(Hybrid) Beyond a Boundary: Christian Campbell and Claire Tancons on Black Movement
2024-06-27 19:30 - 20:30 (Europe/Paris) | The American Library in Paris
American Library in Paris Visiting Fellow Christian Campbell is an acclaimed poet and author of poetry collection Running the Dusk. In these poems he moves between Caribbean past, present, and future, asking, “what are the tongues for these times?” While completing his Visiting Fellowship at the Library, Campbell is working on several projects including work-in-progress on the late Sidney Poitier, the first Black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Campbell will appear in conversation with Paris-based curator and scholar Claire Tancons, who was the artistic director of Nuit Blanche 2024. Using the concept of C.L.R. James’ classic text Beyond a Boundary as a point of departure, they will consider the poetics and politics of movement in the Black Diaspora through language, gesture and migration.
About the speakers:
Christian Campbell is the author of the acclaimed poetry collection Running the Dusk (2010), which won the UK’s Aldeburgh Prize, among other awards. Campbell studied at Balliol College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and his work has been featured and reviewed in the New York Times, the Guardian, Small Axe, the Financial Times and elsewhere. He has received awards and fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, Arvon Foundation, Ford Foundation, Fine Arts Work Center, Bread Loaf Writers Conference, and elsewhere, and delivered the annual Derek Walcott Lecture for the Nobel Laureate Festival in St. Lucia. Also a critic, he has written extensively about Jean-Michel Basquiat for major exhibits on both sides of the Atlantic, including the Guggenheim Bilbao and the Barbican Centre, and recently edited a collection of Derek Walcott’s essays. He won the Art Writing Award from the Ontario Association of Art Galleries for his work on Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Claire Tancons is a curator and scholar invested in discursive and curatorial investigations of the postcolonial, including the exhibition and book “En Mas’: Carnival and Performance Art of the Caribbean” (with Krista Thompson, 2015). A graduate in art history and museum studies from the École du Louvre and The Courtauld Institute of Art and a former fellow of the Curatorial Studies program of the Whitney Independent Study Program, Tancons is the recipient of many grants and awards, including from the Warhol, Creative Capital, Emily Hall Tremaine, and Ford Foundations. Born in Guadeloupe, Tancons is currently based in Paris, where she is at work on “Van Lévé: Sovereign Visions from the Creole and Maroon Americas and Amazonia”, a transhistorical project centered on the relationship between artistic emergence and political sovereignty in the French Caribbean. She was the artistic director of Nuit Blanche 2024 and is the founder of EXTEMPORA, a non-profit arts organization dedicated to the practice of diaspora. Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (the speaker(s) 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
2024-06-28 11:00, 2024-07-05 11:00, 2024-07-12 11:00, 2024-07-19 11:00, 2024-08-23 11:00, 2024-08-30 11:00, 2024-09-06 11:00, 2024-09-13 11:00 | 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.

(Hybrid) The Couple and the City with Ayşegül Savas and Chris Knapp
2024-09-10 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
In their most recent novels, Ayşegül Savas and Chris Knapp both explore the loves, family dramas, and transnational relationships of young married couples. Savas’ The Anthropologists follows the couple Asya and Manu in the midst of apartment-hunting in an unnamed city. In Knapp’s States of Emergency, an American man and his French wife embark on a journey of fertility treatment during a catastrophic Parisian heatwave.
About the speakers:
Ayşegül Savaş is the author of the acclaimed novels Walking on the Ceiling and White on White. Her work has been translated into six languages and has appeared in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, Granta, and elsewhere. She lives in Paris.
Chris Knapp’s work has appeared in the Paris Review, n+1, Granta, and the New England Review, among others. He earned an MFA in fiction at the University of Virginia, and an MA in journalism and international affairs from SciencesPo in Paris. States of Emergency is his first novel. 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.

