(Hybrid) The New French Wine with Jon Bonné and Lindsey Tramuta
2023-10-18 19:30 - 20:30 (Europe/Paris) | The American Library in Paris
Over the past 20 years, Jon Bonné has become one of the most influential and widely-read American voices on wine and food. Now, after eight years of research, eight hundred producers, and seven thousand different wines, Bonné’s The New French Wine is a comprehensive, thorough, and evocative exploration of the global center of wine production. As France faces social upheaval and economic transformation, the wine industry is constantly subject to transformation, from identity crisis across traditional appellations to the natural wine revolution. Contemporary French wine, like contemporary French culture, both remains in dialogue with history and constantly breaks with it. With expertise and skill, Bonné traces these cultural shifts, their political and economic causes, and their consequences in the world of wine. Learn more:
In the New York Times, wine critic Eric Asimov praises Bonné for his use of “wine as a vehicle for cultural history.” Read the full review.
Jon Bonné appeared on David Lebovitz’ podcast to discuss the wine of the 21st century. Listen here.
Jon is a seasoned writer on wine and culture. He has also written on ‘wine rules,’ from rosé year-round to food pairings, and how to break them. Learn more here.
About the speakers:
Jon Bonné is the author of The New California Wine, which was honored as the Roederer International Wine Book of the Year, and The New Wine Rules, which has sold more than 50,000 copies and is currently also published in several international editions. His latest book, The New French Wine, was released in March 2023. He is Managing Editor of RESY, coordinating its editorial coverage, with staff, editors, and contributors in more than 20 cities worldwide.His overall journalism career spans three decades, including pioneering work in digital journalism, beginning in 1996, for such organizations as NBC News, Court TV and News Corporation.
Lindsey Tramuta is Paris-based journalist and author. She is a regular contributor to the New York Times, Condé Nast Traveler, Eater, Bloomberg, and many others. She has published two books: The New Paris: the People, Places, and Ideas Fueling a Movement (2017) and The New Parisienne: the Women and Ideas Shaping Paris (2020) and has hosted the popular The New Paris Podcast since 2017. Her work is focused on breaking down stereotypes, documenting the evolution of Paris, and introducing readers to the people and ideas shaping the capital’s future. Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Bonné and Tramuta will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes. Copies of The New French Wine will be available for purchase at the Library in the week leading up to this event and while the event takes place, generously provided by Smith&Son. All sales support this local independent bookstore.
Attendees will have the opportunity to have their copy signed following the conversation.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg.

(Hybrid) Thursday 19: The Attention Economy with Graham Burnett and Justin Smith
2023-10-19 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
As the speed of the world increases, technology develops, and companies hone their abilities to steal our time and our gaze, do we still own our attention? In In Search of the Third Bird, scholars D. Graham Burnett and Justin Smith transform their attention anxiety into a historical study of literary, psychological, philosophical, and artistic approaches to attention. From attention to the world, each other, and ourselves, they imagine a new artistic order capable of re-awakening viewers to their own innate desire to look at length. Join them as they propose a strategy of resistance toward the commodification of our curiosity, celebrating the miraculous possibility of awe. The conversation will be moderated by Russell Williams.
About the speakers:
Justin Smith is a historian and philosopher of science. A professor at the University of Paris, Smith is the author of Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason (2019), The Philosopher: A History in Six Types (2016), and Divine Machines: Leibniz and the Sciences of Life (2011).
Born in France, based in New York City, D. Graham Burnett trained in the History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge University and teaches at Princeton. He works at the intersection of historical inquiry and artistic practice, and his writing and collaborations focus on experimental/experiential approaches to textual material, pedagogical modes, and hermeneutic activities traditionally associated with the research humanities. Recent projects include THE THIRD, MEANING at the Frye Art Museum (Seattle, WA).
Russell Williams teaches in the Comparative Literature and English department at the American University of Paris. He is also French editor at the Times Literary Supplement and is currently writing a book called French Weird. Learn more:
In an interview with the Princeton Humanities Council about the book, Burnett stated that the problem of attention is “an issue we saw as charged with immense contemporary importance in the context of the emerging ‘attention economy.’” Read the full interview here.
Burnett worked with Yale art historians to develop an accompanying art installation, THE THIRD, MEANING at the Frye Art Museum. This exhibit “circles the power and complexity” of the human faculty of attention: “our ability to give attention, and to receive what it gives; the power to land in front of anything, and wait upon everything.” Learn more here.
In Search of the Third Bird has inspired attention activism. Learn about the Friends of Attention and read their Twelve Theses on Attention, published in an effort to reclaim our own ability to notice the world around us. Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (the authors will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg.

History Tour at the Library
2023-10-20 11:00 - 12:00, 2023-10-27 11:00 - 12:00, 2023-11-03 11:00 - 12:00, 2023-11-10 11:00 - 12:00, 2023-11-17 11:00 - 12:00, 2023-12-01 11:00 - 12:00, 2023-12-08 11:00 - 12:00 | The American Library in Paris
The American Library in Paris invites you to register for a History Tour. Come visit us in person at 10 rue du Général Camou and discover:

Our origin story, when our Library warehoused a collection of books donated to the Doughboys fighting alongside Allied troupes in WWI
The establishment of the American Library in Paris as a private library
The famous writers of the Lost Generation (Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, Henry Miller, and more) who explored our stacks during their time in Paris
Our Paris Library School, which brought American innovations to French libraries in the 1920s
The true stories of the brave Librarians who kept the Library open during the Occupation of WWII
How the Library has evolved over its 103-year history into the largest English-language lending library on the European continent

All tours are on Fridays at 11h00, last one hour, and take place in person at the American Library in Paris.
Tours are free of charge and open to the public. Pre-registration is required. Please email us if you are reserving for 4 or more people. (Do not reserve through the site.)
Please email tours@americanlibraryinparis.org with any questions.
This initiative is made possible through the generous support of the Florence Gould Foundation and the American Center for Art and Culture.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.

