Festival of New French Writing

The French and Francophone authors coming to New York to take part in the Festival of New French Writing are among the best known writing in the French language today. They form no school, they subscribe to no single esthetic but they all share a deep commitment to literature itself and a profound engagement with the world in which they live.

Their concerns are not alien to the American writers who have agreed to enter into conversations with their French counterparts. They, too, come from multiple cultural and intellectual traditions and, like their transatlantic colleagues, they view the world with anxiety.

The conversations between French and American authors, assisted by eminent New York-based American and French critics and journalists aim to present a view of the state of French writing today as well as contrasts with fiction and non-fiction writing in the United States, and an outlook on the future of literature.

		frédéric beigbeder A graduate of Sciences Po in Paris as well as a former student of marketing and advertising, Frédéric Beigbeder published a remarkable first novel in 1990, Mémoires d’un jeune homme dérangé, thanks to which an advertising agency offered him a creative writing position. In this first volume of a trilogy that he would finish in 1997, the author portrays himself, thinly veiled, as the inveterate party-man, Marc Marronnier. Beigbeder quickly became a controversial if marginal figure in French literature; he created the Flore Prize for literature and began chronicling Parisian nightlife in magazines. In 2000 he published 99 francs, a satirical novel about the world of advertising that was enough to get him fired from the agency Young and Rubicam for gross misconduct. Having become a widely-known media figure, he hosted a televised literature program and directed communications for Robert Hue, the Communist Party candidate in the 2002 presidential elections. In 2003 his novel Windows on the world, which takes place on September 11 on top of the World Trade Center towers, was awarded the Prix Interallié. As editor for three years at Flammarion, he was responsible for the publication of 25 novels. Selected works Mémoires d’un jeune homme dérangé Table Ronde, 1999 Love Lasts Three Years, Fourth Estate, 2004 (L’amour dure trois ans, Grasset 1994), Windows on the World, Miramax, 2006 (Windows on the world, Grasset, 2003) back to top
		emmanuel carrère Grandson of Russian immigrants and son of the historian of Russia and member of the Académie Française, Hélène Carrère d’Encausse, Emmanuel Carrère is a novelist who maintains a close link to cinematography. A journalist and film critic at the start of his career, he published his first novel in 1984. Two years later he published La Moustache, in which the life of his main character is turned upside down the day he shaves his moustache and no one notices. A screenwriter for television films, he took part in the adaptations of two of his novels, the first of which, La Classe de neige, received the Feminina prize in 1995. His second novel to be adapted, L’Adversaire, based on a celebrated scandal, portrays a man who kills his entire family after becoming hopelessly entangled in his own web of lies. With the very personal novel, Un roman russe in 2007, devoted to revealing a family secret, he continued his work on the question of identity that he had already explored in his documentary, Retour à Kotelnitch. Selected works Gothic Romance, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1990 (Bravoure, POL, 1984) The Mustache, Collier Publishing, 1987 (La Moustache, POL, 1986) Class Trip, Quartet Books, 1997 (La Classe de neige, POL, 1995) The Adversary, Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2001 (L’Adversaire, POL, 1999) Un roman russe, POL, 2007 back to top
		marie darrieussecq A graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure, she wrote her doctoral dissertation on the autofiction of Perec, Leiris, Doubrovsky, and Guibert, while at the same time publishing her first novel, Truismes, in 1996. This novel immediately met with great success: it was a finalist of the Prix Goncourt, translated into more than thirty languages, and Jean-Luc Godard bought the film rights. A prolific writer, Darrieussecq has remained loyal to her first publisher P.O.L. She defines herself as an “atheist, feminist, and European” and explores in her later works the themes of identity and belonging, of disappearance and absence. She published White in 2003, Le Pays in 2005, and Tom est mort in 2007, which was short listed both for the Prix Goncourt and Prix Femina. Moving away from her own imaginary universe that reveals a very personal sense of the fantastic, she wrote a new translation of Ovid’s Tristes, restoring to this work its poetic eloquence. Marie Darrieussecq is also a psychoanalyst. Selected works Pig Tales: A Novel of Lust and Transformation, New Press, 1997 (Truismes, P.O.L., 1996) My Phantom Husband, New Press, 1999 (Naissance des fantômes, P.O.L., 1998) Undercurrents, New Press, 2001 (Le Mal de mer, P.O.L., 1999) A Brief Stay with the Living, Faber, 2004 (Bref séjour chez les vivants, P.O.L., 2001) White, Faber, 2005 (White, P.O.L., 2003) Tristes d’Ovide, P.O.L., 2008 back to top
