Beyond Words French Literature Festival

Damian Catani

Dr. Damian Catani is Senior Lecturer in French at Birkbeck, University of London and a 19th- and 20th-century French literature specialist, namely on the relationship between literature and ethics. His other published books are The Poet in Society: Art Consumerism and Politics in Mallarmé (2003), and Evil: A History in Modern French Literature and Thought (2013).

Jeanne Benameur

Jeanne Benameur was born in Algeria to Tunisian and Italian parents, and raised in France. She is a prolific writer of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and plays, winning multiple national and regional awards, such as the UNICEF Prize for her debut novella Les Demeurées, and the Grand Prix RTL-Lire for her novel Profanes. Her work has been translated into many languages, including Ukrainian and Lithuanian, and several of her works have been adapted to the screen. Her latest book in English is The Child Who (translated by Bill Johnston).

Patrick Baert

Originally from Brussels, Patrick Baert is Professor of Social Theory at the University of Cambridge. Patrick’s books have been translated into ten languages and include The Existentialist Moment: The Rise of Sartre as a Public Intellectual (2015). He has a particular interest in the role of the public intellectual in politically charged contexts.

Marianne Badrichani

Marianne Badrichani is a director who has been bringing French plays in the UK for over 20 years. She has worked extensively with the Institut français promoting and directing French speaking playwrights through various festivals (Paris Calling, En Scène, etc...) and as an active member of the Cross Channel Theatre Group.
Most recently she has created with Edith Vernes the hit plays Ionesco/Dinner at the Smiths and Sacha Guitry, ma fille et moi. Je t’aime moi non plus/Texts by Moliere is her latest montage, presented for the 400th anniversary of Moliere’s birth, in French with English sur-titles.

Nathacha Appanah

Natacha Appanah is a Paris based writer, born and raised in Mauritius where she worked as a journalist before moving to France in 1998. Her first novel to be translated into English, The Last Brother, was awarded the FNAC Fiction Prize in 2007. Her novel Tropic of Violence won the Prix Femina des Lyceens in 2016, as well as seven other French literary awards.

Olivia Ross

Olivia Ross is a British actress born in Paris, France. She started her career at the Shakespeare’s Globe theatre and has since performed in award-winning shows such as Killing Eve and War and Peace. She portrayed Queen Joan in History’s drama Knightfall. In France she has an extended career working in auteur cinema with award winning directors such as Olivier Assayas, Mia Hansen-Løve and Benoit Jacquot.

Agnès Poirier

Born in Paris but educated in London, Agnès Poirier is a journalist, writer, critic and broadcaster. She has written 4 essays on French-British cultural differences and approaches to the world, which is one of the many topics she regularly discusses both on the BBC and CNN, and writes about in The Guardian and New York Times. In her latest book, Notre-Dame. The Soul of France, Agnès Poirier tries to answer to the question: What makes Notre-Dame the soul of a nation and a symbol of human achievement?

Rosie Goldsmith

Award-winning journalist Rosie Goldsmith specialises in art and foreign affairs. As a passionate linguistic and globetrotter, she naturally combines journalism with curating arts and literary events both in the UK and across the world. A champion of international literature, she is the Founder and Director of the European Literature Network, Editor-in-Chief of The Riveter magazine and was Chair of the Judges of the EBRD Literature Prize from 2018-2020.

Lauren Elkin

Lauren Elkin is a Franco-American writer and translator, the author most recently of No. 91/92: Notes on a Parisian Commute (Les Fugitives) and Flâneuse: Women Walk the City (Chatto & Windus), which was a Radio 4 Book of the Week, a New York Times Notable Book of 2017, and a finalist for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel award for the art of the essay. Her next book, Art Monsters: On Beauty and Excess is forthcoming in 2023 (Chatto).

Sarah Ardizzone

Sarah Ardizzone is an award-winning translator from the French-speaking world. She has been collaborating with Faïza Guène since 2005. Her translation of Faïza Guène’s Kiffe-Kiffe Demain (Just Like Tomorrow) won the Scott Moncrieff Prize and was shortlisted for the Young Minds Book Award. She also translated Dreams from the Endz, Bar Balto and Men Don’t Cry by Faïza Guène, to critical acclaim. Her translation of Discretion by Faïza Guène will be published by Saqi Books in May.