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Livres des deux rives: authors and publishers visit the southern Mediterranean coast
10 min
As part of the Livres des deux rives - un dialogue méditerranéen par le livre project, three tours for publishers and authors are being organised this autumn in the three North African countries. Conceived with the Instituts français of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia as a series of events focusing on a given publishing genre, these tours will focus on non-fiction in Tunisia in September, fiction in Algeria in October and children's literature in Morocco in November. Each event will see a group of French-speaking publishers and authors hold discussions with the country's literary professionals, participate in public meetings, and exchange views with committed young people and schools.
This portfolio looks back at the first two events in this series, in Tunisia and Algeria.
Participants: Stéphanie Chevrier, Philippe Boursier, Benoît Verhille, Lou Darsan, Kenza Sefrioui, Soufiane Hennani, Emmanuelle Collas, Djaïli Amadou Amal.

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2/12Professional meetings in Tunis
In Tunis, the 3 publishers and 3 guest authors participated in professional meetings organised in the framework of the LEILA-Arabic Literature in European Languages project (2021-2023), supported by IReMMO, and held discussions with the delegation of Euro-Arab publishers present.

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3/12Visit of L’Art Rue and the bookshops Al Kitab and Le Gai Savoir
The group also visited multidisciplinary cultural venues in the centre of Tunis, such as L'Art Rue third space and the bookshops Al Kitab and Le Gai Savoir.

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4/12Public meeting at the Institut français of Tunis
A public meeting on the ecological crisis was held at the Institut français in Tunis, where the three guest authors held a talk with three Tunisian figures working to preserve the environment.

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5/12Cultural mediation sessions in several Tunisian high schools
Cultural mediation sessions in several Tunisian high schools belonging to the AEFE network offered discussions between the guest authors and students: Lou Darsan, Philippe Boursier and Soufiane Hennani met with classes from the final three years of high schools to discuss environmental issues.

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6/12Meeting at the École supérieure d’agriculture de Mateur
Part of the programme of the Tunisian tour was held in the regions: the publishers and guest authors went to the École Supérieure d'Agriculture de Mateur where they met with stakeholders from Tunisian civil society, including students in agroforestry, young farmers and the associations Les Amis de Capte, the Association Tunisienne d'Agriculture Environnementale and la Reine d'or.

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7/12Meeting with students
In Bizerte, there was also a meeting with students from the Institut Préparatoire aux Études d'Ingénieurs, as well as with pupils from the Gustave Eiffel school group.

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8/12Award ceremony for the Algerian Prix Goncourt
In Algiers, the award ceremony for the Algerian Prix Goncourt was held in the presence of the 2021 winner, the Cameroonian writer Djaïli Amadou Amal: Clara Dupont-Monod followed in her footsteps this year for her novel S'adapter (pub. Stock).

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9/12Djaïli Amadou Amal meets her readers
To mark the 2022 Prix Goncourt and the publication of her novel Les Impatientes by the Algerian publisher El Kalima, Djaïli Amadou Amal met her readers at the bookshop L'Arbre à Dires in Algiers: this was an opportunity for her to return to the issues that run through her work, in particular those of child and forced marriage and violence against women, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, but also worldwide.

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10/12Djaïli Amadou Amal meets high school students
The writer also met with high school students who were members of the jury for the 2021 Algerian Goncourt and with those of the girl-boy equality club at the Alexandre Dumas international high school.

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11/12Meeting with students from the Carrefour Cadenkoso association
She was also able speak to African students from the Carrefour Cadenkoso association about her work as a writer and her novel Les Impatientes.

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The Institut français and the project

Resulting from the Summit of the Two Shores, the Livres des deux rives - un dialogue méditerranéen par le livre project, piloted by the Institut français, runs from June 2021 to February 2023. Financed by the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, this project aims to promote translation between French and Arabic and to support cultural and publishing exchanges between Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco on the one hand, and France on the other. It is based on three main lines of action - publishing, translation and awareness-raising - with a cross-disciplinary component on children's literature.