Pierric Bailly is a French writer from the Jura. After studying cinema in Montpellier and working in various jobs, he published his first novel, Le polichinelle, with P.O.L in 2008. This was followed by L’homme des bois (2017), Les enfants des autres (2020) and Le roman de Jim (2021), soon to be adapted for screen. La foudre (2023) explores the stormy passions of a modern shepherd, in love with the wife of his charismatic and much admired school friend who has been imprisoned for murder. A love triangle re imagined in a subtle game of twists and secrets.

Emma Becker, French novelist, lived in Berlin before settling in the south of France. From Monsieur (Constable, 2012, tr. Maxim Jakubowski) and Alice (Denoël, 2015) to La maison (Flammarion, 2019, Prix France Culture-Télérama) and L’inconduite (Albin Michel, 2022), her autobiographical work explores bodies and hearts driven by all states of desire. With her uncompromising style and fierce freedom, she examines the status of women, relationships of domination, and sexuality in all their forms, including sex for sale. Odile l’été (Julliard, “Fauteuses de trouble”, 2023) departs from the male gaze, recounting a feminine awakening to love.

Rumena Bužarovska, originally from Northern Macedonia, is a fiction writer, translator, and professor of American literature and translation at the University of Skopje. Her collection of short stories My Husband (Dalkey Archive, 2019, tr. Paul Filev), published in many languages and adapted for the stage, consists of eleven revealing scenes from married life. Women tell candid stories of their husbands, and question the idea of coupledom, limited by social conventions and marred by disappointments – all told with cruel and caustic humour.

Genevieve Damas is a Belgian novelist, actress, director, and playwright. Her first book, Si tu passes la rivière (Luce Wilquin, 2011), won the Prix des Cinq Continents de la Francophonie. Other Gallimard titles include Patricia (2017), Bluebird (2019) and Jacky (2021). Strange (Grasset, 2023), an epistolary novel, tells of a young transgender woman revealing her new identity to her father. A luminous piece of writing that explores our bonds, our fears, and our inability to talk about emotions, expanding our definition of love.

Constance Debré, a lawyer by profession, is a French writer whose subversive oeuvre includes four novels. Winner of the Prix de la Coupole and the Prix Les Inrockuptibles, Play Boy (Tuskar Rock, 2024) and Love Me Tender (Tuskar Rock, 2023) examine many facets of identity and love. Both were translated by Holly James. More recently published in French by Flammarion, Nom (2022) and Offenses (2023) continue to break the conventions wrought by family, heteronormativity, and the justice system, all while questioning of the price of freedom.

Agnes Desarthe is a translator from English, winner of the Prix Laure Bataillon, and author of numerous works, novels, biographical and autobiographical essays, and books for children. These have been translated into several languages. Her books include Un secret sans importance (Prix du Livre Inter 1996) and Ce coeur changeant (Prix Littéraire du Monde 2015), published by L’Olivier, and in English, The Foundling (Portobello Books, 2013, tr. Adriana Hunter). Richly imagined, L’éternel fiancé (2021) follows the eddies of love in the life of one woman, while Le château des rentiers (2023) proposes a community of friends as the answer to happiness in old age.

David Diop, born in Paris and raised in Senegal, is the author of a powerful body of work that draws on his two cultural sensibilities. A lecturer at the University of Pau, he heads the Research Group on European Representations of Africa in the 17th and 18th centuries. Questions of racial domination and colonial violence feature in his fiction, At Night All Blood Is Black (2020, tr. Anna Moschovakis, International Booker Prize) and Beyond the Door of No Return (2021, tr. Sam Taylor), both published by Pushkin Press. In the latter, set in Senegal, Enlightenment ideals are confronted with the brutality of slavery, providing a backdrop to a story of impossible love.

Elisa Shua Dusapin, is a writer of internationally acclaimed novels and plays. Adapted for the stage and soon for the screen, Winter in Sokcho (2020) won her the Prix Robert Walser, the Prix Régine Desforges, and the National Book Award for Translated Literature. The Pachinko Parlour (2018, Swiss Literature Prize 2019) and Vladivostok Circus (2024) followed, all published by Daunt Books and translated by Aneesa Abbas Higgins. Le vieil incendie (Zoe Editions, 2023, Prix Wepler-Fondation La Poste), Elisa’s latest novel, continues to explore the complexity of human relationships, through the characters of two sisters, torn between love, bitterness, and silence, unable to express their love.

