novelist, was born in Washington in 1961. She writes for Vanity Fair and has published fiction and essays in various magazines: The New Yorker, Granta, Harper's, MacSweeney... Her work is inhabited by all the forms of violence and cruelty that modern life can assume. This radicalism does not spare The Mistress’s Daughter, an autobiographical tale in which she recounts meeting her parents at the age of 31. The distance between the real and fantasy versions of her parents proves unfathomable. A text of rare intensity and merciless lucidity where nobody comes out unscathed.

Bibliography: Le Sens de la famille (Actes Sud, 2009 )

A. M. Homes will participate in:
« The bookclub readers of the Progrès invite Roberto Alajmo, A. M. Homes et Laurent Mauvignier » , meeting, Friday 28 May, Le Progrès - La Confluence.
« To say and not to say: self-censorship » , round-table, Sunday 30 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_HOMES_AM.pdf

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Paula Jacques

Critic journalist   |  France
Paula  Jacques - © Christophe Abramowitz

Paula Jacques, a journalist and novelist, joined France Inter in 1975. She has hosted "Cosmopolitaine", a cultural magazine show, every Sunday since 1999. Member of the Jury Femina since 1996, she is the author of Deborah et les Anges dissipés (Mercure de France publishing, Prix Femina 1991) and has just published Kayro Jacobi, juste avant l’oubli, with the same publisher.

www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter

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Patrick Kéchichian

Critic journalist   |  France
Patrick Kéchichian - © C. Hélie - Gallimard

Patrick Kéchichian was a journalist and literary critic for Le Monde from 1985 to 2008 and currently works for La Croix.  He is the author of Les Origines de l’alpinisme. Exercices spirituels (Seuil, 2001), L’Aiguille de minuit. Carnets de l’Alpiniste (Seuil, 2004), Des Princes et des principautés. Pamphlet (Seuil, 2006). In September 2009 he published Petit éloge du catholicisme (Folio-Gallimard).

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Alexandre Lacroix

Critic journalist   |  France
Alexandre Lacroix - © Arnaud Février -  Flammarion

Alexandre Lacroix is editor-in-chief of Philosophy Magazine. He teaches literature at Sciences-Po Paris and has also published six novels, including Premières volontés (Grasset, 1998) and De la supériorité des femmes (Flammarion, 2008).

http://www.philomag.com/

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Dany Laferrière

Author   |  Quebec / Haiti
Dany Laferrière - © David Ignaszewski - Koboy

Is Dany Laferrière a writer from Haiti, Quebec, or America? Born in Port au Prince and raised in Petit-Goave, he became a writer in Montreal at the age of 35 when he published Comment faire l’amour avec un nègre sans se fatiguer (Le Serpent à Plumes, 1999). His autobiographical work forms an intersection of the diversity and the fractures of the American continent, from the north to the Caribbean. L’Enigme du retour, a novel about returning from exile, recounts a journey that is both tranquil and serious, dreamlike and full of charm.

Bibliography: L’Énigme du retour (Grasset, 2009 )

Dany Laferrière will participate in:
« How about a coffee, Antonio Caballero? From one writer, another: an invitation » , interview, Friday 28 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_LAFERRIERE_Dany.pdf

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Michèle Lesbre

Author   |  France
Michèle Lesbre - © Henry Roy - Koboy

Michèle Lesbre is a novelist. Each of her novels is visited by the works of other writers. We meet not only Nina from The Seagull by Chekhov in Nina par hasard, but Hermann Hesse, Dostoevsky and Milena Jesenska (Kafka’s Milena) in Le Canapé rouge (Sabine Wespieser, 2007), as well as characters from Modiano in Sur le Sable.  Her writing is both erudite and clear; an invitation to travel through language and literature.

Bibliography: Sur le sable (Sabine Wespieser, 2009 ) Nina par hasard (Sabine Wespieser, 2010 )

Michèle Lesbre will participate in:
« Phantom works » , round-table, Wednesday 26 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.
« Encounter with Michèle Lesbre » , meeting in a library, Tuesday 25 May, Bibliothèque municipale - Lamastre.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_LESBRE_Michèle.pdf

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YAN Lianke

Author   |  China
YAN Lianke - © D. R.