(In-Person at Reid Hall) Entre Nous: Female Figures Transformed with Nina McLaughlin
2023-10-24 19:00 - 20:00 | Reid Hall, 4 Rue de Chevreuse, Paris, Paris, 75006, France
Drawing on the rhythms of epic poetry and alt rock, of everyday speech and folk song, of fireside whisperings and therapy sessions, Nina MacLaughlin, the acclaimed author of Hammer Head, recovers what is lost when the stories of women are told and translated by men. She breathes new life into these fraught and well-loved myths. In voices both mythic and modern, Wake, Siren revisits Ovid’s Metamorphoses: accounts of love, loss, rape, revenge, and change. It lays bare the violence that undergirds and lurks in the heart of Ovid’s narratives, stories that helped build and perpetuate the distorted portrayal of women across centuries of art and literature.
The Entre Nous series is co-organized by Columbia Global Centers | Paris, the Institute for Ideas and Imagination, and the American Library in Paris.
About the speaker:
Nina MacLaughlin is the author of Wake, Siren: Ovid Resung, a re-telling of Ovid’s Metamorphoses told from the perspective of the female figures transformed, as well as Summer Solstice: An Essay. Her first book was the acclaimed memoir Hammer Head: The Making of a Carpenter. Formerly an editor at the Boston Phoenix, she worked for nine years as a carpenter, and is now a books columnist for the Boston Globe.
Important information: This event will take place in person at Reid Hall | Columbia Global Centers at 4 rue de Chevreuse.
Access to this event requires registration through Columbia Global Centers | Paris. Click on the button below to reserve your place.

(Hybrid) Diaspora Unfurled with Fiona Sze-Lorrain
2023-10-24 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
Following up on her many successes as a poet, translator, editor, and musician, Fiona Sze-Lorrain has released her debut novel, Dear Chrysanthemums. The novel takes the form of subtly interconnected stories that span across decades and continents. Each story follows a different woman or group of women as they grapple with generational trauma and memory. Taken together, these women’s stories converge to offer a mosaic of Chinese history and diasporic experience from the mid-twentieth-century through to the recent past. Join Sze-Lorrain as she takes us through the many eras and movements of modern Chinese history, guiding us to a position of informed reflection upon the prismatic present. The conversation will be moderated by Biswamit Dwibedy.
About the speakers:
Fiona Sze-Lorrain writes and translates in English, French, and Chinese. She is the author of a new “novel in stories,” Dear Chrysanthemums (Scribner, 2023); five poetry collections, most recently Rain in Plural (Princeton, 2020) and The Ruined Elegance (Princeton, 2016); and fifteen books of translation. A finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Best Translated Book Award, she was also a 2019–20 Abigail R. Cohen Fellow at the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination and the inaugural writer-in-residence at the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires. She lives in Paris and has performed worldwide as a zheng harpist.
Biswamit Dwibedy was born in Odisha, India, and has an MFA from Bard College, New York. He is currently an assistant professor at the American University of Paris. He is the author of six collections of poetry, published in India and the United States. In 2012, he edited a dossier of Indian poetry in translation from seven different regional languages for Aufgabe, a literary journal published by Litmus Press, New York, and in 2015, he was a judge for the Best Translated Book Award conferred by Open Letter Books at the University of Rochester. He is also the founder and editor of Anew Print, a small press that publishes limited-edition chapbooks from writers in India and abroad. A memoir, Hundred Greatest Love Songs, is forthcoming from Penguin Random House in 2024. Learn more:
Dear Chrysanthemums has been longlisted for the 2024 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.
Read a review of Dear Chrysanthemums in the Asian Review of Books.
Listen to Sze-Lorrain as she reads from her poetic collections and translations. To hear her performance of a classical piece called “High Moon” (月儿高) on the guzheng harp, go to 31:20. Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (the author will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes. Copies of Dear Chrysanthemums will be available for purchase at the Library in the week leading up to this event and while the event takes place, generously provided by Smith&Son. All sales support this local independent bookstore.
Attendees will have the opportunity to have their copy signed following the conversation.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg.

(Hybrid) A New History of American Literature in France with Laurence Cossu-Beaumont
2023-10-25 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
Paris at the start of the 20th century was the center of transatlantic literary exchange. From Hemingway, to Stein, to Baldwin, the city represented a refuge for American voices seeking a welcoming home to literary exploration.
Who introduced the great American authors to French readers between the wars? Who worked to disseminate French literature in the United States? Essential brokers to this phenomenon were William and Jenny Bradley, who founded the first literary agency in France and worked for Clemenceau, Cendrars, Colette, Gide, Malraux, Sartre and Camus, as well as Dreiser, Hemingway, Faulkner, Stein, Dos Passos, Chandler, and Baldwin. The Bradleys were treasured members of the American Library in Paris community: members, donors, and contributors to Ex-Libris. One hundred years later, we are delighted to re-introduce the Bradleys to the American Library, and celebrate their essential role in the construction of the transatlantic Parisian literary landscape.
Spanning literary salons of the Île Saint-Louis and the holiday resorts of the Côte d’Azur, and drawing on previously unpublished archives, Laurence Cossu-Beaumont’s William et Jenny Bradley invites us to discover the untold story of this Franco-American couple, and sheds new light on literary history from the 1920s to the immediate post-war period.
About the speakers:
Laurence Cossu-Beaumont is Professor of American Studies at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University. Her research focuses on African American Studies and Book History with a special interest for transatlantic cultural exchanges in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Her latest book, Deux agents littéraires dans le siècle américain: William et Jenny Bradley, passeurs culturels transatlantiques, was published by ENS Editions in 2023. Learn more:
The records of the William A. Bradley Literary Agency document a monumental period in modernist literature. Discover the agency records here.
William and Jenny famously championed the publication of Gertude Stein’s The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. Stein was a member and champion of the American Library in Paris. Learn more about the history of the American Library in Paris through our history tours.
Sylvia Beach of Shakespeare and Company introduced William and Jenny to an Irish author named James Joyce. Jenny became a friend of Joyce, loaning him a bed and table–the table upon which he completed Ulysses. The American Library in Paris recently teamed up with Shakespeare and Company to create a podcast celebrating the centenary of Ulysses. Discover Bloomcast here. Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (the author will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg.

