"The writing of an epic"

Chloé Delaume was born in 1973. She has been practicing writing in various forms and mediums for over two decades.

Winner of the Prix Décembre 2001 for Le Cri du Sablier (The Scream of the Hourglass) and the Prix Médicis 2020 for Le cœur synthétique (The Synthetic Heart), she is the author of around thirty books, all of which are considered formal explorations. Experimental autofictions (notably Les Mouflettes d’Atropos, Dans ma maison sous terre, and Une femme avec personne dedans), theatrical monologues (Eden matin midi et soir), essays (La règle du Je, Mes bien chères sœurs). She has also created hybrid works with pop culture: a video game remix (Corpus Simsi), a variation on a board game (Certainement pas), fan fiction in the style of a “choose-your-own-adventure” book (La nuit je suis Buffy Summers), interactive digital fiction (Alienare), and a dystopian novel (Les Sorcières de la République).

The fictionalization of the self is at the core of her work, as well as themes of mourning, suicide, and mental health issues. Very active in the feminist literary scene, she edited the anthology Sororité in the Point Féministe collection and organizes reading events that give space to new voices.

She frequently collaborates with artists and musicians on performances, and she is also a screenwriter, lyricist, author of radio plays, and occasionally a singer. She is currently finishing an album with the band The Penelopes and has just completed Pauvre folle, a novel about an impossible love, which will be released by Éditions du Seuil in September 2023.

Laura Vazquez is a writer. She has published several books of poetry with various publishers, including La main de la main (Prix de la Vocation) with éditions Cheyne in 2014, and Vous êtes de moins en moins réels with éditions Points in 2022. His first novel, La semaine perpétuelle, was published by Sous-sol in 2021. It won the Prix Wepler special mention and the Prix de la page 111. In March 2023, during her year as a resident at Villa Medici, she published Le livre du large et du long published by Sous-sol. This versified epic is accompanied by a soundtrack featuring a complete reading of the book. That same year, she was awarded the Prix Goncourt de la poésie for her body of work.

Her texts have been translated into Chinese, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, German, Arabic and Italian. Alongside her writing, she regularly gives readings in France and around the world (Contemporary Museum of Shanghai in China, Musée d’art contemporain de Genève in Switzerland, Norsk Litteraturfestival in Norway, Festival Voix Vives Tolède in Spain, Fondation Perdu in Amsterdam in Holland, etc.). She co-edits the magazine Muscle with Roxana Hashemi. She also runs writing workshops and masterclasses.

At Villa Medici, Laura Vazquez will write her first play: a lesbian tragedy.