YAN Lianke, born in 1958 in Henan Province, is a powerfully original writer, due to both the poetic force of his writing and the vehemence with which he tackles the taboos of contemporary China. His novels, very popular in China, have won prestigious literary awards, and have often been banned by censorship.

Bibliography: Songeant à mon père (Philippe Picquier, 2010 )

YAN Lianke will participate in:
« To say and not to say: self-censorship » , round-table, Sunday 30 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.
« Encounter with YAN Lianke » , meeting in a library, Saturday 29 May, Médiathèque François Mitterrand - Meyzieu.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_YAN_Lianke.pdf

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Michel Lussault

Geographer   |  France
Michel Lussault - © D. R.

Michel Lussault is a geographer and professor at the University of Lyon (Ecole Normale Superieure). Author of numerous books and scientific papers, he has published De la lutte des classes à la lutte des places (Grasset, 2009). In his work, he develops an original approach to the spatial action of social operators, with particular emphasis on identifying the basic skills of spatiality.

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Elizabeth Macocco

Actress   |  France
Elizabeth Macocco - © D. R.


Elizabeth Macocco will participate in:
« Phantom works » , round-table, Wednesday 26 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

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Jérôme Mauche

Writer and teacher   |  France


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Laurent Mauvignier

Author   |  France
Laurent  Mauvignier - © Hélène Bamberger

From Loin d’eux (Minuit, 1999) to his latest novel Des Hommes, Laurent Mauvignier has always erased himself in order to give voice to several narrators. With the strength and rigour of his writing style, he entraps the reader in the relentless thoughts of his characters, taking us directly to the heart of their personal injuries to allow us to share with them a taste of collective horror. By connecting the first-person narratives of his various characters and their individual fates, Laurent Mauvignier returns to the very essence of what makes History.

Bibliography: Des Hommes (Minuit, 2009 )

Laurent Mauvignier will participate in:
« The bookclub readers of the Progrès invite Roberto Alajmo, A. M. Homes et Laurent Mauvignier » , meeting, Friday 28 May, Le Progrès - La Confluence.
« Is the novel a tired genre?  » , debate, Saturday 29 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.
« Why use "I"? » , round-table, Sunday 30 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.
« Encounter with Laurent Mauvignier » , meeting in a library, Thursday 27 May, Bibliothèque municipale - Caluire et Cuire.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_MAUVIGNIER_Laurent.pdf

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Petra Metz

Publisher   |  Germany
Petra Metz - © D. R.

Petra Metz is a specialist in comparative science and an editor. After working for several years in the Maison des sciences de l’homme in Paris, she is now based in Berlin where she works with several cultural and educational institutions. She is also the author of Relektüre und Aneignung. Text-Bild-Metamorphosen im Werk von Marcel Broodthaers (2007).

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Albert Mobilio

Critic journalist   |  United States
Albert Mobilio - © Beowulf Sheehan - PEN American Center

Albert Mobilio has received the Whiting Writers' Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award for his work as a critic. His articles have been published in Harper's, The Village Voice, Grand Street, Black Clock, Bomb, Cabinet, Talisman and Tin House. He has also published collections of poetry including The Geographics, Me with Animal Towering and Touch Wood. He teaches literature at the New School (Eugene Lang College) and is co-editor-in-chief of Bookforum.

http://www.bookforum.com/

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Florence Noiville

Critic journalist   |  France
Florence Noiville - © David Ignaszewski - Koboy

Florence Noiville is a journalist for Le Monde, and literary critic for Le Monde des Livres. She also presents the weekly programme "Le Monde des Livres" on LCI and "Livres en poche!" on LCI radio. She is the author of J’ai fait HEC et je m’en excuse, an essay on the limits of the economic ideals that prevail in our society (Stock, 2009). She is also the author of a novel, La Donation (Stock, 2007), a biography of Isaac Bashevis Singer (Stock, 2004) and many books for children.

http://www.lemonde.fr/

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Martin Page

Author   |  France
Martin Page - © D. R.

