Literary Fall Returns to Villa Albertine in September

The Friday program features a conversation between Leïla Slimani and Jhumpa Lahiri, alongside sessions on the future of literary translation and new voices in French and Francophone fiction.

On Saturday, interconnected conversations focus on science fiction, fantasy, comics, and the worldwide booms in romantasy and horror, featuring leading French editors publishing in these genres, as well as bestselling authors Kate Dramis, Matt Madden, John Scalzi, and Paul Tremblay.

All events are presented in English.

Admission is free and available on a first-come, first-served basis, as space is limited. RSVP is required but does not guarantee entry.

Friday, September 25

3 PM – 4 PM | The New Landscape of Literary Translation (Co-organized with the Center for the Art of Translation)

Allison Markin Powell (translator from Japanese who helped draft PEN America’s Manifesto on Literary Translation) and Katrine Øgaard Jensen (poet, translator of Danish literature, and executive director of the American Literary Translators Association) discuss how to support the fragile ecosystem of literary translation, respond to the rise of AI translation, and make translated literature more visible. The conversation will be moderated by Han Zhang (journalist and Riverhead Books editor at large).

4:30 PM – 5:30 PM | What French and Francophone Literature Offers the American Imagination

Since 2008, books translated from French have accounted for 18% of all fiction translations published in the US, more than those translated from any other language. Mandana Chaffa (writer, critic, and chair of the National Book Critics Circle’s Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize) leads a conversation with Miriam Gordis (director of Albertine Books and a former literary scout), Kaiama L. Glover (professor of African American Studies and French at Yale and an award-winning translator), Judith Gurewich (publisher of Other Press), and Chad W. Post (publisher of Open Letter Books and founder of Three Percent) about the new voices in French and Francophone literature resonating most strongly in the US—and what this literature offers American readers that they may not find elsewhere.

6 PM – 7 PM | Conversation: An Evening with Leïla Slimani and Jhumpa Lahiri

Leïla Slimani (Goncourt Prize–winning author of The Perfect Nanny) joins Jhumpa Lahiri (Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Namesake and Roman Stories) to discuss Slimani’s new novel, I’ll Take the Fire, translated by Sam Taylor, a provocative coming-of-age story about a young Arab woman’s pursuit of sexual and political freedom. A book signing and reception will follow the conversation. 

Saturday, September 26 

11 AM – 11:30 AM | Coffee and Croissants

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM | From Moebius to Marvel: How French Comics Helped Shape American Fantasy 

Joseph Montagne (vice president and publisher of Abrams ComicArts), Fabrice Sapolsky (French comics writer, co-creator of Marvel’s Spider-Man Noir, and founder of FairSquare Graphics), and Matt Madden (renowned cartoonist and author of 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style and Ex Libris) discuss the influence of French comics on American visual storytelling and how artists, ideas, and publishing traditions have traveled between France and the US.

2 PM – 3 PM | Romantasy Across the Atlantic: A Conversation on the Worldwide Romantasy Boom 

Kate Dramis (bestselling author of The Curse of Saints), Quentin Monstier (editor at J’ai Lu and Dramis’s French editor), and Katy Waldman (staff writer at The New Yorker) discuss the global rise of romantasy and how the genre travels across languages and publishing markets. 

3:30 PM- 4:30 PM | Utopias, Dystopias, and the Politics of Imagination 

John Scalzi (Hugo Award–winning author of Redshirts, the Old Man’s War series, and The Shattering Peace), Mathias Echenay (founder and publisher of La Volte, an independent French press specializing in speculative fiction), Joy Sanchez-Taylor (professor of English at LaGuardia Community College and author of Diverse Futures), and Neil Clarke (editor of Clarkesworld Magazine and over a dozen anthologies, including the Best Science Fiction of the Year series) discuss how science fiction and fantasy engage with the political crises of the present, warn of dangers ahead, and imagine radical possibilities for the future.

5 PM – 6 PM | Into the Dark: The New Horror Wave

Paul Tremblay (bestselling author of The Cabin at the End of the World and A Head Full of Ghosts), Nicolas Martin (journalist, author, and member of the literary programming committee of Les Utopiales, a major international festival of speculative fiction), Jason Mellow (co-owner of the Brooklyn horror bookstore the Twisted Spine), and Tricia Narwani (editor-in-chief of Del Rey Books) compare horror’s growing appeal in France and the US and consider where the genre is headed.

Register for the festival and to receive program updates here.

Learn about other Literary Fall events here.