Halloween Extravaganza: Library After Dark (ages 18+)(Ticketed event)
2023-10-28 21:00 - 23:30 | The American Library in Paris
Purchase your tickets (25€)

(Hybrid) Entre Nous: Reforming the Female Form with Lauren Elkin
2023-10-31 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
The female body, taken art historically, is an invention of the male gaze. Forged and fictionalized by male hands, how can women offer a new vision of themselves? With author and critic Lauren Elkin, learn how feminist artists have used art as a tool of resistance, inserting themselves into the very artistic lineage responsible for their oppression. In new work Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art, Elkin proposes an alternative narrative of art history, painting a vivid portrait of art as a celebration of beauty, excess, sentimentality, touch, and the politics of the body. She will appear in conversation with art historian and visual culture expert Alice Blackhurst.
About the speakers:
Lauren Elkin is the author most recently of Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art, which redefines monstrosity as a key element in feminist aesthetics; it’s “destined to become a new classic,” according to Chris Kraus. Her essays on art, literature, and culture have appeared in the London Review of Books, the New York Times, Granta, Harper’s, Le Monde, and Frieze, among others. She is also an award-winning translator, most recently of Simone de Beauvoir’s previously unpublished novel The Inseparables After twenty years in Paris, she is now based in London.
Alice Blackhurst is a writer, academic, and the author of Luxury, Sensation and the Moving Image recently shortlisted for the 2023 R Gapper Best Book in French Studies Prize. Her writing has appeared more widely in The Observer New Review, The Paris Review, the TLS, Jacobin and The New Left Review Sidecar.
Learn more:
Read Lauren Elkin’s recent article in Art Review on her reflections on art, writing, and staging a protest at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
Alice Blackhurst interviewed Nobel laureate Annie Ernaux on her long career, writing process, and activism. Read in the Guardian.

The Entre Nous series is co-organized by Columbia Global Centers | Paris, the Institute for Ideas and Imagination, and the American Library in Paris.
Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Elkin and Blackhurst will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
This event requires advance registration.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.

(Hybrid) Fact and Fiction: A Journalism Masterclass with Madeleine Schwartz
2023-11-07 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
Everyone reads the news, but how do journalists actually determine what’s new and true? A piece of news can quickly feel like it’s always been circulating. But the gap between hearsay and truth requires more than a bit of digging. In this workshop, we’ll be exploring how reporting happens, focusing on demystifying the process from the question through publication. How do journalists follow their instincts? How do they weigh fact and fiction? How do they know when to publish? Ideal for aspiring journalists and avid news readers alike, this masterclass will reveal the hidden secrets of the trade, helping us all become better readers, thinkers, and citizens.
In partnership with the Dial.
About the speaker:
Madeleine Schwartz lives in Paris, where she writes about the rise of the far right, urban politics and art fraud. Her work appears in the London Review of Books, the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books, where she previously worked as an editor. In 2019, her article “The End of Atlanticism: Has Trump killed the ideology that won the cold war?” won the European Press Prize. She teaches journalism at Sciences Po. Learn more:
Madeleine recently appeared in conversation with the editors-in-chief of Forbidden Stories, an organization dedicated to publishing the stories journalists were silenced for writing. Rewatch the conversation.
“The world’s little magazine,” The Dial is a new online magazine of culture, politics, and ideas with a focus on locally sourced writing from around the world. A space where daring writers stage global conversations unconstrained by geography, the publication spotlights writers who write the world as they see it—from wherever they might be. Check out their most recent issue, whose theme is ‘weapons.’ Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Schwartz will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg.

(Hybrid) Translating Words and Worlds with Daniel Levin Becker
2023-11-08 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
We live in an age of machine-enabled translation, with programs like Google Translate and ChatGPT always available at our fingertips. What does machine translation get right about language – and what does it miss? What makes for a good translation? How does the act of translating literature help us to think about the pleasures and the idiosyncrasies of words?
If anyone can help us to reach new depths of understanding about language and translation, it’s Daniel Levin Becker. At the age of 24, Levin Becker became the youngest member of Oulipo, a group of writers and mathematicians who experiment with the mechanics of language. His recent translation of Laurent Mauvignier’s nail-biting thriller The Birthday Party has been met with widespread praise. As Anthony Cummins reported in The Guardian, Levin Becker’s “endlessly segmented sentences, which snap and crunch with his convincingly apt choices, surely gave his ingenuity a workout.”
Join us at the Library to hear Levin Becker’s stimulating perspectives on wordplay, style, translation, and more.

About the Speaker:
Daniel Levin Becker is a writer, translator, and music critic. He is the author of Many Subtle Channels and What’s Good: Notes on Rap and Language and the translator of several works, including Laurent Mauvignier’s The Birthday Party. His forthcoming translations include Éric Chevillard’s Museum Visits and Jakuta Alikavazovic’s Like a Sky Inside. He has been a member of the Oulipo since 2009. Learn more:
Daniel Levin Becker wrote a three-part “translation diary” that details his process for translating The Birthday Party. He reflects on his role as translator: “I’m responsible not only for what the words mean but also for the spaces between them, for the way they fit together or, as the case may be, don’t — and, if not, why not.” For more insights into Levin Becker’s process, check out Part I, Part II, and Part III of his translation diary.
The American Library had the pleasure of hosting Daniel Levin Becker last year for a fascinating conversation about his book What’s Good: Notes on Rap and Language. You can watch that program here. Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Levin Becker will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes. Copies of The Birthday Party will be available for purchase at the Library in the week leading up to this event and while the event takes place, generously provided by Smith&Son. All sales support this local independent bookstore.
Attendees will have the opportunity to have their copy signed following the conversation.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg.

(In Person at mk2 Bibliothèque) V (Eve Ensler): Memories of Resistance
2023-11-13 20:00 - 21:30 | mk2 Bibliotheque, 128 - 162 Av. de France, Paris, 75013, France
Under the name V, the author of the best-selling The Vagina Monologues, American Eve Ensler, will be presenting her latest literary creation, Reckoning, an intimate and political firebrand. Covering subjects as varied as the climate emergency, homelessness, colonialism, friendship and patriarchy, the author reveals the richness and depth of her thinking. A woman’s struggle to conquer her freedom by writing her own life.
About the speakers:
V (formerly Eve Ensler) is the Tony Award-winning playwright, activist, performer, and author of the Obie award-winning theatrical phenomenon The Vagina Monologues, published in over 48 languages, performed in over 140 countries, and heralded by The New York Times as one of the “best American plays” of the past 25 years and that “no recent hour of theater has had a greater impact worldwide.”
Cécile Daumas has been a journalist at Libération since 1994. A graduate of the Centre de formation des journalistes (CFJ), she ran Libération‘s Cahier emploi from 2002 to 2005.
Learn more:
The Vagina Monologues has been described by the New York Times as “probably the most important piece of political theater of the last decade.” Read about V-Day, a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls inspired by the play.
Founded in 2020, the mk2 Institut encourages spectators to “forge a different idea of the world.” Discover their fall calendar.
Important information: This event will take place in person at the mk2 Bibliothèque at 128 – 162 Av. de France, 75013 Paris.
Access to this event requires purchase of a ticket through mk2. Click on the button below to purchase your ticket.