Martin Page est né en 1975. Il passe sa jeunesse en banlieue sud et vit aujourd’hui dans le quartier de Château-Rouge à Paris. Avant la publication de son premier roman, il se promène quelques années à l’université. Étudiant dilettante, il change de discipline chaque année : droit, psychologie, linguistique, philosophie, sociologie, histoire de l’art et anthropologie. Il a été gardien de nuit et homme de ménage sur des festivals, a travaillé comme surveillant dans des collèges et lycées. Il a une vie sans histoires qui lui laisse le loisir de composer des romans. Il lui arrive d’écrire des préfaces : Traité des excitants modernes de Balzac, L’Âme humaine d’Oscar Wilde, Paris Vertical de Horst Hamann. Il aime la pluie, marcher dans Paris, le cinéma, le jazz, faire la cuisine, Woody Allen. Ses écrivains préférés sont William Shakespeare, Dorothy Parker, Fedor Dostoïevski, Graham Greene, Paul Nizan, Haruki Murakami, Anton Tchékov, Oscar Wilde, Carson Mccullers, Italo Calvino, David Goodis, Romain Gary, Jack London, Jane Austen, J.D. Salinger, Balthasar Gracian, Dennis Lehane, Roald Dahl, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Vivant Denon. On imagine très bien Martin Page adhérer à cette sentence d’Oscar Wilde : « la vie réelle est un chaos, en revanche une terrible logique gouverne l’imagination». Sa « parfaite journée parfaite » (titre d’un de ses romans, éditions Mutine) est une succession de petits bonheurs, écouter Bach ou Pulp, marcher dans Paris et lire Shakespeare, et surtout faire surgir de belles choses en écrivant des pièces de théâtre, des sketchs, des articles, des romans publiés (traduits dans de nombreuses langues) et des romans refusés, son « école de formation ». Être terriblement logique pour nous faire rire aux larmes du scandale de la réalité en l’habillant de toutes les couleurs. Pour nous faire croire à ses histoires extravagantes et rebelles où la poésie tient la dragée haute aux règles conventionnelles. Et rompre notre concert par la « force subversive de l’imagination ».

Martin Page participera, dans le cadre des Assises, à un projet pédagogique avec des écoliers. Pour en savoir plus, cliquez ici.

Bibliography: La disparition de Paris et sa renaissance en Afrique (L’Olivier, 2010 )

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_PAGE_Martin.pdf

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Bernard Pivot

Author   |  France
Bernard Pivot - © D. R.

Bernard Pivot was born in 1935 in Lyon. Currently a literary critic for Le Journal du Dimanche, he has also written contributions for Le Figaro littéraire and Le Point, before setting up the magazine Lire. A former literary commentator on Europe 1 and RTL, he made an impact on the world of television with his programmes "Apostrophes" (1975-1990 - Prize for the best international debate programme, from the American magazine Connoisseur) and "Bouillon de Culture" (1991-2001), for which he received numerous awards, including eight "7 d’or". He has also hosted the monthly magazine "Double je" on France 2, and created the French national spelling championships in France, the "Dicos d’or". Winner of numerous awards including an award for Criticism from the Académie française, (1983) and for French Language (2000), he is now a member of the Académie Goncourt.

Bibliography: 200 mots et expressions à sauver (Albin Michel, 2009 ) Les grands entretiens de Bernard Pivot (Gallimard, 2009 )

Bernard Pivot will participate in:
« The interviewer interviewed » , interview, Wednesday 26 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_PIVOT_Bernard.pdf

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Richard Powers

Author   |  United States
Richard Powers - © Mathieu Bourgois

Richard Powers, an American novelist, won the prestigious National Book Award in 2007 for The Echo Maker (translated into French by Jean-Yves Pellegrin, Le Cherche Midi, 2008), a book in which he addresses the question of identity and the human condition with a remarkable sense for narrative and plot. Originally published in 2000 but only recently translated into French, Plowing the Dark confirms the author’s gift for symphonic plots and complex narratives. It sets forth a powerful reflection on the human obsession for recreating the world.