Can Women Be Ruthless Criminals? with Ivy Pochoda and Katherine Pancol
2024-09-11 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
Is Florence “Florida” Baum a naive victim of circumstance, or a ruthless criminal? While Florida convinces herself she is the unlucky target of manipulation, Diosmary Sandoval knows a truth that Florida refuses to believe: that women are capable of immeasurable cruelty.
About the speakers:
Ivy Pochoda is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Wonder Valley, Visitation Street, and These Women. She won the 2018 Strand Critics Award for Best Novel and the Prix Page America in France, and has been a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Edgar Award, among other awards. For many years, Ivy taught creative writing at Studio 526 in Los Angeles’s Skid Row. She is currently a professor of creative writing at the University of California Riverside-Palm Desert low-residency MFA program. She lives in Los Angeles.
Katherine Pancol is one of the biggest publishing phenomena of recent years, and a worldwide success. Her novels have been translated in some thirty countries. La saga des Crocodiles, as well as la trilogie des Muchachas et Trois Baisers, have become classics. Her last novel La mariée portait des bottes jaunes was published in 2023.
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 Only) Film Screening: Migrant’s Death Valley
2024-09-17 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
Known as the “migrant’s Death Valley” for its desolate landscape and unforgiving heat, Brooks County, Texas is believed to have the highest death toll for migrants anywhere in America, although the vast majority of bodies are hidden in unmarked graves and never identified. The documentary follows a forensic anthropologist and a team of students as they seek to identify bodies and contact families.
Join us for a conversation with documentarian Lisa Molomot, Sara Abbas, and Asma Zalim to see clips from the film.
About the speakers:
Lisa Molomot, Producer/Co-Director/Cinematographer, has directed documentaries about the American Southwest including the Peabody Award-winning Missing in Brooks County, The Cleaners and Soledad. Her film School’s Out has helped the movement to provide outdoor education for young children, and her short film Teaching in Arizona is an inside look at the teaching crisis in that state. She was a recent Fulbright Scholar in Canada, a Yale Poynter Fellow in Journalism and currently teaches at the James E. Rogers School of Law and the UA Human Rights Practice Graduate Program at the University of Arizona.
Sara Abbas is Head of Paris Office of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Born in 1975 in Sweden, Mrs. Abbas graduated from the University of Växjö in international administration in 2001. She started to work for IOM the same year and has held several positions within IOM before being appointed Head of Office in 2012.
Asma Zalim is a Senior Project Assistant born in 1994 in Morocco. She holds a master’s degree in Diplomacy and Strategic Negotiations from Paris Saclay University as well as a Korean Studies master’s degree from the University of Paris. She joined IOM in 2021 as a Project Assistant to work on the resettlement of refugees bound to France, USA, and Canada.
About the International Organization for Migration:
The UN Migration agency established in 1951, the IOM is the leading inter-governmental organization in the field of migration and works closely with governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental partners.
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.

(Zoom Tickets Available) Populism in 2024
2024-09-18 19:30 - 20:45 | The American Library in Paris
The 2024 Trump campaign and the success of the National Rally in June’s legislative elections in France show that populism is alive and well, yet the victory of Labour in the U.K. and other election results in Eastern Europe paint another picture. What’s the state of play of populism in 2024, a year in which voters in more than 64 countries will go to the polls? A panel of distinguished journalists and experts organized by the Overseas Press Club will discuss.
Please note, we are currently sold out of in-person tickets. You can register to attend on Zoom for free.
About the Speakers:
Martin Gelin is a longtime award-winning journalist on the U.S. far-right, and author of eight books on American politics, including the forthcoming The White Storm: How Racism poisoned American democracy. He writes for the Guardian, the Washington Post, and other publications. He moved to Paris in August. linktr.ee/martingelin
Elisabeth Zerofsky is a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine, and has written extensively on the rise of right-wing populism in Europe and the U.S., from France, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Italy, and the US. She is currently working on a book on this topic for Farrar, Straus and Giroux. She lives in Berlin, and will join the panel by Zoom. https://elisabethzerofsky.com/
Thierry Arnaud is international editor for France’s BFM-TV. Thierry joined BFMTV in 2006 as its US Correspondent, and served as the network political editor for six years. Thierry began his in career in print journalism, and was based for several of these years in London and New York.
Vivienne Walt is a Paris correspondent for TIME Magazine and Fortune Magazine who has covered French right-wing politics, including TIME profiles on Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, National Geographic, BusinessWeek, and more. She is a governor of the Overseas Press Club of America.
This event is in partnership with the Overseas Press Club.
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.

History Tour at the Library
2024-09-20 11:00, 2024-09-27 11:00 | 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 wish to reserve for 5 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.