Aurélie Lacroix, born in Correze and based in Bordeaux, worked for many years in publishing in Paris, mainly at Editions de l’Olivier, then in the performing arts. She now works with Villa Valmont, an international writers’ retreat and centre dedicated to the creation and dissemination of contemporary writing. Her first novel, L’unique objet de mon regard (Cambourakis, 2023), tells the story of a passion between two young women that is as absolute as it is devastating, as powerful as it is damaging. She weaves distress into a beautiful piece of literature.

Hisham Matar, born in New York, raised in Tripoli and Cairo before settling in London, is a writer, professor at Barnard College and founder of the Barnard International Artists Series, an exchange forum dedicated to contemporary creation. His work, published in over thirty languages, has won him the Pulitzer Prize and the Prix du Livre étranger France Inter-JDD. My Friends (Penguin, 2024) celebrates a deep friendship forged in the uncertainties of exile and, in the process, takes a nuanced look at the rifts of Libyan history.

Semezdin Mehmedinović, a Bosnian journalist, poet, and novelist, lived in the United States for over twenty years before returning to Sarajevo. His book, My Heart, (Dalkey Archive, 2022, tr. Celia Hawkesworth), based on his personal story, presents love as a defense against the loss of memory that threatens its protagonists. Sarajevo Blues, a collection of poetry written in 1992 during the siege of the city, has just been published in French by Le bruit du monde.

Hanne Orstavik, a renowned Norwegian writer based in Milan, has been translated into over twenty languages. She has won the Dobloug Prize for her body of work, as well as the prestigious Brage Prize for her novel The Pastor (Archipelago Books, 2021, tr. Martin Aitken). Ti Amo (And Other Stories, 2022, tr. Martin Aitken), explores the extremes of love – when faced with death, sadness fuses with tenderness, intimacy with solitude.

Stefania Rousselle is a Franco-American freelance filmmaker and journalist who spent eight years at the New York Times. Her work, covering numerous subjects including terrorism, the European debt crisis, the rise of extremism, human trafficking and immigration, has earned her a Pulitzer Prize nomination and a Webby Award. A collection of conversations and poignant photographs, Amour: How the French Talk About Love (Penguin, 2020) is an act of resistance against the loss of faith in humanity in the face of tragedy. Alternating laughter and tears, this is a heartfelt story.

Pajtim Statovci, a Finnish writer of Kosovar origin, teaches comparative literature at the University of Helsinki. His work, widely published internationally, includes three novels: My Cat Yugoslavia (Pushkin Press, 2017, Helsingin Sanomat Literary Prize), Crossing (Pushkin Press, 2019), and Bolla (Faber & Faber, 2022), all translated into English by David Hackston. Winner of the prestigious Finlandia Prize in 2019, Bolla draws on Albanian mythology to tell the story of a consuming passion between two men, thwarted by homophobia, a repressive society, and the violence of war.

Manuel Vilas is a renowned Spanish poet, essayist, and writer. His novels are published in French by Éditions du sous-sol include Alegría (2021), Les baisers (2022), both translated by Isabelle Gugnon and Ordesa, also in English, (Canongate, 2021, tr. Andrea Rosenberg, Prix Femina étranger). Irene (2024), winner of the prestigious 2023 Nadal Prize for the best Spanish novel, paints a portrait of an unconventional and mysterious widow in pursuit of the ghost of her great love. Her Mediterranean road trip is as much an ode to the power of pleasure as it is to absolute passion and unending mourning.

The English to French and French to English events will be interpreted by Starr Pirot and Alia Rahal.
The Spanish to French and French to Spanish event will be interpreted by Cristina Fernandez Garcia
and Luis Simon.

Pierric Bailly © Amandine Bailly, Éd. P.O.L | Emma Becker © Charlotte Krebs | Rumena Bužarovska © Francesca Mantovani Éd. Gallimard | Geneviève Damas © Jean-François Paga | Constance Debré © Pierre-Ange Carlotti, Éd Flammarion | Agnès Desarthe © Céline Nieszawer | David Diop © Eric Traversié | Elisa Shua Dusapin © Roman Lusser, Éd. Zoé | Aurélie Lacroix © Philippe Bachelier | Hisham Matar © Francesca Mantovani, Éd. Gallimard | Semezdin Mehmedinović © Edvin Kalic | Hanne Ørstavik © Linda E. Engelberth | Stefania Rousselle © D.R | Pajtim Statovci © Anna Kurki | Manuel Vilas © Columna Villarroya