Bibliography: L'Ombre en fuite (Le Cherche Midi, 2009 )

Richard Powers will participate in:
« The power of the plot » , round-table, Saturday 29 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_POWERS_Richard.pdf

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José Manuel Prieto

Author   |  Cuba
José Manuel Prieto - © Mathieu Bourgois

José Manuel Prieto, a writer born in Cuba in 1962, has translated the works of Brosdky and Anna Akhmatova into Spanish and teaches Russian history in Mexico. Rex recounts the journey of a young tutor, whose pedagogy is based solely on the study of In Remembrance of Things Past, sent to the Costa del Sol to tutor the son of a rich Russian couple hunted by the mafia. Between paranoia and literary reverie, the author summons Nabokov, Dostoevsky, Bradbury, Kafka and Borges in this crazy, exciting thriller.

Bibliography: Rex (Christian Bourgois, 2007 ) Papillons de nuit dans l'empire de Russie (Christian Bourgois, 2003 )

José Manuel Prieto will participate in:
« Phantom works » , round-table, Wednesday 26 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_PRIETO_Jose_Manuel.pdf

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Marilynne Robinson

Author   |  United States
Marilynne Robinson - © Nancy Crampton

In Home, Marilynne Robinson, the writer of a spiritually idealised America who transforms everyday events into real moments of universal grace, returns once more to the themes that are dear to her: love, death and faith. Through a parable of the prodigal son, she sets the scene for the Reverend Robert Boughton’s family in a pious and steadfast small town in Iowa in the 50s, the same setting as in her previous novel Gilead (translated into French by Simon Baril, Actes Sud, 2007).

Bibliography: Chez nous (Actes Sud, 2009 )

Marilynne Robinson will participate in:
« Does the Bible still inspire writers? » , round-table, Thursday 27 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.
« Encounter with Marilynne Robinson » , meeting in a library, Friday 28 May, Bibliothèque municipale - Lyon 4ème.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_ROBINSON_Marilynne.pdf

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Olivier Rolin

Author   |  France
Olivier Rolin - © Hannah

Olivier Rolin is a novelist. In Bakou, derniers jours, he returns to the scene of his fictitious disappearance, staged in a previous book, Suite à l’hôtel (Seuil, 2004), to confront his own ghost. The plot, a kind of malicious testament, was initiated as a joke. Indeed, the biographical information on the cover of the book mentioned his place and date of birth and death: Boulogne-Billancourt, 1947 - Bakou, 2009. The plot continues here in a new novel, with humor, elegance and levity.

Bibliography: Bakou, derniers jours (Seuil, 2010 )

Olivier Rolin will participate in:
« The power of the plot » , round-table, Saturday 29 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_ROLIN_Olivier.pdf

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Luiz Ruffato

Author   |  Brazil
Luiz Ruffato - © Daniel Mordzinski

Luiz Ruffato, a Brazilian writer, is the author of a work in five volumes entitled L’Enfer Provisoire, three of which have been published by Métailié, in a french translation by Jacques Thiérot: Tant et tant de chevaux (2005), Des gens heureux (2007) and Le Monde ennemi  (2010). In Tant et tant de chevaux, he invites us to experience a day in the city of São Paulo. In this extraordinary portrait of the city, the snapshots multiply in a kaleidoscopic mural, to the rhythm of the biggest city in Latin America. Here, modernity has the allure of cacophonous hell: in a mosaic of micro-narratives, feverish monologues and fragments of life and suffering, thoughts are tangled with the obsessions, hopes and complaints of people lost in the anonymity of the frenetic megalopolis.