(Hybrid) On Breathing with Jamieson Webster
2024-09-24 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
The one thing that unites every single moment of our lives is that we are breathing. Although inhaling and exhaling rarely attract attention, these simple actions are increasingly under threat — whether due to climate change, anxiety, or a public health emergency. Jamieson Webster draws on her professional experience as a palliative care psychoanalyst during the pandemic, as well her personal experiences, to explore this often overlooked subject. This conversation will be moderated by writer, journalist, and psychoanalyst Sinziana Ravini.
About the speakers:
Jamieson Webster is a psychoanalyst in New York City, she teaches at The New School School for Social Research, and is a regular contributor to New York Review of Books, the New York Times, and many psychoanalytic publications. She is the author most recently of Disorganisation and Sex (Divided, 2022) and the forthcoming On Breathing (Peninsula UK and Catapult US, 2025).
Sinziana Ravini is a writer, journalist and psychoanalyst living in Paris. She is also the editor-in-chief of the Swedish Art Journal Paletten. She has published Les Psychonautes in 2022 (PUF) and La diagonale du désir in 2018 (Editions Stock) and holds a PHD In literature from the University of Heidelberg entitled Goethe’s Schöpfungsmythen published in 2009 (Peter Lang Verlag) 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.

(Offsite) Long Island with Colm Tóibín and Guadalupe Nettel
2024-09-25 19:00 - 20:00 | Reid Hall, 4 Rue de Chevreuse, Paris, Paris, 75006, France
For the first Entre Nous event of the rentrée, the American Library in Paris and the Institute for Ideas and Imagination will host at Reid Hall a conversation between two of the greatest contemporary literary voices: Colm Tóibín and Guadalupe Nettel, on the occasion of the French publication of Toíbín’s latest novel, Long Island. The book tells the story of Eilis Lacey —the complex and enigmatic heroine of Brooklyn, one of Tóibín’s most acclaimed books— twenty years later, in a moving and tense story of secrecy, misunderstanding, and love.
Following the discussion, both authors will answer questions from the audience and sign books.
About the speakers:
Colm Tóibín was born in Enniscorthy in 1955. He is the author of 11 novels, including The Master, Brooklyn, The Testament of Mary, Nora Webster, House of Names, and The Magician. His work has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times and has won the Costa Novel Award and the IMPAC Award. He has also published two collections of stories and numerous works of non-fiction. He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities in the Department of English and Comparative Literature.
Guadalupe Nettel is a Mexican writer, author of award-winning novels and collections of short stories translated into more than twenty languages, including The Body Where I was Born, After the Winter, and Still Born. She has received many awards for her fiction, including the Premio de Narrativa Breve Ribera del Duero and the Herralde Prize, one of the highest honors in hispanophone literature, and is a frequent contributor to El Pais, The New York Times, and La Repubblica. In 2008 he earned a PhD in Literature from the EHESS in Paris in 2008. Her work has been adapted into theater and film. She is currently a Fellow at the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination.
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: This event will be held at Reid Hall (Columbia Global Centers | Paris, Reid Hall 4, rue de Chevreuse 75006 Paris)
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.

(Zoom Tickets Available) Imperfect Life in a Perfect City: The Paris of Today with Simon Kuper and Pamela Druckerman
2024-09-25 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
In more than twenty years living in Paris, Simon Kuper has experienced the city both as a human being and a journalist. He has enjoyed croissants, taken his children to youth soccer in the banlieues and has watched Paris — and himself — change through terrorist attacks, heatwaves, protests, the Covid pandemic and the Olympics. His memoir mixes personal observations with reportage on the evolution of one of the world’s great cities.
About the speakers:
Simon Kuper is a Financial Times journalist who has lived in Paris since 2002. He is now a British-French dual citizen. His books include Soccernomics (co-written with Stefan Szymanski), Chums: How a Tiny Caste of Oxford Tories Took Over the UK and, published in 2024, Impossible City: Paris in the Twenty-First Century.
Pamela Druckerman is a journalist and the author of five books including Bringing Up Bébé, which has been translated into 31 languages. She won an Emmy for The Forger, a New York Times documentary about a French teenager in WWII. Her op-eds, essays, articles and reviews have been published in the New York Times, the Economist, the Atlantic, Le Monde and many other publications.
Please note, we are currently sold out of in-person tickets. You can register to attend on Zoom for free. 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.