(Hybrid) From Cliques to Politics with Simon Kuper and Ian Leslie
2023-11-14 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
How did a tight-knit circle of Oxford-educated elites come to dominate the British political landscape? And what does Oxford’s outsized role in churning out Conservative leaders reveal about the health of the UK’s political system?
In his book Chums: How a Tiny Caste of Oxford Tories Took Over the U.K., Simon Kuper traces some of the biggest names in the British Conservative Party – including Boris Johnson, David Cameron, Jacob Rees-Mogg, and more – to their formative years at Oxford. Kuper pulls back the curtain on the debating tactics and cultivated affectations, the friendships and the rivalries, that swept through Oxford in the second half of the twentieth century, and that continue to exert a powerful grip on British politics. Join us to hear Kuper engage in conversation with journalist and 2018—19 American Library in Paris Visiting Fellow Ian Leslie about the state of British politics today.
About the Speakers:
Simon Kuper has lived in several countries around the world, including Uganda, the Netherlands, the UK, the US, and France. His journalistic specialisms are equally wide-ranging: he writes on topics from politics to urban policy to soccer. Kuper publishes a popular weekly column in FT Magazine. His latest book, Chums, was a Sunday Times bestseller, and his 1994 book Soccer Against the Enemy won the William Hill prize for Sports Book of the Year.
Ian Leslie is a journalist, writer, and speaker who specializes in human behavior. He was a Visiting Fellow at the American Library in Paris in 2019. His books include Conflicted: Why Arguments Are Tearing Us Apart and How They Can Bring Us Together and Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends On It. His journalism has appeared in The Guardian, The Economist, The New Statesman, and the Financial Times.
Learn more:
In his book Soccernomics, Simon Kuper draws from business and economic concepts to shed light on the world’s most popular sport. Watch him in an interview about the economics behind the 2022 World Cup.
The New York Times printed a profile of Simon Kuper and his latest book, Chums, in 2022. Read it here.
Ian Leslie co-hosted a podcast series called Polarised, which explored the divisive nature of contemporary politics and culture. You can find all of the Polarised episodes here. Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (the speakers will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes. Copies of Chums: How a Tiny Caste of Oxford Tories Took Over the U.K will be available for purchase at the Library in the week leading up to this event and while the event takes place, generously provided by Smith&Son. All sales support this local independent bookstore.
Attendees will have the opportunity to have their copy signed following the conversation.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg.

(Hybrid) How to Criticize with Lauren Oyler
2023-11-15 19:00 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
In-person registration for this event is now closed. Please fill out the form below to register to attend online. The first step to becoming a better writer is becoming a better reader. But what makes a piece of writing—whether a book or blog post, essay or cover letter—”good”? Who determines that criteria, and does it even matter?
Join Scholar of Note Lauren Oyler for a special 90-minute session devoted to criticism. Hailed “the pre-eminent and most widely read critic of her generation” by the Times, Lauren is celebrated for her irreverence, wit, and willingness to dissent from popular opinion. Blending personal narrative with cutting analysis, her writing seizes upon micro- and macro-phenomena, from semicolons to the moralization of art, in order to capture the essence of life and culture in the twenty-first century.
At the Library, after a preliminary discussion of her work and an audience Q&A, Lauren will engage participants in a criticism workshop. We’ll talk about our favorite books, our least favorite books, and why we love what we love and hate what we hate. Using texts from Renata Adler, Patricia Lockwood, Susan Sontag, and others, we’ll discuss how to respond critically and creatively to others’ work, and learn reading techniques that will help you become a more attentive, imaginative, and occasionally even harsh reader and writer. Book recommendations are included. Learn more:
Lauren’s forthcoming book No Judgment, scheduled for release in March 2024, presents a series of essays on “gossip, Goodreads, Berlin, autofiction, vulnerability, anxiety, spoilers, and revenge.” Read about it here.
Lauren is famous for her honest, and intelligent essays on life and culture, from astrology to the digital age. No topic is off limits for her. Read her take-down of celebrity worship, cruise lines the wellness industry in a recent article.
About the speaker:
Lauren Oyler is a critic and novelist based in Berlin. Her writing appears regularly in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Harper’s, the London Review of Books, and many other publications. Her first novel, Fake Accounts, was published in 2021 and shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction. A collection of her essays, all previously unpublished, will appear in 2024. She is a 2023—24 Scholar of Note at the American Library in Paris.
The American Library in Paris Scholar of Note program is generously sponsored by the de Groot Foundation. Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Oyler will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions. Participation in the workshop will be limited to in-person attendees only.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg. In-person registration for this event is now closed. Please fill out the form below to register to attend online.

