CAMBON PODCASTS

Listen to author and critic Erica Wagner in conversation with Sheena Patel, writer of “I’m a Fan”, her first novel published by Rough Trade Books in 2022, and soon to be published in French by Gallimard. In her novel, Sheena Patel explores the blurred lines between reality and the online world through the involvement of an unnamed female character in an unequal romantic relationship. Through this conversation with Erica Wagner, Sheena Patel talks about her desire to capture the spirit of her time. They also evoke “Four Brown Girls Who Write”, a collective of women writers created with her friends to support each other in their writing processes.

As part of the Rendez-vous littéraires rue Cambon [Literary Rendezvous at Rue Cambon], the podcast "les Rencontres" highlights the birth of a writer in a series imagined by CHANEL and House ambassador and spokesperson Charlotte Casiraghi.

(00:00) Introduction

(00:56) Presentation of Sheena Patel by Erica Wagner

(03:51) On the author’s vocation as a writer and her collective

(07:24) The writers that inspire her

(09:46) On the publication process

(12:12) Reading an extract of “I’m a fan” by Sheena Patel

(14:56) On her narrative choices, her writing and editing process

(20:00) On the sense of having a voice

(21:09) On the blurred lines between reality and the online world

(22:08) The ending questionnaire of “les Rencontres”

Sheena Patel, I'm a fan, © Sheena Patel, 2022. Cover © Granta Books, 2023.  

© Rough Trade Books.  

Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D., published by 

Ballantine Books, copyright © 1992, 1955 by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D.  

Minor Feelings : An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong, Random House, 2020.  

Martine Syms, Shame Space, 2020. © Martine Syms. Published by Primary Information.  

Martine Syms, The African Desperate, © Dominica Publishing, 2022  

Maggie Nelson, Bluets, © Copyright 2009 by Maggie Nelson, Wave Books, 2009  

The Argonauts © 2015 by Maggie Nelson. First published by Graywolf Press, Minneapolis.  

© Guardian News & Media Ltd 2024.  

Kathy Acker, Blood and Guts in High School, © Grove Press, 1984. 

Celia Dale's A Spring Love is available from Daunt Books Publishing.

© The British Book Awards.  

© The Women's Prize.  

© Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize.  

© Jhalak Prize.  

© Foyles. All Rights Reserved.  

© Los Angeles Times. 

Sheena Patel, I'm a fan, Translated into French by French novelist and translator Marie Darrieussecq, © Éditions Gallimard, 2025.  

Juan Carlos Medina, The Limehouse Golem, © 

New Sparta Films, 2016. 

Roshni Goyate, Sharan Hunjan, Sunnah Khan, Sheena Patel, 4 BROWN GIRLS WHO WRITE, © Rough Trade Books, 2020. 

© 4 BROWN GIRLS WHO WRITE 

Écoutez la journaliste Lauren Bastide en conversation avec Joséphine Tassy, autrice d’un premier roman, « L’Indésir », publié par L’Iconoclaste en 2023, dans lequel elle explore les thèmes du deuil et de la quête identitaire au travers du personnage de Nouria. Au fil de la conversation, Lauren Bastide et Joséphine Tassy évoquent le style de l’autrice, mêlant prose et poésie, et l’importance du travail sur la forme. Elles reviennent également sur sa newsletter, « Lézarde », une initiative originale destinée à maintenir un lien avec ses lecteurs.

En marge des Rendez-vous littéraires rue Cambon, le podcast « les Rencontres » met en lumière l’acte de naissance d’une écrivaine dans une série imaginée par CHANEL et Charlotte Casiraghi, ambassadrice et porte-parole de la Maison.

(00:00) Introduction

(00:53) Présentation de Joséphine Tassy et de « L’Indésir » par Lauren Bastide

(02:24) À propos de sa vocation d’écrivaine

(03:45) À propos de son style d’écriture : entre prose et poésie

(05:42) À propos de son métier de chercheuse en économie du développement

(07:42) Les auteurs et autrices qui l’ont inspirée 

(09:55) À propos du processus de publication de son roman

(11:31) Lecture d’un extrait de « L’Indésir » par Joséphine Tassy

(14:19) À propos du processus d’écriture de son roman

(20:43) À propos du titre du roman

(22:30) À propos de ses personnages principaux, et de leurs singularités

(26:50) À propos de la réception du roman

(28:13) À propos de sa newsletter, « Lézarde » 

(29:53) Le questionnaire de fin du podcast « Les Rencontres »

Joséphine Tassy, L'Indésir, © L'Iconoclaste, 2023.

© L'Iconoclaste.

