In the 1920s and 1930s and until the 1950s, Paris remained the cultural capital of the Western world. It exerted an almost magnetic attraction on whole generations of intellectuals, poets, and writers who, for many of them, migrated towards the City of Light. They benefited from a particularly developed and accessible publishing network. Between 1919 and 1938, 238 works in English were published in Paris. Even today, some American writers and literary students continue to draw their inspiration from Paris, reside and work in the emblematic places that marked the Lost Generation years, such as the famous bookshop Shakespeare & Co.
As part of the cycle The Lost Generation of Americans in Paris (1917-1939) organized by the Paris City Hall, the U.S. Embassy in France and the Cohen&Cohen publishing house, two students of the U.S. Foundation invite you to meet these writers, through readings of poems and novels in original language, from their own literary productions or not. The program includes texts by Ernest Hemingway and Langston Hughes, among others. Readings by Fatima Cadet-Diaby (student in M1 Cinema and Audiovisual at the University Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée) and Christopher Gellert (student in M2 Literature at the University Paris Diderot, project “Pourquoi lisons-nous”). Vincent Bouvet the author of The Lost Generation. Americans in Paris, 1917-1939 will present and dedicate his work (Ed. Cohen&Cohen). The book will be presented in French. The readings will be in English.
Speaker Biographies
Vincent Bouvet is an art historian specialising in 19th and 20th century architecture and decorative art. He was editor-in-chief of Monuments Historiques magazine and editor-in-chief of Éditions du Patrimoine. He has collaborated on Beaux-Arts magazine, Connaissance des arts, L’Objet d’art, as well as collective works (Auteuil-Passy, Georges Hoentschel, etc.). He is currently responsible for communications at a national art college in Paris.
New York native Fatima Cadet-Diaby is a playwright, director and producer who recently graduated from Mount Holyoke College, where she studied theatre and specialized in musical theatre. During the summer, she did internships with the Manhattan Theatre Club, Ars Nova Entertainment, The Musical Theatre Factory, Repertorio Español, and the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Currently, she is mounting the 10-minute Play Festival to showcase the talents of the City’s residents.
Christopher Alexander Gellert is American, currently studying at Paris Diderot University. He has a degree in literature and studies more specifically how reading influences our lives. His poems appeared in Belleville Dark Pages and Forth Magazine. Since September, he has been gathering testimonies from readers across France on how literature accompanies them in their lives. As reading is both intimate and shared, he asks readers to tell their stories at home, during a meal prepared by him. Each meal will be a chapter of a book he is writing. Christopher is currently preparing a series of meetings with authors, academics and inveterate readers on the theme Why do we read in partnership with Paris VII University, Politik’art, Action Culture CROUS and the FEU.