Critical Conversations Meeting One: Collective Intelligence, the Human Superpower
2023-11-16 19:00 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
Human beings are not the largest, fastest, or strongest species on the planet. Our superpower is collaboration— at a scale and level of sophistication that make us unique among all living things. How did we evolve this special ability? Why does it so often seem to fail (groupthink, social media, etc.)? What is science telling us about how to design smarter teams and organizations, and what could this mean for democracy’s future?
Readings to prepare:

Michael Tomasello (Max Planck Institute), “Becoming Human – A Theory of Ontogeny” (video)
Emile Servan-Schreiber (UM6P School of Collective Intelligence), “Collective Intelligence – How Diversity Makes Us Smarter” (video)

If you are interested in participating in Critical Conversations 2023–24: Redesigning Democracy, sign up here with our registration form at the bottom of the page.
Some details: Whether in France or America, debate is central to healthy democracy. Critical Conversations encourages both disagreement and agreement through thinking, talking, reading, and actively participating in community. Since the series’ inception in 2020, we have tackled race in America, the climate crisis, migration, and technology. Across seasons, participants have challenged themselves, their peers, and the world in which we live.
Please write to programs@americanlibraryinparis.org with any questions or thoughts.
About Critical Conversations: Whether in France or America, debate is central to healthy democracy. Critical Conversations encourages both disagreement and agreement through thinking, talking, reading, and actively participating in community. Since the series’ inception in 2020, we have tackled race in America, the climate crisis, and migration. Across seasons, participants have challenged themselves, their peers, and the world in which we live.
About the Critical Conversations 2023-24 leaders:
Prof. Lex Paulson is Executive Director of the UM6P School of Collective Intelligence (Morocco) and lectures in advocacy at Sciences Po-Paris. Trained in classics and community organizing, he served as mobilization strategist for the campaigns of Barack Obama in 2008 and Emmanuel Macron in 2017. He served as legislative counsel in the 111th U.S. Congress (2009-2011), organized on six U.S. presidential campaigns, and has worked to advance democratic innovation at the European Commission and in India, Tunisia, Egypt, Uganda, Senegal, Czech Republic and Ukraine. He is author of Cicero and the People’s Will: Philosophy and Power at the End of the Roman Republic, from Cambridge University Press, and is co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Collective Intelligence for Democracy and Governance.
Prof. Mark Klein is a Principal Research Scientist at the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence, serves as a professor and Senior Scientific Advisor at the UM6P School of Collective Intelligence, and Chief Scientist at HiveWise Inc, a startup in the collective intelligence space. His research draws from such fields as artificial intelligence, social computing, economics, operations research, and complexity science to develop and evaluate computer technologies that enable greater ‘collective intelligence’ in large groups faced with complex decisions. He has over 180 publications in these areas, and has served on the editorial boards of many prominent journals and conferences related to AI and social computing.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.

(In Person at the Center for Fiction) Stitches, Secrets, Shame: Jazmina Barrera, Christina MacSweeney, and Leanne Shapton present Cross-Stitch
2023-11-16 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
In person at the Center for Fiction (Brooklyn, NY) and over Zoom, join Jazmina Barrera, Christina MacSweeney, and Leanne Shapton for a conversation about travel, art, identity, and translation.
Stitches, secrets, shame: Mexican writer Jazmina Barrera’s first novel, Cross-Stitch, translated into English by Christina MacSweeney, stitches together a coming-of-age story with a feminist history and theory of embroidery. Mila, Citlali, and Dalia, childhood friends now college-aged, leave Mexico City for the London of The Clash and the Paris of Gustave Courbet. They anticipate the bookstores, cafés, and crushes, but not the realization that they are steadily, inevitably growing apart.
That feels like forever ago. Mila, now a writer and a new mother, has just published a book on needlecraft, an art form long dismissed as “women’s work.” After hearing that her old friend Citlali has drowned, Mila begins to reminisce about their years together for the first time since becoming a wife and mother. What has come of all the nights the three friends spent embroidering together in silence?
The discussion will take place at the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn, New York. The conversation will be streamed on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
Access to this event requires registration through the Center for Fiction. Click on the button below to RSVP. About the speakers:

Jazmina Barrera’s books have been published in nine countries and translated to English, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, and French. Her book Cuerpo extraño (Foreign Body) was awarded the Latin American Voices prize by Literal Publishing, and On Lighthouses was chosen for the Indie Next list by IndieBound. Linea Nigra was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Autobiography Prize, CANIEM’s Book of the Year award, and the Amazon Primera Novela (First Novel) Award. She is editor and co-founder of Ediciones Antílope. She lives in Mexico City.
Christina MacSweeney’s work has been recognized in a number of important awards, and her translation of Valeria Luiselli’s The Story of My Teeth was awarded the Valle Inclán Translation Prize and also shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award. Her most recent translations include works by Daniel Saldaña París, Elvira Navarro, Verónica Gerber Bicecci, Julián Herbert, and Karla Suárez.

Leanne Shapton is a Canadian author, artist, illustrator, art director and editor based in New York City. She is the author of Swimming Studies, which won the National Book Critic’s Circle Award Award for autobiography in 2012; The Native Trees of Canada; Was She Pretty; Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry; Sunday Night Movies; Women in Clothes co-edited with Sheila Heti and Heidi Julavits; and most recently Guestbook: Ghost Stories. Leanne published a children’s book in 2018 called Toys Talking. She has taught creative writing in the graduate degree programs at Columbia University and Sarah Lawrence College. Leanne was the art director of the New York Times op ed page, is co-founder of the non-profit art bio publisher J&L Books, and since 2021 has worked as the art editor at The New York Review of Books.
About the International Library series:
This conversation is part of the International Library, a new series launched in collaboration with the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn and the Center for the Art of Translation in San Francisco which will offer conversations across time, place, and language.
The International Library celebrates the live diffusion of in-person conversations in the hope of connecting new audiences across land and sea for a collective, intercultural experience. These conversations will broach deeper questions about writing and translation as we learn to think critically about how stories are told, investigating the points of view, the timing of the translations, and the intended or assumed audiences as well as inspiration, philosophy, and craft.