Bibliography: Le Monde ennemi (Métailié, 2010 )

Luiz Ruffato will participate in:
«  "L'humeur vagabonde" on France Inter » , france inter radio broadcast, Wednesday 26 May, Les Subsistances - Plateau 2.
« The city and urban energy » , round-table, Saturday 29 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.
« Encounter with Luiz Ruffato » , meeting in a library, Thursday 27 May, Bibliothèque du Point du Jour - Lyon 5ème.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_RUFFATO_Luiz.pdf

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Norman Rush

Author   |  United States
Norman Rush - © D. R.

Norman Rush, born in 1933, has had great success in the English-speaking world with Mating (translated into French by Marianne Véron, Fayard, 2006) and Mortals. These two intimate plots take place in Botswana where the author lived for 5 years. Through the unique perspective and emotional pain of each of his heroes, Norman Rush draws meticulous psychological portraits, without forgetting of course to discuss the political dimension inherent to these accounts, namely the relations between Africa and the West.

Bibliography: De simples mortels (Fayard, 2007 )

Norman Rush will participate in:
« Why use "I"? » , round-table, Sunday 30 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_RUSH_Norman.pdf

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Raphaëlle Rérolle

Critic journalist   |  France
Raphaëlle Rérolle - © D. R.

Raphaëlle Rérolle is a journalist for Le Monde. She first worked in the society section, then for Le Monde des Livres, where she was responsible for foreign literature for ten years before becoming a reporter for Le Monde 2. She is currently assistant manager at Le Monde des Livres and has participated in the organisation of the International Forum on the Novel since its inception.

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Julián Ríos

Author   |  Spain
Julián Ríos - © Jerry Bauer

Julián Ríos was born in 1941 in Galicia. Due to his creative style he is known as one of the greatest innovators in contemporary Hispanic literature. His latest title, Pont de l’Alma is, like many of his works, a mosaic-novel where in a series of coincidences surrounding the death of Lady Diana, he finds the pretext to evoke cherished literary and artistic figures. A highly personal novel where "I" is none other than Emil Alia, Rios’ preferred narrator, a well-known and reassuring face amid the flood of evocations arising from unlikely connections.

Bibliography: Monstruaire (Tristram, 2010 ) Pont de l’Alma (Tristram, 2010 )

Julián Ríos will participate in:
« Why use "I"? » , round-table, Sunday 30 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_RIOS_Julian.pdf

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Isabelle Rüf

Critic journalist   |  Switzerland
Isabelle  Rüf - © David Ignaszewski - Koboy

Isabelle Rüf, a literary critic, works in the culture section of Le Temps newspaper in Geneva, and on the programme "Zone critique" on Espace 2, a cultural station on Radio Suisse Romande. She is member of the Conseil de Fondation de Pro Helvetia, the Swiss foundation for culture.

http://www.letemps.ch/

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Boualem Sansal

Author   |  Algeria
Boualem Sansal - © David Ignaszewski - Koboy

Boualem Sansal, a novelist, was born in Algeria in 1949. Le Village de l’Allemand is the story of two Algerian-born brothers now living in suburban Paris. After the slaying of their parents by the AIG, they discover the horror of their father’s past: Hans Schiller, NLF hero, former SS officer. Through the alternating voices of the two brothers in their respective journals, we hear that of Boualem Sansal who, in a tight plot, reflects on the Holocaust, the war of the 1990s in Algeria and the situation of the French suburbs.

Bibliography: Le Village de l'Allemand, ou le journal des frères Schiller (Gallimard, 2008 )

Boualem Sansal will participate in:
« From diary to novel » , round-table, Monday 24 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.
« "Cosmopolitaine" on France Inter » , france inter radio broadcast, Wednesday 26 May, Les Subsistances - Plateau 2.
« Encounter with Boualem Sansal » , meeting in a library, Tuesday 25 May, Médi@com - Anse.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_SANSAL_Boualem.pdf

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Elif Shafak

Author   |  Turkey
Elif Shafak - © Gaëlle Glin

Elif Shafak, a figurehead of young Turkish literature, evoked the cosmopolitan heritage of her country with lucidity and humour in her earlier books. In Lait noir, as much a novel as an autobiographical essay, she ventures into the frightening territories of postnatal depression. In this polyphonic work, part-manifesto, part-fiction, she relates with brilliance and sincerity the ten difficult months following the birth of her daughter, during which motherhood and the desire to write seemed incompatible.