(Offsite) Festival America: Women's Bodies
2024-09-26 16:00 - 17:00 | CŒUR DE VILLE, AUDITORIUM, 98 rue de Fontenay, Vincennes, 94300, France
It took centuries of struggle for women to be able to express themselves without restriction. But, let’s face it, this freedom is not accepted everywhere, especially when it comes to writing about the body. With the #MeToo movement, women’s bodies have been invited into the literary space, challenging a dominant male vision. How are women writers writing about the body today?
With Isabela Figueiredo, Lauren Groff and Szilvia Molnar.
This event will be moderated by Curator of Cultural Programs at the American Library in Paris, Rachel Donadio.
About Festival America:
The 11th edition of AMERICA will take place in Vincennes from 26-29 September 2024, and will for the first time be the venue for exchanges and debates between American and European writers.
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. Important information: This event will take place in person at CŒUR DE VILLE, AUDITORIUM 98 rue de Fontenay 94300 Vincennes.
Access to this event requires purchase of a ticket through Festival America. Click on the button below to purchase your ticket.

(Hybrid) Does Grief Ever End? With Cody Delistraty and Lindsey Tramuta
2024-10-01 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
Cody Delistraty lost his mother to cancer when he was in his early 20s. As he explored ways to mediate his grief, the American Psychological Association and World Health Organization announced a diagnosis: Prolonged Grief Disorder. While this diagnosis allowed for novel treatment, Delistraty was left with a question: Should we treat grief medically?
Delistraty appears in conversation with Paris-based writer and travel journalist Lindsey Tramuta.
About the speakers:
Cody Delistraty is a writer and speechwriter, most recently working as the culture editor at the Wall Street Journal Magazine. He has written for the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Atlantic, and was the European arts columnist for the Paris Review. He has degrees in politics from New York University and in history from the University of Oxford. British Vogue named him a best young writer of the year, and he has frequently given talks about art, creativity, and loss. He lives in New York City.
Lindsey Tramuta has been based in Paris since 2006. She is a bilingual French-English culture and travel journalist, bestselling author, podcaster, and editorial consultant. Since 2012, her work has appeared in T: The New York Times Style Magazine, the New York Times, Condé Nast Traveler, Fortune Magazine, Afar Magazine, Travel & Leisure, Eater, Bloomberg, Elle, and Vogue, among other international publications. 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) Illustrating Exile with Edel Rodriguez and Maria Krasinski
2024-10-02 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
Hailed for his iconic art on the cover of Time and dubbed “America’s illustrator in chief” (Fast Company), Edel Rodriguez is among the most prominent political artists of our age. When Rodriguez was nine, Fidel Castro announced his surprising decision to let 125,000 traitors of the revolution, or “worms,” leave Cuba. Before they could leave, his family was imprisoned and then marched to a flotilla that miraculously deposited them, overnight, in Florida. Worm recounts the coming-of-age of an artist and activist, who, witnessing America’s turn from democracy to extremism, struggles to differentiate his adoptive country from the dictatorship he fled.
This conversation will be moderated by artist, designer, and educator, Maria Krasinski.
About the speakers:
Edel Rodriguez is a Cuban American artist who has exhibited internationally with shows in New York, Los Angeles, Havana, Berlin, La Paz, Cape Town, Prague, and London. A regular contributor to the New Yorker, the New York Times, and Time magazine, he has created more than two hundred magazine and book covers and illustrated several children’s books, including Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx, and is the author of Sergio Jumps and Sergio Saves the Game. Rodriguez’s artwork is in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, among others, and he has received numerous awards from the Art Directors Club and the Society of Illustrators. Worm is his first graphic novel. He lives in New Jersey.
Maria Krasinski is an artist, designer, and multimedia educator. She is managing director of News Decoder, a Paris-based educational news platform that partners with schools around the world to build global citizenship through journalism. She is the illustrator of the books Art Hiding in New York and Art Hiding in Paris, and the forthcoming title, I’m Not Your Muse: Uncovering the Overshadowed Brilliance of Women Artists & Visionaries. 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.

History Tour at the Library
2024-10-04 11:00 - 12:00, 2024-10-18 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 troops 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 104-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 contact us if you wish to reserve for 5 or more people (do not reserve through the site).
For school or group reservations, or for other questions, please email tours@americanlibraryinparis.org.
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.

