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The Second Annual Festival of New French Writing kicks off this Thursday in NYC and will take place through Saturday afternoon. I’m actually moderating the first event and planning on attending most (if not all) of these, so I should be able to write this up in full all next week.

In the meantime, here’s the schedule with links to the bios of all the participants:

Thursday, February 24

7:00pm – Winner of the Prix des éditeurs and Prix Femina + (The Ice Storm and The Four Fingers of Death), moderated by Open Letter Publisher,

8:30pm – Novelist (The Theory of Clouds and The Only Son) + European Correspondent for The New Yorker,

Friday, February 25

2:30pm – Philosopher + Essayist and Professor of Humanities at Columbia University, moderated by New Yorker writer,

4:00pm – Graphic Novelists (Epileptic) + (Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer, The Jew of New York and Shoehorn Technique), moderated by New Yorker Art Director

7:30pm – French/Afghan writer and filmmaker and Prix Goncourt winner, (The Patience Stone) + (The Sweet Hereafter, _Cloudsplitter), moderated by journalist

Saturday, February 26

2:30pm – (A Novel Bookstore and A Corner of the Veil) + (Prague, The Song is You), moderated by NYU Professor of French,

4:00pm – Writer and film director, (I’ve Loved You So Long, Brodeck, By a Slow River) + (The Mistress’s Daughter, This Book Will Save Your Life), moderated by Harper’s Magazine Publisher

Free and open to the public, will take place at:

Hemmerdinger Hall
Ground Floor, Silver Center
NYU
100 Washington Square East (Entrance on Waverly Place)

Simultaneous interpretation from both languages will be available. Booksignings will follow each event and the authors’ books in English and French will be available for sale by Fieldstone Book Company.

Speaking of the first Festival of New French Writing, Tom Bishop, NYU’s Director of French Civilization and Culture, said that the French-American conversations brought out the singular qualities of each author and the national similarities and differences. In looking forward to the second edition in 2011, Bishop emphasized that “the 2011 Festival will showcase some of the best of this generation of French authors who are producing exciting, powerful, often humorous writing. They represent world literature at its best. In conversation with American counterparts with whom they share original takes on life in the 21st century, they will discuss their own works as well as the future of literature itself.”