EVENT. The literary festival “Letters of Autumn” returns to Montauban for its 34th edition

Stage readings, literary concerts, workshops… From November 18 to December 1, the literary festival “Letters of Autumn” returns to Montauban for a 34th edition around the theme “Our impulses, our quests”, chosen by Jakuta Alikavazovie and Sylvain Prudhomme , guests of honor 2024. [Partenariat]

As the leaves fall from the trees and the cold slowly begins to set in, the desire arises to pick up a book and get comfortable under a blanket!

And that’s good, because the “Autumn Letters” could well give you some ideas for reading…

This literary festival for all audiences, created in 1991 by Maurice Petit and organized since then by the Confluences Association, takes place every year in Montauban and Tarn-et-Garonne. For 15 days, novelists, essayists, artists, publishers and literature enthusiasts come together around a program of stage readings, shows, literary concerts, meetings, exhibitions and even screenings.

This year, the 34^th edition of the festival will have the theme “Our impulses, our quests”, chosen by the two guests of honor, Jakuta Alikavazovie and Sylvain Prudhomme.

« Jakuta Alikavazovic and Sylvain Prudhomme are both authors of novels, stories, short stories, translations and chronicles. With a keen eye on the world, they build book after book two unique, cosmopolitan and sensitive literary universes, praised by readers and literary prizes. »specifies the festival.

Alongside them, many authors will be present to make their own works resonate with those of the duo: Gilles Abier, Geneviève André-Acquier, Philippe Béziat, Chloé Billon, Christophe boltanski, Thomas Clerc, Jean-Baptiste Del Amo, Baptiste Déricquebourg, Pierre Ducrozet , Sika Fakambi, Jean-François Galletout, Hélène Gaudy, Iegor Gran, Simon Grangeat, Inbar Heller Algazi, Célia Houdart, Paulin Ismard, Olivier Ka, Ludovic Lecomte, Claire Marin, Frédéric Maupomé, Martine Perrin, Michel Piquemal, Clémence Sabbagh, Thomas Scotto, Benoît Séverac, Florence Thinard, Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse, Manuel Vilas, Antoine Volodine.

The “Autumn Letters” make literature resonate with a wide range of artistic disciplines such as cinema, sculpture, dance… In addition to stage readings, literary concerts, workshops and other shows, the festival also offers a program around children’s books for school audiences and families. Here is an overview of the appointments that await you:

• The opening night of the festivalTuesday November 19 at the Théâtre Olympe de Gouges, free entry: from 6:30 p.m., reception in the theater, opening of the ephemeral bookstore (with La femme fox and Le bain livre), musical interludes (by students and teachers from the Teaching Center arts of Grand Montauban) and presentation of the festival program. Then at 8:30 p.m., musical reading “Our impulses, our quests” (1 hour) with Jakuta Alikavazovie and Sylvain Prudhomme accompanied by the oriental and jazz notes of Fayçal Salhi, on the oud.

We seek in words the impetus that is sometimes lacking in the world, not to turn us away from it but to exist better in it. We dream in books to live more awake.

• The dramatized reading “Nothing serious” by the Compagnie Les Voix de Pocket with Thomas Scotto and Gilles Abier, Wednesday November 20 at 9 p.m. at the Montricoux Media Library, Sacré-Cœur Cultural Center, free on reservation (from 15 years old – 1 hour)

Nowadays, on an island. Two men, separated by an adolescent event, find themselves at the top of a cliff, a favorite place of the group of which they were part. Both look back on these shared years, on the strong bonds that united them. Gilles Abier and Thomas Scotto, authors of literature for youth and adolescents, deliver here a story of reunions and unsaid things. Between dialogues of the present and narration of memory, Rien de grave alternates between two voices, two periods of life and years of silence. A harsh text to question the knots of adolescence and what plays out with (de)constructions in the tenuous thread of human relationships to the point of often leaving its mark on adult lives.

• The musical reading “Oscar and Carriage”, based on “La soup de pasta” (from 5 years old) by Ludovic Lecomte and his activities (letter between letters and snack), Saturday November 23 at 3 p.m. at the La comete social center (free, by reservation)

Come thrill and laugh to the rhythm of Ludovic Lecomte’s ukulele who will sing to you about the improbable encounter between a skeleton and a dog. Are you scared on the ghost train too? Oscar, it’s when he leaves the fairground that he’s afraid… Oscar is made of bones, because he’s the skeleton of the ghost train! Every day, to escape the ferocious dogs, he runs to his trailer and slams the door! But one morning, a little dog stays there, in front of his door… Come and discover this story in music, in a setting created by the children of the social center, with the help of Benoît Prunier.

• The meeting and screening of “It Follows” (directed by David Robert Mitchell, 2015, banned – 12 years old), a horror film chosen and presented by Jean-Baptiste Del Amo in the company of Jakuta Alikavazovic, Saturday November 30 at 8:30 p.m. at the Théâtre Olympe de Gouges

Let’s be curious and let ourselves be guided by Jean-Baptiste Del Amo and Jakuta Alikavazovic, whose literary universes are also nourished by so-called “genre” literature and cinema. Revealed in 2008 by A libertine education (Goncourt prize for the first novel), and very noted for his following novels including Animal Kingdom (Inter Book Prize 2017) and The Son of Man (Fnac novel prize 2021), Jean-Baptiste Del Amo nourished a great curiosity for art, photography, cinema. The film he chose to present to us, It Followsreceived the Grand Prix at the Gérardmer Fantastic Film Festival in 2015 and was particularly praised for its aesthetic. In a suburban suburb of Detroit, Jay, a carefree student in her twenties, goes to the cinema with Hugh, a boy her age whom she has started dating. But the latter cuts the session short, panicking in the face of a strange vision… A time for discussion will precede and follow the screening.

Discover the full festival program on the Lettres d’Automne website.

France 3 Occitanie is a partner of the “Letters of Autumn” festival.