Bibliography: Lait noir (Phébus, 2009 )

Elif Shafak will participate in:
« The body as it imposes itself » , round-table, Tuesday 25 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.
« Elif Shafak reads "Lait noir" (Phébus, 2009) » , reading in the original version, Wednesday 26 May, Librairie "Decitre" - Lyon 2ème.
« Encounter with Elif Shafak » , meeting in a library, Tuesday 25 May, Médiathèque Pierre Mendès France - Villefranche-sur-Saône.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_SHAFAK_Elif.pdf

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Martine Silber

Critic journalist   |  France
Martine Silber - © Melania Avanzato

Martine Silber is a former journalist for Le Monde, where she was a correspondent in Spain from 2002 to 2005. She is currently the author of a blog devoted mainly to the theatre: http://marsupilamima.blogspot.com. Passionate about literature and theatre, she also edits blogs for various cultural organisations.

http://marsupilamima.blogspot.com

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Peter Sloterdijk

Author   |  Germany
Peter Sloterdijk - © D. R.

Born in Karlsruhe in 1947, Peter Sloterdijk is the fiendish child of German philosophy.  One of those unclassifiable figures who arouse our fascination. Whether exploring Indian spirituality or blasting Western humanism, he has developed a method of investigation with the allure of scandal. "Any author who is worth something contaminates himself with the materials he treats. (...) All the big names of the century were the masters of dangerous thought", he noted in his Essai d’intoxication volontaire (Calmann-Lévy, 1999). His luminous writing delights in provocation. Sloterdijk is a colossal figure who has built up an original body of work, in which the construct in question feeds on sarcasm, part theoretical gesture, part literary impulsion.

Bibliography: Essai d'intoxication volontaire (Maren Sell, 2010 ) Globes - Sphères II (Hachette Littératures, 2010 )

Peter Sloterdijk will participate in:
« Literary impulsion and philosophical scandal » , interview, Sunday 30 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_SLOTERDIJK_Peter.pdf

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Robert Solé

Critic journalist   |  France
Robert Solé - © David Ignaszewski - Koboy

Robert Solé, is a writer and journalist, director of Le Monde des Livres, and author of a daily column in Le Monde. He has written several novels (Le Tarbouche, Le Sémaphore d’Alexandrie, La Mamelouka, Mazaq, published by Seuil), as well as  Le Dictionnaire amoureux de l’Egypte (Plon, 2009) and various historical essays on Egypt, his country of origin.

http://www.lemonde.fr/

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Vladimir Sorokine

Author   |  Russian Federation
Vladimir Sorokine - © David Ignaszewski - Koboy

Vladimir Sorokine, a writer born in 1955 in Moscow, has been well-known among the non-conformists of the former Soviet Union since the late seventies. His abounding work upsets literature and cultural taboos, rejecting spiritual and moral imperatives. In Roman, he skillfully revisits the great Russian literature of the nineteenth century, calling Pushkin, Turgenev and many others to his writing desk, one by one. In La Voie de Bro, his latest opus, he juggles with register once again, moving brilliantly from a classic, Tolstoyan style to a detective story, and even flirting with science fiction.

Bibliography: Roman (Verdier, 2010 ) La Voie de Bro (L’Olivier, 2010 )

Vladimir Sorokine will participate in:
« Phantom works » , round-table, Wednesday 26 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.
« "Cosmopolitaine" on France Inter » , france inter radio broadcast, Wednesday 26 May, Les Subsistances - Plateau 2.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_SOROKINE_Vladimir.pdf

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Sara Stridsberg

Author   |  Sweden
Sara Stridsberg - © Cato Lein - Koboy

Born in 1972 in Sweden, Sara Stridsberg, a well-known novelist in Scandinavia, also writes for the theatre. In La Faculté des rêves, she brilliantly reinvents the character of Valerie Solanas, the radical feminist who shot Andy Warhol in 1968, just after writing the SCUM Manifesto in which she advocates the destruction of the masculine sex. In a language that is alternately familiar and poetic, provocative and reassuring, funny and tragic, Sara Stridsberg accomplishes the feat of immersing us into the intricacies of this tormented mind. A striking and tenacious voice that pursues us long after we have finished reading.