(Hybrid) Le Conversazioni: An Evening with Pascal Bruckner
2023-11-21 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
Delve into the worldview of Pascal Bruckner, a luminary who defies categorization. Bruckner is a prolific philosopher, a critic of contemporary French culture, a political commentator, and an accomplished novelist. For nearly half a century, his polemical philosophies have generated conversation and sparked debate. Topics of his writing have ranged from critiques of Western “guilt” to a meditation on the failures of modern marriage.
This program has been produced in partnership with Le Conversazioni, an international festival that hosts stimulating conversations with writers, philosophers, artists, and other distinguished guests. Bruckner will appear in conversation with Antonio Monda, founder of the festival.
About the speakers:
Pascal Bruckner gained widespread prominence with his 1981 novel Lunes de fiel (Evil Angels), which was later adapted into the 1992 film Bitter Moon. He has since written more than a dozen books, including The Temptation of Innocence: Living in the Age of Entitlement, The Tyranny of Guilt: An Essay on Western Masochism, and Perpetual Euphoria: On the Duty to Be Happy.
Antonio Monda is the founder and Artistic Director of Le Conversazioni and has directed the Rome Film Festival between 2015 and 2021. He has curated exhibitions for the MoMA, the Guggenheim and the Lincoln Center and is currently consulting for the Louvre. He teaches at NYU and is a columnist for RAI and a regular contributor for La Repubblica. The ninth chapter of his ten-volume saga about New York was recently published. His books have been translated into eleven languages. Learn more:
In 2010, upon the release of his book The Tyranny of Guilt, Pascal Bruckner participated in an extensive interview with British journalist Nick Cohen. Watch the interview here.
Le Conversazioni is an international festival founded in 2006 by Antonio Monda and Davide Azzolini. Initially dedicated exclusively to literature, it’s field of interest and reflections has spread to other disciplines. Watch this video on some of their recent guests. Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (the speakers will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg.

(Hybrid) Scamming the American Dream with Kirstin Chen and Grace Ly
2023-11-22 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
Kirstin Chen’s Counterfeit is a sly novel that defies expectations, twisting and turning in ways that produce a sharp inversion of Asian and Asian American stereotypes. The novel follows Ava Wong, a Chinese American lawyer and mother whose life is upended when she is pulled into an international scam to sell counterfeit luxury purses. As the novel moves along, Chen peels back layers of irony and deception, revealing the ways in which Ava’s story plays with biases – in order to subvert them.
In this exclusive event, Chen will reflect upon some of the core themes of her work, including Asian American identity, cultural belonging, and feminism. Along the way, we’ll learn about how Chen uses plot twists, humor, and other narrative techniques to achieve her incisive cultural commentary. The conversation will be moderated by writer and podcaster Grace Ly.
About the speakers:
Kirstin Chen is the author of three novels: Counterfeit, Bury What We Cannot Take, and Soy Sauce for Beginners. Her forthcoming book, Tech Wives, unmasks the myth of tech founders as solitary geniuses by contemplating the women who enable their success.
Grace Ly is a writer and podcaster based in Paris, France. She is the author of « Est-ce que tu as faim ? (Are you hungry?) » (2023), a children’s book illustrated by Mélody Ung and a novel “Jeune fille modèle” (Model Teenager) (2018). The webseries “Ça reste entre nous” (« Just between us ») focuses on the plurality of paths and choices of French East and South-East Asians along 6 episodes. Since 2018, she co-hosts the podcast “Kiffe ta race” with journalist and director Rokhaya Diallo and explores how race affects everyday life in France. Learn more:
The New York Times describes Counterfeit as “an entertaining, luxurious read — but beneath its glitz and flash, it is also a shrewd deconstruction of the American dream and the myth of the model minority.” Read the rest of the review here.
Kirstin Chen joined Lit Hub columnist Jane Ciabattari for a conversation about Counterfeit and its deconstruction of the “myth of the model minority.” Read their conversation here. Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Chen will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes. Copies of Counterfeit will be available for purchase at the Library in the week leading up to this event and while the event takes place, generously provided by Smith&Son. All sales support this local independent bookstore.
Attendees will have the opportunity to have their copy signed following the conversation.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg.

(Hybrid) Writing Politics with Giuliano da Empoli
2023-11-27 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
How can fiction operate as a tool for political analysis? What fresh insights might we unlock by understanding geopolitical actors as characters?
Giuliano da Empoli is an accomplished political essayist and social commentator. His recent debut novel, Le Mage du Kremlin (translated into English as The Wizard of the Kremlin) quickly garnered international attention, becoming a popular hit in France, Italy, and beyond. The novel centers on a fictionalized version of a real person: Vladislav Surkov, a former adviser to Vladimir Putin.
Speaking about his decision to tell this story through fiction, rather than a political essay, da Empoli stated: “[A]t the heart of power, and Russian power in particular, there are elements of paradox, a permanent contradiction, an irrationality that only literature could transcribe.” (“[A]u cœur du pouvoir, et du pouvoir russe en particulier, il y a des éléments de paradoxe, une contradiction permanente, une irrationalité que seule la littérature pouvait transcrire.”) Join us to learn more about da Empoli’s novel, his political research, and his thoughts on the relationship between fact and fiction.
This program has been produced in partnership with Le Conversazioni, an international festival that hosts stimulating conversations with writers, philosophers, artists, and other distinguished guests. The author will appear in conversation with Antonio Monda, founder of the festival.
About the speakers:
Giuliano da Empoli is an Italian and Swiss political scientist and writer. He teaches at Sciences Po Paris and has published fourteen books on subjects ranging from information overload (Overdose, 2002) to national-populist spin doctors (Les ingénieurs du chaos, 2019). He was Deputy Mayor for Culture in Florence (2009-2012) and a Senior Advisor to the Italian Prime Minister (2014-2016). His first novel, Le Mage du Kremlin (Gallimard, 2022) was awarded the Grand Prix de l’Académie française and is currently being translated in over 30 languages.
Antonio Monda is the founder and Artistic Director of Le Conversazioni and has directed the Rome Film Festival between 2015 and 2021. He has curated exhibitions for the MoMA, the Guggenheim and the Lincoln Center and is currently consulting for the Louvre. He teaches at NYU and is a columnist for RAI and a regular contributor for La Repubblica. The ninth chapter of his ten-volume saga about New York was recently published. His books have been translated into eleven languages. Learn more:
Listen to Italian journalist Alain Elkann’s interview with Giuliano da Empoli.
Read the New York Times’ reporting on the political influence of da Empoli’s novel here.
Le Conversazioni is an international festival founded in 2006 by Antonio Monda and Davide Azzolini. Initially dedicated exclusively to literature, it’s field of interest and reflections has spread to other disciplines. Watch this video on some of their recent guests. Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (the speakers will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg.

