Leïla Slimani at the Chicago Humanities Festival

Born in Rabat in 1981, Leïla Slimani moved to France at seventeen to study political science at Sciences Po Paris. She began her career as a journalist before turning to fiction. In 2016, she gained international recognition when her novel Chanson douce (The Perfect Nanny) won the Prix Goncourt, France’s most prestigious literary prize, making her the first Moroccan woman to receive the award. Her work is known for its unflinching exploration of subjects often considered taboo, including sexuality, gender roles, and the social pressures shaping women’s lives.

I’ll Take the Fire completes a trilogy that began with In the Country of Others (2020) and continued with Watch Us Dance (2023), both set against the backdrop of Morocco’s turbulent postwar history. The final novel follows a young Arab woman’s search for sexual and political freedom against the defining events of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the September 11 attacks.

Beyond her fiction, Slimani has become a prominent voice in international cultural life. In 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron appointed her his personal representative for the promotion of the French language and culture worldwide. She received the Simone de Beauvoir Prize for Women’s Freedom in 2020 for her advocacy of women’s rights and freedom of expression, and in 2023 served as chair of the International Booker Prize jury.

The Chicago stop is part of a broader U.S. tour for I’ll Take the Fire, supported by Villa Albertine.