Author Talk: Laure Gouraige—Le Livre que je n'ai pas écrit

The Alliance is honored to partner with Villa Albertine and the Haitian American Museum of Chicago to welcome French writer Laure Gouraige for a talk about her 2024 novel Le livre que je n’ai pas écrit (The Book I Didn’t Write).

The author, who is currently the Jules Verne Writing resident at The Ohio State University, will speak about her work and read excerpts from the novel. She’ll be joined in conversation by Eliana Vagalau, French Undergraduate Program Director & Associate Professor at Loyola University.

Guests will enjoy a reception after the program featuring complimentary French wine and the chance to continue the conversation with the author.

Doors at 6:00 p.m. Program a 6:30. Please enter via 810 N Dearborn St.. Reception to follow. Non-alcoholic options will be available.

About the Author

Laure Gouraige

Born in Paris, Laure Gouraige holds a Masters in Philosophy. Her first novel, La Fille du père (P.O.L.), was born of a desir for emancipation and to address her father, interrogating mechanisms of control and the resulting sense of disposession . On 2022, she published Les ideés noires (P.O.L.), the story of an identity quest where the personal meets the absurd. In 2023, thanks to the “Writers in Ile-de-France,” she consecrated an entire year to the writing of her third novel, Le livre que je n’ai pas écrit (P.O.L.), a more fictional work that interrogates the rapport between creation and self-representation. Her fourth novel, Grave, will be published in September 2026.

Gouraige is currently in a writing residency in the United States where she is working on her fifth book, Mirapolis, a fictional project inspired by the world of American comics that continues her reflections on memory, power, and contemporary violence.

About the Book

Le Livre que je n’ai pas écrit, 2024 (P.O.L.)a

Gaïa writes to her editor to ironically confess to her difficulty living with her times. Overwhelmed by the world and by herself, Gaïa dreams of a light, cheerful, almost frivolous book, a book that she nevertheless can’t seem to write. There are her parents: invasive, intellectual, living in New York, that discuss Joyce, Hegel, and her life with a crushing seriousness. There is love too, that one never manages to get over as easily as a political subject. And then Paris, fashion, fashion weeks, society parties, drunken conversations with friends: all scenes that Gaïa observes with irony, where disenchantment mixes with lucidity.

About the Moderator

Eliana Vagalau is the French Undergraduate Program Director and Associate Professor at Loyola University, where she teaches French. She recieved her PhD in French from Northwestern University in 2015. Her research interests include Contemporary Francophone literature and culture, especially of the Caribbean; contemporary French and Francophone philosophy; race and diaspora studies, gender and sexuality studies, literature and politics; Italian culture; and translation. Eliana is a member of the Modern Langauges Association, the Haitian Studies Association, the Caribbean Studies Association, and the Consei international d’études francophones. Her research has been published in Liverpool University Press, Transnational Africana Women’s Fictions, Revue Francofonia, Intranqu’îllités, Francophonies d’Amérique, The Buenos Aires Review, Figures de la psychanalyse, and Transition Magazine.

Getting Here

The Alliance Franaise de Chicago is one block from the CTA Red line stop at Chicago Ave. The closes bus stops are the 22 on Clark St and the 66 on Chicago Ave. A Divvy station is located in front of the 54 W Chicago Ave entrance.

Parking Information

$12 for 12 hours at InterPark at 100 W Chestnut St. Validation is available at reception.

Photography Notice

Please be advised that students, members, and attendees at cultural events or programs may be photographed, and these images may be used for marketing purposes.