Young authors run the Marathon of Words with the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation

For the fourth annual Marathon des Mots (Marathon of Words), which took place from 11 to 15 June 2008, the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation met up with creative young French writers at the Studio of the National Theatre of Toulouse. This programme permits a certain number of journalists – from the Journal du Dimanche, Paris Match, Elle and Europe 1 – to sponsor a young writer with an unusually bold approach to writing. Irène Frain from Paris Match, for example, chose Saphia Azzedine for her novel Confidences à Allah. Several young writers also spoke about their literary influences and sources of inspiration. Among them were former winners of the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation’s Writer’s Grant, Florian Zeller (2002 grant winner) and Jakuta Alikavazovic (2007 grant winner and 2008 recipient of the Goncourt grant for a first novel).

Other high points included an encounter with author Edmonde Charles-Roux and a groundbreaking face-off on the theme “The improbability of literary journals” between Pierre Assouline, the writer-creator of the blog “La république des livres” (The republic of books) and Jean-Baptiste Gendarme, 2005 Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation grant winner and driving force behind the literary review Décapage. This review was developed with support from the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation.

For additional information, see: www.lemarathondesmots.com