(Hybrid) An Evening with Binkady-Emmanuel Hié
2023-11-28 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) practices—or workplace policies aimed at creating a supportive work environment for people of all backgrounds—were embraced in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter movement. Are DEI initiatives still being adopted three years later, and are they being implemented in all workplaces? Is DEI an American issue? How does DEI impact initiatives in France for a more equitable future? This discussion takes a look at the past, present, and future of an equitable future in the arts. Binkady-Emmanuel Hié, a writer, consultant, and activist who has worked as a fundraiser for the Paris Opera, will share his thoughts on diversity and equity at the opera and in the arts.
A graduate of La Sorbonne, Hié worked for several years as a fundraiser at the Paris Opera before launching NORME, an agency that provides consulting services on DEI and management services.
In 2020, following the BLM movement and during the global pandemic, Hié, along with five dancers co-wrote a manifesto titled “De la question raciale à l’Opéra de Paris,” which called for effective anti-discrimination policies at the Opera. The company responded with a 66-page report on diversity at the Paris Opera. Hié discusses what changes were made after the report, and delves into the history of Black figures in the arts from France.
Hié is the author of the book, VISIBLE! Figures noires de l’Histoire de France, which highlights Black figures in French History. The book will be published in October 2023. In a conversation with Apres Josephine’s Lyneka Little, Hié shares his thoughts on race, diversity, and equity at a time when diversity & inclusion initiatives are under fire.
This event is in partnership with Après Josephine.
About the speakers:
After graduating from La Sorbonne, Binkady-Emmanuel Hié left his law career to work as a fundraiser at the Paris Opera. Following the BLM movement, he co-wrote a manifesto that tackled the racial issues inside this institution and echoed worldwide. In 2021, he founded NORME, an agency that provides consulting services on diversity & inclusion, management services for artists such as ballet dancer Guillaume Diop, and develops creative projects. His first book, VISIBLE !, that highlights Black figures in French History, will be published in October 2023.
Lyneka Little is the founder of Après Josephine. She is also the Audience Engagement Editor for the Prison Journalism Project, an award-winning nonprofit organization that trains incarcerated writers. Previously, she worked at the Wall Street Journal, ImpactAlpha and ABC News. She has bylines in YoungEntrepreneur.com, Jet Magazine, People Magazine and various other publications. She holds a journalism degree from Howard University. Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Hié and Little will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg.

(Hybrid) Entre Nous: Possible Lives with Maria Stepanova
2023-11-29 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
With the death of her aunt, Maria Stepanova is left to sift through an apartment full of faded photographs, old postcards, letters, diaries, and heaps of souvenirs: a withered repository of a century of life in Russia. Carefully reassembled with calm, steady hands, these shards tell the story of how a seemingly ordinary Jewish family somehow managed to survive the myriad persecutions and repressions of the last century. Dipping into various forms – essay, fiction, memoir, travelogue and historical documents – Stepanova assembles a vast panorama of ideas and personalities and offers an entirely new and bold exploration of cultural and personal memory. In Memory of Memory will serve as the point of departure for a broader conversation about writing autobiographically, drawing on the author’s readings of Charlotte Salomon, Fleur Jaeggy, Gertrude Stein, and others.
About the speakers:
Maria Stepanova is a Russian poet, essayist and journalist. The recipient of numerous awards, including the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding and the Prix du Meilleur livre étranger, Stepanova is currently a fellow at Columbia University’s Institute for Ideas and the Imagination.
Daniel Medin is an editor and professor of comparative literature at the American University of Paris.
This event is a collaboration with AUP’s Center for Writers and Translators.
The Entre Nous series is co-organized by Columbia Global Centers | Paris, the Institute for Ideas and Imagination, and the American Library in Paris.
Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (the speakers will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
This event requires advance registration.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes. Copies of In Memory of Memory will be available for purchase at the Library in the week leading up to this event and while the event takes place, generously provided by Smith&Son. All sales support this local independent bookstore.
Attendees will have the opportunity to have their copy signed following the conversation.

(Hybrid) Behind the Lens with Frederick Wiseman
2023-11-30 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
Frederick Wiseman has directed and produced more than 40 films over the course of his illustrious career. His films offer profound insights into American institutions, reveling in the human stories that make up our social systems. The titles of his films introduce their subjects with deceptive simplicity: they include High School (1968), Welfare (1975), Public Housing (1997), and City Hall (2020). In his latest film, Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros (2023), Wiseman brings his penetrating gaze to a three-star Michelin restaurant in rural France.
Wiseman’s documentaries are known for their subtle, observational style. He does not deploy expository techniques like voiceovers or interviews, but instead immerses himself in the institutions that he studies, letting poignant stories unfold before his camera and editing the footage into rhythmic vignettes. Moderated by the writer and critic Carlos Valladares, join us at the Library to hear this cinematic giant reflect upon his work and method.
This event will be followed by a cocktail reception.
About the speakers:
Frederick Wiseman is a film and theater director of 47 films, primarily focusing on American institutions. His most recent film MENUS-PLAISIRS Les Troisgros will be released in Fall 2023. In 2019, he was the honoree of the Library Lions Award from the New York Public Library and received the Pennebaker Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards. In 2018, he was the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University. In 2016, he received an Honorary Award for lifetime achievement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board of Directors. He is a MacArthur Fellow, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has won numerous awards, including four Emmys. In recent years, he directed The Belle of Amherst, Beckett’s Happy Days in Paris and Vasily Grossman’s The Last Letter at the Comédie-Française in Paris and Theatre for a New Audience in New York. A ballet inspired by his first film, TITICUT FOLLIES (1967), premiered at the New York University Skirball Theater in 2017.
Carlos Valladares is a writer, critic, and film programmer from Los Angeles. He studied film at Stanford University and is currently completing his doctorate in History of Art and Film & Media Studies at Yale University. He has written for the San Francisco Chronicle, Gagosian Quarterly, Film Comment, n+1, Frieze, the Cleveland Review of Books, and the Criterion Collection. Learn more:
Wiseman’s latest film, Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros, has been described as “a food lover’s dream” (The Hollywood Reporter). Watch the trailer for the documentary here.
A 2020 profile of Wiseman in The New York Times provides a rounded introduction to the filmmaker’s work, style, and personality. Read it here. Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Wiseman will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg.

