After having been named the Montmorillon Book Fair since 1990, then renamed Rencontres de Montmorillon literature and territories by the new municipality in 2022 which revised the formula, the former Book Fair returns under a new name, the Festival du book of Montmorillon, from June 7 to 9, 2024.
For this new edition, the festival will no longer take place in the Cité de l’Ecrit, but on Place Leclerc, in the city center.
It will pay tribute to the local child, Régine Deforges, publisher and novelist born in Montmorillon in 1935 and died ten years ago, on April 3, 2014, and instigator of the Book Fair in 1990. The 2024 edition will open on an evening in his honor at the Le Majestic cinema, Friday June 7 at 6:30 p.m. His three children and his loved ones, including the authors Noëlle Châtelet and Julien Cendres, will evoke his memory and his works around several round tables throughout the throughout the weekend.
Métal Hurlant, mangas, book ecology…
The festival, inaugurated on Saturday noon, will offer meetings, workshops and signings with nearly sixty guests and exhibitors and a whole program of youth activities.
The guests of honor for this 2024 edition are Cécile Coulon and Timothée de Fombelle. Published at the age of 16, Cécile Coulon now has around ten novels and no less than three collections of poetry. Passionate about American literature and a fan of running, she comes with her latest book, The Language of Hidden Things, published by l’Iconoclaste, a short novel with aspects of an obscure tale.
Timothée de Fombelle is the youth guest of honor for this edition. This writer of successful novels (Tobie Lolness2006) will be present with the artist Michel Thouseau, for a unique musical reading around the third volume of his latest series, Alma, freedompublished by Gallimard Jeunesse.
Jean-Pierre Dionnet, co-founder of the magazine Métal Hurlant and the publishing company Les Humanoids Associés, is one of the guests. Comic strips are in the spotlight with Baudoin, Troubs and Claire Malary, from the Futuropolis publishing house which is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary.
The festival gives space to Asian literature with the presence of publishers, authors and illustrators of manga and manhwas. This year’s festival poster is signed by Mori, a young Taiwanese illustrator.
The event also welcomes book professionals on Friday June 7 with the association Pour l’écologie du livre.
The full program will be revealed around May 15 during a press conference.
