On the 30th November 2021 Annie Ernaux was selected as one of the 12 inaugural international writers to join the Royal Society of Literature’s International Writers programme, a new award recognising the contribution of writers across the globe to literature in English, and the power of literature to transcend borders and to bring people together. At a time of rising nationalism, RSL International Writers celebrates the many ways in which literature can shape a future world. Each year new writers will receive this life-long honour and be invited to join the RSL’s International Writers, forming an ever-expanding global community of authors.
Posts categoriezed as News
‘L’événement’/ ‘Happening’ wins Golden Lion
Audrey Diwan’s ‘Happening’ (L’événement) has won the Golden Lion in Venice for best film. Adapted from Ernaux’s autobiographical account, the film features Anamaria Vartolomei as Anne Duchesne, a student seeking a back-street abortion at a time when it was illegal in France.
The film ‘Passion simple’ is out
The adaptation of Annie Ernaux’s 1991 Passion simple, by director Danielle Arbid, features actors Laetitia Dosch and Sergei Polunin. The love story between a Parisian lecturer and a Russian diplomat is available to watch on Curzon Home Cinema.
Launch of the ‘Annie Ernaux e-museum’
Set up and curated by Michèle Bacholle, who is also the author of many essays and a book on Ernaux, this ‘Musée Annie Ernaux‘ website provides an exploration into the main places which inhabit Ernaux’s writings – and in turn, the reader’s imagination. Through photographs and critical notes, Bacholle invites us to ‘enter’ these places.
Annie Ernaux at 80
As Annie Ernaux turns 80 this month, she features in an interview for the Financial Times (‘I never feel legitimate, yet I persevere’) and is named ‘Author of the month’ in the London Review Booskhop.
‘J’ai aimé vivre là’
Régis Sauder’s documentary, J’ai aimé vivre là, is an evocation of Cergy-Pontoise, guided by the texts and voice of Annie Ernaux, who lives there. The film, which was presented at the International film festival in Marseilles in July 2020, will be out on screens in early 2021. The trailer and press review can be found here.
Publication of ‘A Girl’ Story’
A Girl’s Story, the English translation of Mémoire de fille (trans. Alison L. Strayer), is being published simultaneously this week by Seven Stories Press and Fitzcarraldo Editions.
Letter to the President
On 30 March 2020, Annie Ernaux addressed a letter to President Emmanuel Macron, in response to the coronavirus crisis. Her letter, originally entitled ‘Sachez, Monsieur le Président, que nous ne laisserons plus nous voler notre vie‘ and broadcast on France Inter, is translated in English by Alison L. Strayer as ‘Letter to the President‘.
The Years awarded the 2019 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation
Annie Ernaux’s The Years, translated from French by Alison L. Strayer and published by Fitzcarraldo Editions, has been announced as the 2019 winner of the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation. The prize was established by the University of Warwick in 2017 to address the gender imbalance in translated literature and to increase the number of international women’s voices accessible by a British and Irish readership. This year’s prize was judged by Amanda Hopkinson, Boyd Tonkin and Susan Bassnett. (Source: The University of Warwick/ Fitzcarraldo editions)
I Remain in Darkness
After the publication of The Years and Happening, Fizacarraldo editions are now bringing into the UK another important book by Annie Ernaux: I Remain in Darkness (trans. Tanya Leslie), the diary that Ernaux wrote as she witnessed her mother suffer from Alzheimer’s disease.