Beyond Words French Literature Festival

Briac Lemetais

Briac is a young actor, member of the Gueules de Bois troupe (Act’in Theatre). His involvement in projects and the richness of his performances allow him to portray characters with various facets, sometimes intriguing, sometimes hilarious. Equally comfortable as a theatre actor and improvisation performer, Briac has made the stage his playground. He now resides in Cambridge, but his eagerness and talent still lead him to participate in numerous artistic projects in London.

Candice Desmet

Candice Desmet is a French actress originally from Dunkirk, now living in London for over 10 years. Her theatrical career began in Nantes, where she joined Guenaël Morin's troupe, with whom she reinterpreted the great classics of Sophocles on the stage of the Théâtre de la Bastille in Paris. For several years, Candice Desmet has been involved in both theatre productions and film projects in France and London. In 2015, she founded Act’in Theatre, offering theatre, improvisation, and cinema workshops for adults and children, in both French and English in London (London Bridge, South Kensington, and Kentish Town).

Emilienne Malfatto

Emilienne Malfatto is a journalist and photographer whose work has appeared in the Washington Post and New York Times, among other places. She studied in France and Colombia, and worked for the French international news agency AFP before going freelance. She is the author of the novels Que sur toi se lamente le tigre, winner of the 2021 Prix Goncourt du Premier roman, and Le colonel ne dort pas (2022), as well as the work of investigative journalism Les serpents viendront pour toi, winner of the 2021 Prix Albert-Londres. She is also the author of the short radio piece A Day at the Beach, commissioned and broadcast by BBC Radio 4 as part of the Walk with Amal 2021 series. Most of her work in recent years has taken place in Iraq and Colombia, where she lives.

Lamia Ziadé

Lamia Ziadé is a Lebanese author, illustrator and visual artist. Born in Beirut in 1968 and raised during the Lebanese Civil War, she moved to Paris at 18 to study graphic art and later worked for Jean-Paul Gaultier, seeing her art be exposed in various galleries in the world. She has published several illustrated books, reflecting her experiences of trauma from the war. Among these, My Port of Beirut and My Great Arab Melancholy stand out, with the latter earning the prestigious Prix France-Liban award.

Maryse Condé

Maryse Condé, born in Guadeloupe in 1934, was a globally renowned journalist, literature professor, and writer. She worked as a cultural journalist at the BBC and Radio France Internationale (RFI). As the founder of the Center for French and Francophone Studies at Columbia University, she played a pivotal role in introducing Francophone literature to the United States. Throughout her career, she authored numerous novels, notably exploring themes of slavery and colonisation in works like Segu and I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem. In 2018, she was awarded the alternative Nobel Prize in Literature, as a recognition of her portrayal of the impact of colonialism.

Clare Finburgh Delijani

Clare Finburgh Delijani is Professor in the Department of Theatre and Performance at Goldsmiths, University of London. She has written and edited many books and articles on theatre from the French-speaking world and the UK. She is editor of A New History of Theatre in France (2024) and is currently writing Spectres of Empire: Performing Postcoloniality in France (contracted with Liverpool University Press) on theatre that addresses France’s colonial past, and postcolonial present.

Alessandro Gallenzi

Alessandro Gallenzi is the founder of Hesperus Press, Alma Books and Alma Classics, and the successor of John Calder at the helm of Calder Publications. In addition to being a literary publisher with over twenty years of experience, he is a prize-winning translator, a poet, a playwright, and a novelist.

Estelle-Sarah Bulle

Estelle-Sarah Bulle was born in Créteil to a Guadeloupean father and Franco-Belgian mother. Her first novel, Where Dogs Bark with Their Tails (Picador, 2023), won multiple literary awards for its depiction of the Guadeloupean culture and its use of an inventive and poetic language. She also writes books for children.

Marion Brunet

Marion Brunet is an award-winning author. Her novel Summer of Reckoning (Bitter Lemon Press) was nominated for the CWA International Dagger in 2018. Vanda, published in 2020, was praised by the press.

Damian Catani

Damian Catani is a Senior Lecturer in Languages, Linguistics and Cultures at Birkbeck, University of London and has previously taught at the universities of Paris X-Nanterre, Oxford, and Cambridge. His research specialises in 19th and 20th Century French literature and ideas, the poetry of Mallarmé and Baudelaire, and the works of Louis-Ferdinand Céline and André Malraux.