Primary vocation of the House, CHANEL Haute Couture allows all dreams and creative audacities. In this second episode, recorded in the apartment of Gabrielle Chanel at the 31, rue Cambon ahead of the Spring-Summer 2024 Haute Couture show, actress and House ambassador Margaret Qualley shares her personal experience of CHANEL Haute Couture, the emotions it encloses, and opens up about her artistic career and relationship to time.

A conversation led by Géraldine Sarratia.

Listen to author and critic Erica Wagner in conversation with Huma Qureshi, writer of “Playing Games”, her first novel published by Sceptre in 2023. In her novel, the author draws a nuanced portrait of sisterhood, family, love and loss through the arc of two main characters, Hana and Mira. Throughout the conversation, Erica Wagner and Huma Qureshi evoke Alice Munro, Ann Patchett or even Ann Taylor, feminine writers who deeply inspired her to write about quiet, but significant, everyday moments. They also discuss how the author returns to the subject of real life informing fiction in “Playing Games”, a recurrent theme in her writing.

As part of the Rendez-vous littéraires rue Cambon [Literary Rendezvous at Rue Cambon], the podcast "les Rencontres" highlights the birth of a writer in a series imagined by CHANEL and House ambassador and spokesperson Charlotte Casiraghi.

(00:00) Introduction

(00:54) Presentation of Huma Qureshi by Erica Wagner

(04:34) On the author’s vocation as a writer

(06:50) The female writers that inspire her

(08:10) Writing about quiet, but significant, everyday moments

(09:47) On the writing and publication process

(12:10) Reading an extract of “Playing Games” by Huma Qureshi

(14:05) On the author’s approach to writing and her creative process

(16:27) : On her main characters

(18:37) The writer’s block

(20:33) Her first reader

(22:15) On real life informing fiction and the book’s reception

(27:56) The ending questionnaire of “les Rencontres”

Huma Qureshi, Playing Games, © Sceptre, 2023.

© Huma Qureshi, Playing Games, 2023. 

Cover: © Charlotte Ager. 

“Playing Games by Huma Qureshi review – a poignant sisterhood story" par Sana Goyal, © Guardian News & Media Ltd, 2024.

© The University of Warwick.

© Sciences PO.

Huma Qureshi, In Spite of Oceans: Migrant Voices, © The History Press, 2014.

© Harper’s Bazaar.

Huma Qureshi, The Jam Maker, © Harper's Bazaar, 2020.

Huma Qureshi, How We Met: A Memoir of Love and Other Misadventures, © Elliott & Thompson, 2021.

Huma Qureshi, Things We Do Not Tell the People We Love, © Sceptre, 2021.

© Books Are My Bag Indie Book Awards.

© The Jhalak Prize.

© The Edge Hill Prize, Edge Hill University

"In conversation with Huma Qureshi", © Sonder & Tell, 2021.

© The Financial Times.

Listen to author and critic Erica Wagner in conversation with Selby Wynn Schwartz, writer of “After Sappho”, her first novel published by Galley Beggar Press in 2022. Together, they talk about her insatiable appetite for literature as a child and the way it led her to becoming a writer. They also evoke Lina Poletti, Sarah Bernhardt, Virginia Woolf or even Nathalie Barney, the women artists who inspired “After Sappho”, the book in which Selby Wynn Schwartz pays tribute to them.

As part of the Rendez-vous littéraires rue Cambon [Literary Rendezvous at Rue Cambon], the podcast "les Rencontres" highlights the birth of a writer in a series imagined by CHANEL and House ambassador and spokesperson Charlotte Casiraghi.

Selby Wynn Schwartz, After Sappho, © Selby Wynn Schwartz 2002, first published by Galley Beggar Press, 2022.

Quote from the interview "The Galley Beggar Q&A: Selby Wynn Schwartz", © Galley Beggar Press, 2022.

Quote from the article "After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz review – in praise of visionary women" written by Lara Feigel, © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2023.

© Booker Prize Foundation.

© The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2023.

© University of Edinburgh.

Selby Wynn Schwartz, The Bodies of Others: Drag Dances and their Afterlives, © Selby Wynn Schwartz University of Michigan Press, 2019.

© Lambda Literary. 

© American Society for Theatre Research.

Selby Wynn Schwartz, A Life in Chameleons, © Selby Wynn Schwartz, 2023. 

© Reflex Press. 

© University of California, Berkeley. 

© Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. 

The Great Art Of Light And Shadow: Archaeology of the Cinema by Laurent Mannoni, translated by Richard Crangle. Translation © University of Exeter Press, 2000. 

Anne Carson, Short Talks, © Brick Books, 2015.

Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho, Translated by Anne Carson, © Virago, 2003.

© Galley Beggar Press.

Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho, Translated by Anne Carson, © Virago, 2003.

