The Nice Book Festival has become an essential event. Every year, thousands of literature enthusiasts gather at the Albert 1er gardens to discover the latest literary developments and exchange a few words with contemporary authors.
For the 17th edition of the Nice Book Festival, the city on the French Riviera went all out, choosing Jean d’Ormesson as the Honorary President and Franz-Olivier Giesbert as Artistic Director.
During this book marathon, the public will have the opportunity to meet the 200 authors who responded to the call, at the Albert 1er gardens and various locations throughout the city. Between book signings and literary cafés, this year the festival is under the banner of diversity and literary friendship… Franco-Russian!
This year, Nice is celebrating the particularly significant Russian presence in the city since the 19th century. Many great Russian authors have stayed in the sunny city, an honor that Christian Estrosi, Mayor of Nice, has decided to pay tribute to by hosting ten Russian writers not yet published in France during this new edition.
The “Prix Ville de Nice – Nice-Matin” award ceremony was thus held with the official delegation from Saint Petersburg.
For the third consecutive year, the jury – composed of renowned authors and for the second time with 12 readers from Nice-Matin –, chaired by Franz-Olivier Giesbert, awarded this prize to Romain Slocombe, chosen from among eight other authors, for his work ” Monsieur le Commandant“, published by NIL Editions.
A prestigious prize awarded to this writer, who is little known to the general public, often nominated but ” always excused from speeches” as he himself says, since this is the first time he has been rewarded!
Franz-Olivier Giesbert even emphasized this ” courageous and sincere choice for a novel too overlooked by critics“, a novel whose guiding line is ultimately original: writing the letter one never dared to write…
The “Prix Ville de Nice” award ceremony was followed by a literary café on the theme: ” Literature, walks, and discoveries in the Alpes-Maritimes“. Patrice Zehr, former editorial director of RMC, led the debate with Pierre Dévoluy, Alex Benvenuto, Luc Svetchine, and Jean Siccardi.