Bibliography: La Faculté des rêves (Stock, 2009 )

Sara Stridsberg will participate in:
« Madness at work » , round-table, Sunday 30 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_STRIDSBERG_Sara.pdf

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Gonçalo M. Tavares

Author   |  Portugal
Gonçalo M. Tavares - © Teresa Sá - Koboy

Gonçalo M. Tavares, a prodigy of Portuguese literature, was born in Angola in 1970 and teaches epistemology in Lisbon. All his work is bisected by the theme of madness. Jerusalem (translated from Portuguese into French by Marie-Hélène Piwnik, Viviane Hamy, 2008), a dark and extremely ironic novel, relentlessly blurs the boundaries between absurdity and reason. But Tavares’ biggest undertaking is the literary-graphic project set in the "Bairro" neighbourhood in which "gentlemen" with the names of famous artists co-exist and roam about. A true literary pantheon, O Bairro creates a funny, poetic, intelligent and lunar universe.

Bibliography: Monsieur Kraus et la politique (Viviane Hamy, 2009 )

Gonçalo M. Tavares will participate in:
« Madness at work » , round-table, Sunday 30 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_TAVARES_Gonçalo.pdf

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Agata Tuszyńska

Author   |  Poland
Agata Tuszyńska - © D. R.

Agata Tuszyńska, a poet, journalist and novelist, lives between Warsaw and Toronto. Exercices de la perte is not just the story of her losing battle against illness, at her husband Henryk Dasko’s side, it is also the diary of a love. A love fighting against an inevitable death, and one rooted in Agata’s admiration for Henryk. Her simple sentences and her lucid style overflow with emotions: love, of course, but also despair, rage, extreme sadness, anxiety and fear.

Bibliography: Exercices de la perte (Grasset, 2009 )

Agata Tuszyńska will participate in:
« From diary to novel » , round-table, Monday 24 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_TUSZYNSKA_Agata.pdf

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Stéphane Velut

Author   |  France
Stéphane Velut - © Mathieu Bourgois

Stéphane Velut practises neurosurgery and teaches anatomy. In his first novel, Cadence, a painter hides himself away with his model, after having been commissioned to paint the portrait of this child, praising the radiant future of the new Germany in 1933. A cruel and chilling tale unfolds amid the sound of soldiers’ boots, somewhere between Pinocchio and Frankenstein, where the idealised and purified body must be made manifest at any cost, among the machines and shackles, for the sake of mechanical and aesthetic perfection.

Bibliography: Cadence (Christian Bourgois, 2009 )

Stéphane Velut will participate in:
« The body as it imposes itself » , round-table, Tuesday 25 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_VELUT_Stéphane.pdf

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Catherine Vincent

Critic journalist   |  France
Catherine Vincent  - © D. R.

Catherine Vincent is a journalist for Le Monde. She was in charge of "Histoires naturelles", a weekly column about animals, for several years, and then the Psychologie section of the paper. She currently works for the Planète section and is also director of the weekly "Drôle de bête" page in Le Monde Magazine.

http://www.lemonde.fr/

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Ivan Vladislavić

Author   |  South Africa
Ivan Vladislavić - © D. R.

Ivan Vladislavić, a writer and editor born in Pretoria, fought against apartheid in South Africa. The 138 fragments composing his latest novel are all keys to enter the city of Johannesburg, still divided and haunted by violence at the beginning of this second millennium. The narrator is an accomplished surveyor of the streets, neighbourhoods, car parks and gardens, travelling with humour from scene to scene, whether comic or tragic, in a city on the defensive. Written in an alert yet subtle language, this novel-guide is a loving ode to Johannesburg: industrial, polluted, dangerous, beautiful and unfair.