		david foenkinos Although David Foenkinos claims not to use autobiographical elements in his often humorous works, his fictional world concerns somewhat marginal young men and women of his time (he was born in 1974), who have a difficult time dealing with love. Foenkinos's novels reveal a bittersweet irony beneath their apparent gaiety. Foenkinos studied literature at the Sorbonne, trained as a jazz guitarist, and works frequently as a screen writer. Three of his novels have won important literary prizes. Selected works Inversion de l'idiotie: de l'influence de deux Polonais, Gallimard, 2001. (Prix François Mauriac). The Erotical Potential of My Wife (Le Potentiel érotique de ma femme, Gallimard, 2004). (Prix Roger-Nimier). Les cœurs autonomes, Grasset, 2006. Qui se souvient de David Foenkinos?, Gallimard, 2007. (Prix Giono). Nos séparations, Gallimard, 2008. back to top
		bernard-henri lévy Bernard-Henri Lévy is a man of many facets in French and international intellectual society. A graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure with a diploma in philosophy, a writer and journalist, he is also the founder of the journal, La Règle du jeu, as well as a theater director and committed international columnist. He made his first trip in 1971 following André Malraux’s appeal to form an "international squad for Bengal," and since has not stopped becoming intellectually involved in several armed conflicts. A controversial author, he published La Barbarie à visage humain in 1977, L’Idéologie française in 1981, and received numerous prizes that confirmed both his success and fame, such as the Prix Médicis for Le Diable en tête in 1984 and the Prix Interallié in 1988 for Les Derniers jours de Baudelaire. As a correspondent for Le Monde in 1998 during the Algerian civil war, he showed further struggles for his time with the work, Qui a tué Daniel Pearl?, an investigation into the death of the American journalist. Fine connoisseur of American society, he published American Vertigo in 2006, which was adapted for the cinema the following year. His correspondence with Michel Houellebecq, Ennemis publics, has just come out in France. (www.bernard-henri-levy.com) Selected works Barbarism With a Human Face, Harper & Row, 1979 (La Barbarie à visage humain, Grasset, 1977) Testament of God, Harper & Row, 1980 (Le testament de Dieu, Grasset, 1979) L’Idéologie française, Grasset, 1981 Adventures on the Freedom Road, Harvill, 1995 (Les aventures de la liberté, Grasset, 1991) Sartre: The Philosopher of the Twentieth Century, Polity, 2003 (Le Siècle de Sartre, Grasset, 2000) War, Evil, and The End of History, Melville House, 2007 (Réflexions sur la guerre, le mal et la fin de l’histoire, Grasset, 2001) Who Killed Daniel Pearl?, Duckworth, 2004 (Qui a tué Daniel Pearl?, Grasset, 2003) American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville, Random House, 2006 (American Vertigo, Grasset, 2006) Left in Dark Times: A Stand Against the New Barbarism, Random House, 2008 (Ce grand cadavre à la renverse, Grasset, 2007) Ennemis publics (avec Michel Houellebecq), Grasset & Flammarion, 2008 back to top
		marie n’diaye Marie N’Diaye was born in Pithviers, France in 1967 to a French mother and a Senegalese father. After studying linguistics at the Sorbonne, she received a scholarship to spend a year at the Villa Médicis in Rome. N'Diaye began writing at age twelve and at seventeen published her first novel, Quant au riche avenir. Since then she has written six others, including En famille, her first novel to be translated into English, Rosie Carpe, awarded the Prix Femina in 2001, and a collection of short stories and children’s novels. Her first play, Hilda, was initially conceived as a radio drama and aired at the 1999 Avignon Festival. Other plays include Providence and Papa doit manger, now in the repertory of the Comédie française, the first piece by a contemporary author to be admitted in 20 years. Selected works Quant au riche avenir, Editions de Minuit, 1985 Among Family, Angela Royal Publishing, 1997 (En famille, Editions de Minuit, 1991) Hilda, Oberon, 2002 (Hilda, Editions de Minuit, 1999) Rosie Carpe, Bison Books, 2004 (Rosie Carpe, Editions de Minuit, 2001) Mon cœur à l’étroit, Gallimard, 2007 back to top
		olivier rolin Olivier Rolin was born in the Paris suburb of Boulogne Billiancourt in 1947 and spent his childhood in Senegal. A graduate of the prestigious Ecole Normale Supérieure, he studied both philosophy and French Classical Literature. Rolin has published both fiction and non-fiction and written for the French daily Libération and for the weekly magazine Nouvel Observateur. He is an editor for the Parisian publisher Le Seuil and for the magazine Le Meilleur des mondes. Since 2007, he has hosted a series of conferences, including the "Aimer la literature" cycle, at the Académie de France in Rome at the Villa Médicis. Rolin won the Prix Femina for his novel Port Soudain and was nominated for the 2003 Goncourt prize for Tigre en papier. His latest book to be published in the U.S. is Hotel Crystal, in 2008. He participated in last year’s PEN World Voices Festival. Selected works Phénomène futur, Le Seuil, 1983 Port Soudan, Le Seuil, 1994 Paper Tiger, Bison Books, 2007 (Tigre en papier, Le Seuil, 2002) Hotel Crystal, Dalkey Archive Press, 2008 (Suite à l’hôtel Crystal, Le Seuil, 2004) Un chasseur de lions, Le Seuil, 2008 back to top
