Don't tell Marlyse Pietri, who founded the Zoé editions just fifty years ago, and managed them until 2011, nor to Caroline Coutau, their director since then, that the house publishes French-speaking Swiss literature. It is undeniably located in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Nor can it be disputed that the two editors and most of their authors are Swiss. But, protests the second to the “World of Books”, “we publish around 40% translations, particularly from German” and, above all, ““French-speaking Swiss literature” is a false concept. The authors are too diverse to be summarized by a label. I prefer to talk about a literature that is written, in French, in this territory”.
That’s the whole question, adds Marlyse Pietri: “We are a publishing house located outside France, which publishes literature in French. That was the problem, the object of our fight from the start: to impose our authors in France, despite…” His sentence remains unanswered. Despite French chauvinism? “I leave the responsibility of the word to you”she replies, laughing.
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