The Nice Book Festival 2012 will take place on June 8, 9, and 10. Novelists, essayists, poets, more than 200 writers will be present in Nice this year under the presidency of Jean d’Ormesson.
Book signings, debates, meetings, activities, and readings
will punctuate these three days. The pages will keep turning.
The 2011 edition set an attendance record with nearly 56,000 visitors coming to meet the writers in the aisles of Albert 1st garden and the cultural landmarks dedicated to the festival.
The goal this year is to surpass 60,000!
Nice, the land of writers with a personal and literary connection to the city.
Bay of angels, but also home to some of the best pens: Friedrich Nietzsche, Guillaume Apollinaire, Gaston Leroux. Romain Gary, Joseph Kessel.
And closer to us: Patrick Modiano, Raoul Mille, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, Jean d’Ormesson, Daniel Pennac, or Max Gallo.
Nice, the land of current events: a panorama of contemporary literature
From Alexis Jenni, the 2011 Goncourt Prize winner, to the Francophile American Douglas Kennedy. From Grégoire Delacourt, the successful author of “La liste de mes envies”, to the philosopher Michel Onfray.
From the historian of family Emmanuel Todd to the uncompromising novelist Denise Bombardier who fell in love with an Englishman. And also Gérard de Cortanze, Brigitte Kernel, Didier Decoin, and Chahdortt Djavann…
Nice, the land of history: tracing the footsteps of past and present Russian authors
For the past two centuries, Nice has had a Slavic soul. Many Russians have stayed and lived in Nice, from members of the imperial family and émigrés fleeing the Bolshevik revolution to writers (Lermontov, Gogol, Tolstoy, Chekhov…). Through readings and conferences, Russia will be discussed with Vladimir Fedorovski and Alexandre Adler, authors of “Roman du siècle rouge” (Le Rocher), the sociologist Marek Halter, author of “L’Inconnue de Birobidjan” (Robert Laffont) or Claude Durand, former publisher, for his book “Agent de Soljenitsyne” (Fayard), in which he recounts his adventure as the French publisher of the most illustrious contemporary Russian novelist. Alongside Didier Van Cauwelaert and Natacha Polony, they will welcome Russian contemporary authors, appointed by their country, to embody the artistic revival in Russia.
Nice, the land of welcome: Algeria, the other side of the Mediterranean
The year 2012 marks the anniversary of the ceasefire in Algeria and the country’s independence. Nice has managed to be a welcoming land both for the pieds-noirs of that era and for migrant workers.
With Alain Vircondelet, author of numerous works on the French exodus from Algeria, with Malek Chebel who has just published “Dictionnaire amoureux de l’Algérie” (Plon), with Henri-Christian Giraud who will publish “Algérie, Chroniques d’une tragédie gaullienne” (Michalon), with Leila Sebbar or Akli Tadjer, open up the debate on antagonisms, reconciliations, and gathered cultures.
Nice, the land of awareness: the city engaged in the fight against illiteracy
Illiteracy affects those who have not been able to fully acquire the skills of reading or writing or have lost them. It is one of the major factors of social exclusion.
The figures are alarming. Nearly 9% of people aged 18 to 65 who have been schooled in France are illiterate.
For almost four years now, the city of Nice has been committed to a large-scale prevention action “Reading for All”, initiated by Raoul Mille and Christian Estrosi, the city’s mayor, bringing writers and children of all ages together in schools, junior high schools, high schools, neighborhood associations, hospitals, community centers, libraries, and even the local detention center. Didier Van Cauwelaert, Véronique Olmi, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Bruno de Cessole, and many other authors have accompanied nearly 6,000 young readers in discovering books and reading. Helping them through their experiences and proximity and sharing with them all the adventures of the written word.
Reading and writing, being two sides of the same coin, a thousand children from the Nice Côte d’Azur metropolis also participate in a short story competition. Like the festival’s writers, they will sign the best awarded short stories published in a collection.
Nice, the land of exchange
A festival of exceptional encounters and readings Emmanuelle Béart, Charlotte Valandrey, Macha Méril will read their favorite classical and contemporary Russian literature. Mathilda May will lend her voice to Jean d’Ormesson.
-The conversations and debates led by Franz-Olivier Giesbert will bring together philosopher Michel Onfray, demographer Emmanuel Todd, pediatrician Aldo Naouri, and the authors of Masonic detective stories Éric Giacometti and Jacques Ravenne.
