IS THERE A FUTURE FOR HIGHLY LITERARY PUBLISHING?

Literary publishing, while evolving in the book market where it can be a best-seller, refers to practices that place the work, its elaboration, its commentary, its enhancement, at the centre of the profession (publishing, journalism, bookshop). Faced with economic imperatives, does literary, or even very literary, publishing, if it has a past and a present, still have a future? Four points of view will be heard: Fernando Pascual, strategic planner of El Sótano bookstores in Mexico and member of the editorial board of Publishers Weekly, Spanish-language edition; Jorge Carrión, Spanish writer, literary critic (Washington Post, La Vanguardia) and author of Contra Amazon (tr. in English by Peter Bush, Biblioasis); Mathieu Lindon, French writer and journalist (Libération), author of Une archive (POL), a story in which he evokes the figure of his father, the publisher Jérôme Lindon, who edited Beckett, Duras and Sarraute, published by Minuit; Melikah Abdelmoumen, essayist (Baldwin, Styron et moi, Mémoire d’encrier), formerly editor and now editor-in-chief of the magazine Lettres québécoises. Essayist Julien Lefort-Favreau (Le luxe de l’indépendance. Réflexions sur le monde du livre, Lux Éditeur) will moderate this promising discussion.

Participants: Fernando Pascual, Jorge Carrión, Mathieu Lindon, Melikah Abdelmoumen

Host: Julien Lefort-Favreau

Languages: French and English

By The Cole Foundation, Gouvernement du Québec, Consulat général de France à Québec, Blue Metropolis