(Hybrid) The Middle East Crisis: Journalists Look at What's Ahead
2023-12-05 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
Oct 7th has marked a paradigm shift in the long-standing conflict between Israel and Palestine. After the start of these unprecedented events, journalists have been on the ground reporting, attempting to capture the realities, complexities, and human toll of this ongoing crisis. What has been the role of news organizations, social media, and the spread of information during the conflict? And what lies ahead for the Middle East?
Four long-time watchers of the region discuss how we reached this point of crisis, and how peace can ever be achieved.
This event is presented in partnership with the Overseas Press Club.
About the speakers:
Vivienne Walt is a Paris correspondent for TIME Magazine and Fortune Magazine. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, National Geographic, BusinessWeek, and more. She is governor of the Overseas Press Club of America.
Dalia Hatuqa is a multimedia journalist specializing in Israeli/Palestinian affairs, and regional Middle East issues as they pertain to business and economics, culture, art and U.S. foreign policy. She also writes about religion, minorities and immigration in the U.S. She is based in Ramallah, West Bank. Learn more about her work at www.daliahatuqa.com.
Pierre Haski is a France Inter correspondent and commentator, former deputy editor of Libération, and a long-time journalist covering Israel and the region. He appears daily on Radio France on the emission Géopolitique where he speaks on international geopolitics.
Peter van Agtmael is a photographer and member of Magnum Photos. He has published three books including, most recently, Sorry for the War, which covers the vast dissonance between the United States at war. He is recently back from the Middle East, having been on assignment for The New Yorker.
Myriam Benraad is a political scientist, specialized in the Middle East, and Professor of International Relations at Schiller International University in Paris, where she also heads the Department for International Relations and Diplomacy. Interested in the role of revenge in contemporary conflicts, she is the author, among recent publications on this subject, of L’État islamique est-il défait ? (CNRS Éditions, 2023) ; « Terrorisme et vengeance », Esprit (September 2023) ; and Terrorisme : les affres de la vengeance. Aux sources liminaires de la violence (Le Cavalier Bleu, 2021). Learn more:
The last time a team of journalists convened at the American Library with the Overseas Press Club, it was to discuss the mass protests across France following the fatal police shooting of Nahel M., a 17-year-old boy from Nanterre. Rewatch the conversation. Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (the speakers will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg.

(Hybrid) Slaves for Peanuts: An Evening with Jori Lewis and Robin Allison Davis
2023-12-06 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
In the preface of her book Slaves for Peanuts: A Story of Conquest, Liberation, and a Crop That Changed History (2022), Jori Lewis poses a question: “How do we tell the stories of people that history forgets and the present avoids?” Over the course of her book, Lewis works to tell precisely such a story, deftly sifting through archives to uncover the lives and experiences of people who have been systematically written out of the historical record.
Slaves for Peanuts exposes the pernicious connections between the demand for peanut oil in Europe and the persistence of slavery in Africa. Lewis shows how France continued to rely on slave labor in West Africa for the production of peanuts, even long after slavery had been officially abolished in French territories. Her work animates the complex lives of historical people, weaving them together through studies of agriculture and trade. The result is, in the words of renowned scholar Imani Perry, “a revelation” that “promises to transform our understanding of slavery and colonialism.”
This event will be moderated by Robin Allison Davis.

About the speakers:
Jori Lewis writes narrative nonfiction that explores how people interact with their environments. Her reports and essays have been published in The Atlantic Magazine, Orion Magazine and Emergence Magazine, among others, and she is a senior editor of Adi Magazine, a literary magazine of global politics. In 2022, she published her first book, Slaves for Peanuts: A Story of Conquest, Liberation, and a Crop That Changed History, which was supported by the prestigious Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant, a Silvers Grant for Work in Progress, and it won a James Beard media award.
Robin Allison Davis is an Emmy Award-winning television journalist with a passion for storytelling and the global perspective. Currently based in Paris, she brings her passion to life within the realms of international development and freelance journalism. Beyond her work in journalism, Robin is poised to release her memoir, Surviving Paris, in 2025 (Amistad/HarperCollins). This deeply personal account promises to take readers on a transformative journey through her experience with breast cancer and life lessons learned in the City of Light. Learn more:
Last year, the Metcalf Institute hosted a webinar with Jori Lewis. Watch it here.
For a sample of Lewis’s writing on people and plants, check out her essay on the splendor of Senegal’s baobab trees in Emergence Magazine. Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Lewis and Davis will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes. Copies of Slaves for Peanuts:A Story of Conquest, Liberation, and a Crop That Changed History will be available for purchase at the Library in the week leading up to this event and while the event takes place, generously provided by Smith&Son. All sales support this local independent bookstore.
Attendees will have the opportunity to have their copy signed following the conversation.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg.

(Hybrid) The Future of Consent with Manon Garcia
2023-12-07 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
Manon Garcia is a leading voice in conversations about consent, autonomy, and feminist philosophy. In her latest book, La Conversation des Sexes (translated to The Joy of Consent in its English edition), Garcia delves into the philosophical traditions that gave rise to “consent” as a legal framework. What does it mean to “consent” to sex? How can consent serve as a guiding principle for personal and intimate relations? Garcia offers a nuanced revision of consent-based ethics, imagining new paths forward for feminism. As scholar Nancy Bauer writes: “This book is no less than a blueprint for a new feminist revolution.”
About the speaker:
Manon Garcia is a feminist philosopher and a teacher at the Free University in Berlin. After completing her studies at the École Normale Supérieure and the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, she took on roles as a Harper-Schmidt Fellow at the University of Chicago, a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows, and an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Yale University. She has written two books: We Are Not Born Submissive: How Patriarchy Shapes Women’s Lives (Princeton University Press, 2021) and The Joy of Consent: A Philosophy of Good Sex (Harvard University Press, 2023).
Learn more:
Garcia’s first book, We Are Not Born Submissive (2021), explores the complex history of female submission. Watch her discuss this book in an interview.
Last April, Garcia joined the philosopher Kate Kirkpatrick in another illuminating Evening with an Author program at the American Library in Paris. In case you missed it: you can watch a recording of that program here. Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Garcia will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.
Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes. Copies of The Joy of Consent will be available for purchase at the Library in the week leading up to this event and while the event takes place, generously provided by Smith&Son. All sales support this local independent bookstore.
Attendees will have the opportunity to have their copy signed following the conversation.
Evenings with an Author are free and open to the public (with a 10€ suggested donation)
thanks to the generous support of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten of GRoW @ Annenberg.