(Hybrid) The Ethics of Blame with Miranda Fricker and Amanda Dennis
2024-10-08 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
What are we doing when we blame and forgive? What is ‘epistemic injustice’ and how does it affect these practices? How is it being used in processes of truth and reconciliation in South America and in supporting women survivors to come forward and tell their stories? How can the techniques of fiction deepen our insights into philosophical questions? How does unequal access to conceptual language enable some people to tell their stories, while others suffer without knowing how to put names to their experiences? Miranda Fricker, a professor of philosophy at New York University, will discuss these questions with novelist Amanda Dennis. Fricker coined the term ‘epistemic injustice’ in her 2007 book Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing.
This event is produced in collaboration with the American University of Paris.
About the speakers:
Miranda Fricker is Julius Silver Professor of Philosophy at NYU, and Co-Director of the New York Institute for Philosophy. She is the author of Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing, and her recent research is mainly in moral philosophy. She is a Fellow of the British Academy, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her forthcoming book, Blaming and Forgiving: The Work of Morality, explores the interpersonal moral psychological responses of blaming, apologizing, and forgiving.
Amanda Dennis is the author of the novel Her Here, and a book about Samuel Beckett and French philosophy: Beckett and Embodiment: Body, Space, Agency. Her writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, and Guernica. She teaches creative writing and comparative literature at the American University of 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.
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) How Hitler Came To Power, with Timothy Ryback and Jim Bittermann
2024-10-09 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
The year 1932 would shape decades to come. Takeover: Hitler’s Final Rise to Power is a dramatic recounting of the six critical months before Adolf Hitler seized power, when the Nazi leader teetered between triumph and ruin. Timothy W. Ryback details the remarkable story of Hitler’s dismantling of democracy through democratic process and shares insights into Hitler’s personal and professional lives, recounting backroom deals, unlikely alliances, stunning betrayals, an ill-timed tax audit, as well as a fateful weekend that changed our world forever.
This conversation will be moderated by Jim Bittermann.
About the speakers:
Timothy W. Ryback has written for the Atlantic, the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times, among others. His books have appeared in more than forty editions around the world. As a former lecturer at Harvard University, Ryback explores the intersection of history, politics, and culture, with a focus on the legacies of National Socialism and authoritarianism. His books include The Last Survivor, a New York Times and Washington Post notable book; Hitler’s Private Library, which served as the basis for a feature-length documentary, The Books He Didn’t Burn; and Hitler’s First Victims, currently being adapted for cinematic release. He divides his time between Europe and the United States.
Jim Bittermann is CNN’s Senior International Correspondent based in Paris. Since joining CNN in 1996, he has covered the death of Princess Diana, NATO air strikes on Kosovo in 1998, the earthquake in Turkey in 1999 and the World Cup soccer championships, among other stories. His many honors include a CableACE Award for CNN’s coverage of the civil war in Zaire. He has been a panel moderator at the World Economic Forum and a member of the jury for the Overseas Press Club and Emmy Award competitions. He is an emeritus professor at the American University of Paris, where from 1998 to 2021 he was an assistant adjunct professor of communications, teaching courses in broadcast news and documentary film. 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.

Critical Conversations 2024–25: The Internet Is Not What You Think, Meeting One
2024-10-10 19:00 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
What is the internet? How far back in history can we find its precursors, in the form either of mechanical social, or perhaps even biological information networks? What are the political and philosophical ideas that drove early efforts to network human society? And is the internet a fulfilment of these ideas, or does the actually existing internet turn out to be in certain respects fundamentally different from the political and philosophical vision that guided its early development?
In this series of conversations, we will be taking a maximally wide-focused view of these questions, and we will be looking in particular at their importance for understanding the unprecedent technological revolution we are currently living through, as well as its economic, political, cultural, and psychological consequences. We will be focusing in particular on those thinkers who have articulated a theoretical account of the nature of information networks, the possibility of machine intelligence, or the utopian (or dystopian) prospects of a society reliant on machine-aided decision-making.
Registration Details:

The 2024–2025 series will unfold over eight sessions, on Thursdays from October 2024 to June 2024. Conversations will begin at 19h00 and run for ninety minutes, in person, at the Library.
By registering, participants commit to attending all sessions and completing the assigned readings. To maintain the continuity of the series, attendance to individual sessions is not permitted.

