How do legacies and power dynamics shape individual and collective identities in the United States? What do families pass on when silence replaces memory? From communities in the South to the high-rises of New York, from the Vietnamese diaspora to post-9/11 America, authors Addie E. Citchens, Viet Thanh Nguyen and Chris Pavone, alongside documentary photographer Peter Van Agtmael, bring their perspectives together to paint a sensitive portrait of a fractured country, where the personal constantly sheds light on the political.
This event will be moderated by Curator of Cultural Programs at the American Library in Paris, Rachel Donadio.
About Festival America:
The 12th edition of AMERICA will take place in Vincennes from 24–27 September 2026, welcoming over 60 American authors to celebrate 250 years of the United States through North American literature and culture.
Every two years since 2002, the AMERICA festival has brought together writers from North America. Over seven hundred authors from Canada, Quebec, the USA, Mexico, Cuba and Haiti have come to meet their French readers. For 4 days and 3 evenings, the Vincennes event offers a rich program of meetings – booksellers’ café, major interviews, thematic debates – screenings of adaptations of novels or documentaries, a children’s festival, concerts and events combining books and street culture.
AMERICA’s strength lies in the fact that it brings American voices and texts to Vincennes, shedding light on the universality of each artist’s work.