Bibliography: Clés pour Johannesbourg (Zoé, 2009 )

Ivan Vladislavić will participate in:
« The city and urban energy » , round-table, Saturday 29 May, Les Subsistances - Verrière.

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_VLADISLAVIC_Ivan.pdf

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Thomas Wieder

Critic journalist   |  France
Thomas Wieder - © David Ignaszewski - Koboy

Thomas Wieder is a journalist for Le Monde des Livres. Alumnus of the École Normale Supérieure, and holder of the "agregation" in History, he has published Les Sorcières de Hollywood (Philippe Rey, 2006) and Cinéma et régimes autoritaires au XXe  siècle. Ecrans sous influence (with Raphael Muller, PUF / Rue d'Ulm, 2008).

http://www.lemonde.fr/

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Valérie Zenatti

Author   |  France
Valérie  Zenatti - © David Ignaszewski - Koboy

Valérie Zenatti est née à Nice en 1970. Elle s’installe en Israël avec ses parents et sa soeur en 1983, à Beer-Sheva, en plein coeur du Néguev. Elle y vit toute son adolescence et l’hébreu devient sa seconde langue. De retour en France en 1990, elle passe une maîtrise de langue et littérature hébraïque aux Langues’O et exerce différentes activités, dont le journalisme et l’enseignement. Depuis 1999, elle publie des livres pour la jeunesse à l’École des loisirs, dont Quand j’étais soldate (traduit en Angleterre, aux États-Unis, en Italie et en Pologne) et Une bouteille dans la mer de Gaza (prix Tam-Tam 2005, traduit en Allemagne et au Mexique). Depuis 2004, elle se consacre à la traduction de l’hébreu, notamment des ouvrages d’Aharon Appelfeld (Prix Médicis étranger 2004), et à l’écriture. En retard pour la guerre est son premier roman pour adultes, et aussi son premier scénario puisqu’elle travaille actuellement à son adaptation cinématographique. Le film sera réalisé par Alain Tasma.


Valérie Zenatti participera, dans le cadre des Assises, à un projet pédagogique avec des écoliers. Pour en savoir plus, cliquez ici.

Bibliography: Les âmes soeurs (L’Olivier, 2010 )

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_ZENATTI_Valérie.pdf

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Amaury da Cunha

Critic journalist   |  France
Amaury  da Cunha - © D. R.

Amaury da Cunha has been writing for Le Monde des Livres since February 2009, and also works for its photographic department. As a photographer he published a book of images and texts, Saccades, with Yellow Now publishing in March 2009.

http://www.lemonde.fr/

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Alice de Poncheville

Author   |  France
Alice de Poncheville - © D. R.

Alice de Poncheville a trente-six ans. Elle débute sa carrière comme comédienne au théâtre et au cinéma (notamment dans Hurlevent de Jacques Rivette) mais se tourne vite vers l’écriture de scenarii et la réalisation. Elle est l’auteur de nombreux courts et moyens métrages ayant obtenus des prix. Elle a coécrit le long métrage La vie est dure, nous aussi avec Charles Castella (1999). Elle a publié plusieurs romans pour la jeunesse et obtenu le prix Octogone 2003 du meilleur roman pour Treize ans porte-malheur (2003), le grand prix du livre jeunesse de la Société des Gens de Lettres ainsi que le prix Lucioles 2004 pour Je suis l’arbre qui cache la forêt (2004). La Martre est son premier livre pour adultes.

Alice de Poncheville participera, dans le cadre des Assises, à un projet pédagogique avec des écoliers. Pour en savoir plus, cliquez ici.

Bibliography: Thomas glaçon (L'École des Loisirs, 2008 )

Télécharger le PDF : FICHE_DE_PONCHEVILLE_Alice.pdf

Un événement conçu et organisé par Le Monde & Villa Gillet.

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