Shakespeare and Company

Writer and critic Frédéric Beigbeder joined us to celebrate the English translation of his latest novel, Manhattan’s Babe, a nostalgic and bittersweet love story that gives a fictionalized account of the true-life love story of up-and-coming writer J.D. Salinger and Oona O’Neill the beautiful socialite daughter of a great American playwright.

We were joined by award-winning poet Luke Kennard for a discussion of his first foray into novel writing, The Transition, a book The Guardian described as “a dystopia in a velvet glove”.

We were delighted to be joined by author and journalist Florence Noiville to discuss her most recent novel A Cage in Search of a Bird with editor and literary critic Daniel Medin.

We were joined by Edouard Louis to discuss his exhiliarting début The End of Eddy.

We were thrilled to welcome back Eimear McBride to read from her follow up to the modern classic A Girl is a Half Formed Thing, the equally extraordinary The Lesser Bohemians.

We were joined by the author of one of our Books of 2016, writer, stand-up comedian and actor Sara Pascoe to discuss the provocative and inspiring Animal: The Autobiography of a Female Body.

Rob Doyle, author of Here are the Young Men and This is the Ritual, offered us a whirlwind tour through the work of some of the great risk-taking, playful and inventive authors who have looked beyond conventional literary forms. Cut-ups, metafiction, autofiction, writing with constraints, automatic writing, microfictions, stream of consciousness: explorations of the techniques will be enlivened by sample readings from classic works, both well-known and obscure, from Ulysses and Borges to more recent developments in the rich tradition of experimental writing.

We were joined by Annabel Abbs, author of the critically acclaimed debut The Joyce Girl, to discuss the reasons why Lucia Joyce has been erased from history.

We were joined by renowned translator-biographer David Bellos to discuss his captivating new work about the writing of Les Miserables, The Novel of the Century.

For the first poetry night of 2017 we were joined by Francis Coffinet and James Haenlin. Francis and James read from two works recently published in bilingual versions in the United States: Epreuves chamaniques (Shamanesque ordeals) and Les fleuves du sixieme sense (Rivers of the sixth sense), as well as from other works in progress.

We were delighted to be joined by writer-director Whit Stillman (Metropolitan, The Last Days of Disco) to discuss his re-imagining of Jane Austen’s novella Love and Friendship as both a book and motion picture.

Internationally renowned astrophysicist Christophe Galfard joined us for a wonder-filled evening and discussion of The Universe In Your Hand, his book that became an instant classic on its publication in 2015.

For our first event of 2017, we were joined by John Freeman, Aleksandar Hemon and ZZ Packer for a discussion of how literature in the United States could be impacted by four years of President Donald Trump.

For our final event of 2016 we were delighted to be joined by our dear friend, Jeanette Winterson, reading from Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days.

We were joined by Nadja Spiegelman who discussed her compelling memoir I'm Supposed to Protect You from All This with author and critic Lauren Elkin.