Salah Stétié was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1929. Already at an early age, he was led to the playful use of language by his father who himself wrote poems. The origins to his poetic creations can be found in the city of his birth, the crossroads between Arabic and
Salim Bachi was born in Algiers in 1971 and grew up in Annaba in Eastern Algeria. He studied French Language and Literature in both cities and at the Sorbonne. He has been living in Paris since 1997. Bachi made his début with short stories, published in various newspapers such as
Samar Yazbek was born in 1970 in Jableh, a small town on Syria’s Mediterranean shore. She studied Arabic literature in Lattakia and today worked as an editor for www.nesasy.org. This website is dedicated to human rights, especially the rights and freedoms of women. She also edited and presented a cultural
Ryoko Sekiguchi was born in Tokyo in 1970. At an early age she began to write poetry in both Japanese and French, and when she was eighteen she received the Tokyo Literature Prize of »Cahiers de la poésie contemporaine«. Since 1997 she has lived in Paris, where she studied Art
Romain Puértolas was born in Montpellier in 1975. As well as his native France he has lived in Spain and England, working as a translator, magician and police inspector with the French border service. He maintains that he was already writing at the age of seven, when he penned poems
Robert Bober was born a child of Polish Jews in Berlin in 1931. In 1933 his family emigrated to France, where thanks to a warning, they survived the razzia of the “Vélodrome d’Hiver” in July 1942. At the age of 16 he started an apprenticeship as a tailor and worked
Riad Sattouf was born in 1978 in Paris of a Syrian father and a French mother. During a childhood and youth spent in Algeria, Libya, Syria, and France, he was an enthusiastic reader of comics. He trained as a pilot and also applied to the Gobelins school of visual communication
Rébecca Dautremer was born in 1971 in Gap in the French Alps. She studied graphic design at the École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD) in Paris, during which time she was working as an illustrator for various publishers. She primarily works with gouache on watercolor paper. Taking inspiration from
Philippe Djian was born in Paris in 1949 and grew up there. As a young man he worked for Gallimard Publishing House, which now publishes his books. He studied literature and attended journalism school but quit both after a few months. Afterward, he eked out a living working odd jobs.
Philippe Lechermeier was born in 1968 and has dedicated the first part of his life to reading, studying and travelling. His interest in reading led him to study literature. He initially wrote stories for his two daughters, Alice and Hélène and published his first children’s book in partnership with Christian
Petr Král was born in 1941 in a suburb of Prague. He began his studies with film, and joined the circle of post-surrealist artists around Vratislav Effenberger. After the invasion of Russian troops in 1968 he fled to Paris. Like Beckett, Ionesco, Kundera, and many other intellectuals, who in the
Peter Stephan Jungk was born in Santa Monica, California, in 1952. The son of Jewish emigrants spent his childhood and youth in Vienna, West Berlin, and Salzburg. He then became an assistant director at the Theater of Basel and worked on several films before studying at the American Film Institute
