Leonora Miano

Leonora Miano was born in 1973 in Douala. She spent her childhood and adolescence in Cameroon. In 1991 she came to France where she now lives. She studied Anglo-American literature, first at Valenciennes and later at Nanterre. READ MORE

Dominique Kalifa

Dominique Kalifa is a French historian and professor at the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne, where he is the head of the Doctoral School of History and director of the Center of 19th Century History. READ MORE

Atiq Rahimi

Born in Afghanistan in 1962, Atiq Rahimi fled to France in 1984 to escape the Soviet coup. He is now known as a writer and filmmaker of exceptional note. He has been heavily involved in Afghan cultural life since the offensive, particularly in the creation of a “Writers’ House” in Kabul. READ MORE

Jean-Philippe Toussaint

Jean-Philippe Toussaint Born in Brussels, the son of a journalist and a bookkeeper, Jean-Philippe Toussaint studied in Paris where he received an advanced degree in contemporary history from Sciences Po. READ MORE

Olivier Wieviorka

Olivier Wieviorka is a professor of contemporary history at the Ecole Normale Supérieure of Cachan and a senior fellow of the Institut Universitaire de France specialized in Second World War History and France under occupation. READ MORE

Eric Hazan

Eric Hazan is an editor, translator, and the founder-director of the independent publishing house La Fabrique. Hazan was born in Paris in 1936. In 1970, he helped form the Franco-Palestinian Medical Association and served as a volunteer doctor in a refugee camp outside Beirut. READ MORE

Fatou Diome

Fatou Diome was born on Niodior, an island off the coast of Senegal in 1968. In 1990 she met a Frenchman working in Senegal and married him four years later, going back to France with him that same year, where she experienced racism even from her own parents in law. READ MORE

Philippe Djian

After graduating from a school of journalism in Paris and doing a series of odd jobs, Philippe Djian began writing a few short stories and novels. READ MORE

Muriel Barbéry

Muriel Barbery was born in Casablanca, Morocco, in 1969. She was raised in France. She is a French novelist and professor of philosophy. She entered the École Normale Supérieure de Fontenay-Saint-Cloud in 1990 and obtained her agrégation in philosophy in 1993. READ MORE

Agnès Desarthe

Agnès Desarthe was born in Paris in 1966. She has written many books for children and teenagers, as well as adult fiction. READ MORE

David B.

David B. was one of the initiators of the French alternative editorial house L'Association, and is now well-known among the French comics audience. After his Applied Arts studies, David B. had his first publications in magazines such as Chic, Circus, Okapi and A Suivre. READ MORE

Hédi Kaddour

Born in 1945, Hédi Kaddour is a poet, novelist and translator (German, Arabic and English ). He is the author of two novels, Waltenberg and Savoir-Vivre, of a journal, Les Pierres qui montent, notes et croquis de l’année 2010, and of several collections of poetry, all published by Gallimard. READ MORE

François Dosse

François Dosse is an intellectual historian and professor at the IUFM Créteil, the Institut d’études politiques de Paris, and the Centre d’histoire culturelle des sociétés contemporaines de l’université Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. READ MORE

Bruce Bégout

Philosopher Bruce Bégout is the author of several works of fiction. A professor at the University of Bordeaux, he has written several essays on urbanism and on the ordinary. His work falls within the tradition of phenomenology. READ MORE

Christian Salmon

Christian Salmon was born in Marseille in 1951. He is a writer and researcher at the Center for Research for the Arts and Language at the CNRS in Paris. After being a literary critic for the daily newspaper Libération, he founded the International Parliament of Writers, of which he was the President from 1993 to 2003, and for which he edits the journal Autodafe. READ MORE

Bernard Stiegler

Bernard Stiegler, philosopher, is Director of the Georges Pompidou Institute of Research and Innovation. This institute was created to anticipate changes in cultural resources and consumption brought about by new technologies. READ MORE

Pierre Guyotat

Born in 1940, Pierre Guyotat is probably one the most controversial but recognized novelists of the later 20th century. Since Tomb for 500,000 Soldiers (Gallimard, 1965), which blends war scenes and sexual obsessions of a soldier during the Algerian War, his books became the subject of various polemics. READ MORE

Antoine Volodine

A French novelist and translator, Jean Desvignes aka Antoine Volodine studied literature and taught Russian for 15 years before dedicating his work to writing and translating in 1987. READ MORE

Mathias Enard

Mathias Énard studied Persian and Arabic and spent long periods in the Middle East. A professor of Arabic at the University of Barcelona, he won the Prix des Cinq Continents de la Francophonie and the Prix Edmée de la Rochefoucauld for his first novel, La perfection du tir. READ MORE

Jean-Christophe Bailly

Jean-Christophe Bailly, Ph.D., is a French writer, poet and playwright. He was born in Paris on May 3, 1949. Bailly is also an art historian specializing in visual arts, especially paintings, as well as a director of collections and a teacher. READ MORE

Stéphane Beaud

Born in 1958, Stéphane Beaud, received his PhD from l'École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS). Beaud conducts research for the CNRS / the University of Paris VIII for the Urban Cultures and Society (Cultures et sociétés Urbaines) department, and teaches sociology at the ENS in Paris. READ MORE