		marjane satrapi Marjane Satrapi was born in 1969 in Rasht, Iran. She grew up in Tehran, where she studied at the Lycée Français before leaving for Vienna and then going to Strasbourg to study illustration. Back in France, she published the first volume of Persépolis in 2000, a graphic novel and memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. She continued the story in three subsequent volumes, in which she tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, which saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. In 2003 she published Broderies, named in the best graphic novel category at the Festival d’Angoulême and Poulet aux prunes, which was awarded the Best Album Prize in 2004. In 2007 she collaborated with Vincent Paronnaud to adapt Persépolis into a feature-length film, which received the Prix du Jury at Cannes, two Césars the following year, and a 2008 Oscar nomination for Best Animated Film. Selected works The Complete Persepolis, Pantheon, 2007 (Persépolis I, 2000; II, 2001; III, 2002; IV, 2003, L’Association) Embroideries, Pantheon, 2005 (Broderies, L’Association, 2003) Chicken with Plums, Pantheon, 2006 (Poulet aux prunes, L’Association, 2004) Monsters are Afraid of the Moon, Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2006 (Les monsters n’aiment pas la lune, Nathan, 2001) back to top
		chantal thomas A philosopher and writer, Chantal Thomas is a senior researcher at the CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique). She has taught at several French and American universities as an 18th Century specialist. She is fascinated by symbolic figures of the 18th Century and has published essays on Cassanova, Sade, and Marie-Antoinette. She also works on more contemporary figures, such as Thomas Bernhard. In 1995 Chantal Thomas turned to fiction, publishing a collection of short stories entitled La Vie réelle des petites filles. She conquered the delicate task of writing the historical novel with Les Adieux à la Reine, faithfully reconstructing the complexity of Marie Antoinette. Translated into twenty languages, this novel received the Prix Feminina and the Prix de l’Academie de Versailles in 2002. Her most recent work, Cafés de la mémoire, delves into her childhood in Bordeaux and recounts the founding experiences that gave her a taste for books and travel, independence, and an acute awareness of freedom. Selected works Sade, l’œil de la lettre, Payot, 1978 Casanova, un voyage libertin, Denoël, 1985 The Wicked Queen: The Origins of the Myth of Marie-Antoinette, Zone Books, 1999 (La Reine scélérate, Seuil, 1989) Thomas Bernhard, Seuil, 1990 Coping with Freedom — Reflections on Ephemeral Happiness, Algora, 2001 (Comment supporter sa liberté, Payot, 1998) Farewell, My Queen, Touchstone, 2004 (Les Adieux à la Reine, Seuil, 2002) Cafés de la mémoire, Seuil, 2008 back to top
		jean-philippe toussaint Born in Brussels, the son of a journalist and a bookkeeper, Jean-Philippe Toussaint studied in Paris where he received a graduate degree in contemporary history from Sciences Po. He taught in Algeria, from 1982 to 1984. His first novel La Salle de bains was hailed both by critics and the public who appreciated his incisive and uncluttered style in depicting his special universe with a great economy of words. He quickly moved to cinema, adapting his own novels to the screen, including La Salle de bains in 1989 and La Sévillane in 1992, which is based on his novel L’appareil photo. Toussaint received the Villa Kujoyama fellowship in 1996 and the Médicis prize in 2005 for his novel Fuir. His most recent book is La mélancolie de Zidane, 2006, a lyrical essay on the headbutt administered by the world-renowned French soccer star, Zinedine Zidane, to the Italian player Marco Materazzi during the 2006 World Cup final. Selected works The Bathroom, Obelisk Books, 1990 (La Salle de bains, Editions de Minuit, 1985) Camera, Dalkey Archive Press, 2008 (L’Appareil photo, Editions de Minuit, 1988) Television, Dalkey Archive Press, 2004 (La Télévision, Editions de Minuit, 1997) Making Love, New Press, 2004 (Faire l’amour, Editions de Minuit, 2002) Fuir, Editions de Minuit, 2005 La mélancolie de Zidane, Editions de Minuit, 2006 back to top
		abdourahman waberi Born in Djibouti, East Africa, Abdourahman A. Waberi left his country very early for France to continue his studies, especially of the work of the Somali author Nuruddin Farah. A writer and high school English teacher, he published his first work, Un pays sans ombre, in 1994, the first part of the Djiboutian trilogy that earned him the Grand Prix de la nouvelle francophone from the Académie Royale de Belgique. Cahier nomade (1996) and Balbala (1997) concluded the kaleidoscopic portrait of his country overwhelmed by fevers, famine, and war. More recently, Waberi extended his field of fictional investigation with Rifts, routes, rails (2001), a new collection/anthology marked by the exile and drift of the African continent cut off from its past and traditions. As the 2006 winner of the prestigious Berliner Künstlerprogramm DAAD scholarship, he spent a year as a writer in residence in Berlin. His most recent work published in 2006, Aux Etats-Unis d’Afrique, was unanimously hailed by critics. Selected works The Land Without Shadows, University of Virginia Press, 2005 (Pays sans ombre, Serpent à plumes, 1994) Cahier nomade, Serpent à plumes, 1996 Balbala, Serpent à plumes, 1997 Rifts, routes, rails, Gallimard, 2001 In the United States of Africa, Bison Books, 2009 (Aux Etats-Unis d’Afrique, J.-C. Lattès, 2006) back to top