(Zoom Tickets Available) A Memoir of the Village Voice Bookshop with Odile Hellier and Alan Riding
2024-10-15 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
From 1982 to 2012, Paris’ Village Voice Bookshop was frequented by some of the greatest English-language authors of its time, such as David Sedaris, Amy Tan, and Don DeLillo. In her new memoir, Village Voices: A Memoir of the Village Voice Bookshop, Odile Hellier recounts her store’s forty years of cultivating literary excellence. This discussion will be moderated by long-time New York Times correspondent Alan Riding.
About the speakers:
Odile Hellier was born in the South of France during World War II and raised in Lorraine, near the German border, and Brittany, on the Atlantic Ocean. She is the founder and owner of the Village Voice Bookshop, a hub of Anglophone literary life and culture that operated in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris for more than thirty years.
Alan Riding is a former correspondent of the New York Times, having been variously based in Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Rome and Paris, most recently as the paper’s European arts correspondent. He is author of books on Mexico, Shakespeare, Opera and the cultural life of Paris during the Nazi occupation. He lives in Paris with his journalist wife, Marlise Simons. 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) The Ghosts of Paris with Lauren Elkin and Daniel Medin
2024-10-16 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
Lauren Elkin’s first novel, Scaffolding, is the story of two couples who live in the same apartment in north-east Paris almost fifty years apart. In 2019, Anna, a psychoanalyst, is processing a recent miscarriage. In 1972, Florence and Henry are renovating their kitchen. Both couples face the challenges of marriage, fidelity, and pregnancy, as their ghosts intersect, unaware they once all inhabited the same space.
This event will be moderated by Daniel Medin.
About the speakers:
Lauren Elkin is the author of several books, including Flâneuse: Women Walk the City, a Radio 4 Book of the Week, a New York Times Notable Book of 2017, and a finalist for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel award for the art of the essay. Her essays on art, literature, and culture have appeared in the London Review of Books, the New York Times, Granta, Harper’s, Le Monde, Les Inrockuptibles, 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 now lives in London.
Daniel Medin is an editor and professor of comparative literature at the American University of Paris.
This event is produced in collaboration with the American University in Paris‘s Center for Writers and Translators.
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.

(In Person Only) Braver Angels: Depolarizing Within Workshop
2024-10-19 13:00 - 16:00 | The American Library in Paris
All too often, our ideological conflicts become personal and we stereotype, dismiss, or ridicule our fellow citizens who support other political parties, leaders, and policies. In this time of polarization, many of us avoid conversations with others, even in our own communities, whose perspectives and opinions differ from our own. We worry that any attempts at discussions will devolve into arguments and acrimony, and result in anger and further divisiveness.
In this workshop, you’ll learn skills for having respectful conversations when differences arise including how to:

Become aware of your own “inner polarizer”
Disagree with others without demonizing, dismissing, or stereotyping them
Speak in ways others will want to hear
Affirm the importance of building relationships
Feel safe practicing your new skills

Please arrive on time for this highly interactive workshop. Attendance is free.
Space is limited so if you need to change your RSVP for any reason please contact the BA Europe co-chair Laura Pascal at lpascal@braverangels.org
*Tickets are Free, Donations Help Use promo code BRAVER during registration to get a free ticket. Donations beyond the free ticket support Braver Angels, 501(c)3.
About Braver Angels:
Braver Angels is a non-profit non-partisan organization devoted to bridging the partisan divide and strengthening the democratic republic of the United States of America.

(Hybrid) Abraham Lincoln’s Great Chain-Reaction with Don Doyle and Denis Lacorne
2024-10-22 19:30 - 20:30 | The American Library in Paris
The Age of Reconstruction: How Lincoln’s New Birth of Freedom Remade the World highlights the overlooked connection between the Reconstruction era in the United States and the radical transformations in Europe during the late nineteenth century. From the end of slavery in Spain’s Caribbean colonies to the end of Napoleon III’s reign in France, Don Doyle illuminates how American political changes have never occurred in a vacuum.
This event will be moderated by political scientist Denis Lacorne.
About the speakers:
Don H. Doyle is a retired professor of history who has taught at the University of South Carolina, Vanderbilt, and as a Fulbright professor in Rome, Genoa, and Rio de Janeiro. He has authored many books, among them The Cause of All Nations: An International History of the American Civil War and The Age of Reconstruction: How Lincoln’s New Birth of Freedom Remade the World. He lives in Folly Beach, South Carolina.
Denis Lacorne is a French political scientist. He is Director of Research Emeritus at the Centre de recherches internationales (CERI, Sciences Po). A specialist in the United States, his research focuses on American elections, the construction of national identities, multiculturalism, and the politics of tolerance and secularism from a comparative perspective. 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.
