Author Talk: Laure Gouraige

The 2026 Jules Verne Writing Resident at The Ohio State University will speak about her literary practice, the themes behind her novel, and read selected excerpts from the book.

Copies of Le livre que je n’ai pas écrit will be available for purchase on-site through The Book Stall, an independent bookstore. The evening will conclude with a reception and book signing, featuring complimentary French wine and an opportunity to continue the conversation with the author.

About the Author

Born in Paris, Laure Gouraige holds a Masters in Philosophy. Her first novel, La Fille du père (P.O.L.), was born of a desir for emancipation and to address her father, interrogating mechanisms of control and the resulting sense of disposession . On 2022, she published Les ideés noires (P.O.L.), the story of an identity quest where the personal meets the absurd. In 2023, thanks to the “Writers in Ile-de-France,” she consecrated an entire year to the writing of her third novel, Le livre que je n’ai pas écrit (P.O.L.), a more fictional work that interrogates the rapport between creation and self-representation. Her fourth novel, Grave, will be published in September 2026.

During her 2026 residency in the United States, she will be working on her fifth book, Mirapolis, a fictional project inspired by the world of American comics that continues her reflections on memory, power, and contemporary violence.

About the Book

Gaïa writes to her editor to ironically confess to her difficulty living with her times. Overwhelmed by the world and by herself, Gaïa dreams of a light, cheerful, almost frivolous book, a book that she nevertheless can’t seem to write. There are her parents: invasive, intellectual, living in New York, that discuss Joyce, Hegel, and her life with a crushing seriousness. There is love too, that one never manages to get over as easily as a political subject. And then Paris, fashion, fashion weeks, society parties, drunken conversations with friends: all scenes that Gaïa observes with irony, where disenchantment mixes with lucidity.

This event is co-organised by Villa Albertine Chicago and the Alliance française de Chicago