Beyond Words French Literature Festival

Julie Anna Zappalà

After a passage in the Conservatoire de Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, Julie Anna Zappalà starts composing her own music and conceives programmes mixing her neoclassical works with classical music.
She performs in France, Czech Republic, the Netherlands, as well as in various festivals like the "Flâneries" of contemporary art in Aix-en-Provence, "Passion Piano" in Dinan, in Commarin's Castle, "Piano en Fête" in la Roque d'Anthéron, she's invited to play at the Crillon & the Passy Theatre in Paris.

Éric Vuillard

Born in Lyon in 1968, Eric Vuillard is a celebrated writer and filmmaker with nine award-winning books, including The Order of the Day, winner of the 2017 Prix Goncourt. His works, such as Conquistadors, La bataille d’Occident and Congo have also received numerous accolades, such as the 2012 Prix Franz-Hessel and the 2013 Prix Valery-Larbaud. In 2019, The Order of the Day was selected as a Waterstones Book of the Month and Eric Vuillard was awarded the Hay Medal for Fiction. His latest book, The War of the Poor, was shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize.

Lynton Talbot

Lynton Talbot is an independent curator. Based in London, he works with artists to produce text, exhibitions and live events. Together with Hana Noorali, he has started non-profit galleries. His latest project is Parrhesiades, a platform for artists working with language either written, spoken, or performed.

Michèle Roberts

Half-English and half-French, Michèle Roberts lives in London and in the Mayenne, France. She is Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia and the author of fourteen highly acclaimed novels, including The Looking Glass and Daughters of the House which won the WHSmith Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. She has also published poetry and short stories, most recently collected in Mud-stories of Sex and Love (2010). Her latest novel, Cut Out (2021), is about the young women assistants who helped Matisse with his cut-outs.

Paul B. Preciado

Paul B. Preciado is a philosopher, writer and curator. He is one of the leading thinkers in the study of gender and sexual politics. His notorious books in English include Countersexual Manifesto, Testo Junkie: Sex, Drugs, and Biopolitics, Pornotopia, An Apartment on Uranus and Can the Monster Speak?

Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan, Bastian Schweitzer © Diogenes Verlag

Ian McEwan is the acclaimed author of seventeen novels and two short story collections. His first published work, a collection of short stories called First Love, Last Rites, won the Somerset Maugham Award. McEwan's novels have received numerous awards, including the Whitbread Novel of the Year Award for The Child in Time, and the Booker Prize for Amsterdam. Several of his works have been adapted for the big screen, including Atonement, Enduring Love, The Children Act, and On Chesil Beach. His latest novel is Lessons.

Laurent Mauvignier

Laurent Mauvignier was born in Tours in 1967. After gaining a degree in Fine Art from the École des Beaux Arts in 1991, he published his first novel, Loin d’eux (Far from Them), in 1999. He has since written numerous novels, including In the Crowd, The Wound and Continuer (Carrying On), all published by Éditions de Minuit. His work was acknowledge with no less than eleven literary prizes, including the Prix Wepler and the Prix Amerigo-Vespucci. He is also a playwright and has written scripts for TV and film. The Birthday Party is his first book with Fitzcarraldo Editions.

Caroline Laurent

Caroline Laurent is the bestselling Franco-Mauritian author of An Impossible Return, winner of the Prix Maison de la Presse 2020, Prix Louis-Guilloux 2020 and Prix Salon du Livre du Mans 2020. She also co-wrote Et soudain, la liberté with Evelyne Pisier, which won the Grand Prix des Lycéennes de Elle.

Antoine Laurain

Antoine Laurain is the bestselling author of eight novels including The Red Notebook and The President’s Hat. His books have been translated into twenty-five languages and sold more than 200,000 copies in English. He lives in Paris.

Emmanuelle Lambert

Emmanuelle Lambert is the author of several novels (La désertion, Stock, 2018; Le garçon de mon père, Stock, 2021) and a literary essay, Giono, furioso (Folio, 2020). The latter won the Femina Prize for Essay in 2019. Acknowledged by the art community, she curated the Genet and Giono exhibitions at the Mucem, and participated in the edition of Jean Genet's novels and poems in the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade. Her latest book is Sidonie Gabrielle Colette (Gallimard, 2022).