Assia Djebar, Women of Algiers in their apartments, © Caraf Books, 1999.

Assia Djebar, Femmes d’Alger dans leur appartement © Éditions des femmes, 1980.

Igiaba Scego, The Color Line, Translated by John Cullen and Gregory Conti, first published in the English language by Other Press in 2022.

Igiaba Scego, La linea del colore, first published in Italy in 2020 by Bompiani, © Igiaba Scego, 2020.

Dionne Brand, The Blue Clerk: Ars Poetica in 59 Versos. © 2018 Dionne Brand. All rights reserved.

Saidiya Hartman, Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals, © WW Norton & Company, 2019.

T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting, Bricktop's Paris: African American Women in Paris between the Two World Wars, © SUNY Press, 2015.

Alessandra Cenni, Gli Occhi Eroici : Sibilla Aleramo, Eleonora Duse, Cordula Poletti : una storia d'amore nell'Italia della belle époque, © Mursia, 2011.

Cordula « Lina » Poletti, Il Poema Della Guerra, © Nicola Zanichelli, 1918. All rights reserved.

Virginia Woolf, Orlando, 1928.

© LASTESIS

© Non Una Di Meno. All rights reserved.

At the heart of the three-day exhibition Manchestermodern: past present future, curated by Factory International and CHAOS SixtyNine with the support of CHANEL, a special edition of the Rendez-vous littéraires rue Cambon [Literary Rendezvous at Rue Cambon] was held at the Victoria Baths in Manchester.

In conversation with writer and critic Erica Wagner, author Jeanette Winterson, CHANEL ambassador and spokesperson Charlotte Casiraghi along with actress and CHANEL ambassador Kristen Stewart reveal what constitutes, according to them, the powers of literature. Together, they also talk about the books that are dear to them and the female literary figures who inspire them.

(00:00) : Opening by Charlotte Casiraghi 

(02:21) : Introduction by Erica Wagner  

(06:37) : Reading an extract of “Why be Happy When You Could be Normal?” by Charlotte Casiraghi 

(10:14) : On trauma and resilience 

(13:41) : Kristen Stewart’s vision of writing 

(15:42) : Reading an extract of “Heroines”, Kate Zambreno by Kristen Stewart 

(18:49) : On women empowerment through writing 

(21:09) : On freedom of movement 

(21:53) : Extract from “A Taste of Honey”, Shelagh Delaney 

(24:34) : Jeanette Winterson’s vision of writing 

(28:05) : Recreating language 

(29:33) : Kristen Stewart and her role as a director 

(30:54) : On being uncomfortable when creating 

© 2023 by Cities of Literature. All rights reserved.

© 2023 Manchester Literature Festival. All rights reserved.

© Jeanette Winterson. All rights reserved.

Jeanette Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, ©  Grove Press, 1997.

Jeanette Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Vintage, 1997.

Jeanette Winterson, The Passion, © Grove Press, 1997. 

Jeanette Winterson, The Passion, Vintage, 1997.

Jeanette Winterson, Frankissstein: A Love Story, © Grove Press, 2019. 

Jeanette Winterson, Frankissstein: A Love Story, Vintage, 2019.

Jeanette Winterson, 12 Bytes, © Grove Press, 2021. 

Jeanette Winterson, 12 Bytes, Vintage, 2021.

Jeanette Winterson, Night Side of the River: Ghost Stories, ©  Grove Press, 2023.

Jeanette Winterson, Night Side of the River: Ghost Stories, Vintage, 2023.

©  UK Honours System.

©  University of Oxford. All rights reserved.

©  The University of Manchester.

© Toronto International Film Festival. All rights reserved.

Into the Wild, © Paramount, 2007. Courtesy of River Road Entertainment, LLC.

PANIC ROOM © 2002 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy of Columbia Pictures

Catherine Hardwicke, Bill Condon, Chris Weitz, David Slade, Twilight, © Summit Entertainment, 2008-2012. All rights reserved.

Pablo Larrain, Spencer, © Shoebox Films, 2021. A Fabula, Komplizen, Shoebox Films Production, 2021.

© Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. All rights reserved.

© Académie des Césars. All rights reserved.

Olivier Assayas, Clouds of Sils Maria, © CG Cinéma, 2014.

Kristen Stewart, The Chronology of Water, © Scott Free Productions. All rights reserved. 

Jeanette Winterson, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, Vintage, 2012.

Jeanette Winterson, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, © Grove Press, 2012. 

Kate Zambreno, Heroines, © Semiotext(e), 2012.

© Theatre Royal Stratford East.

© ITN / Getty images.

Shelagh Delaney, A Taste of Honey, © Grove Press, 1994. 

Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own, 1929.

Virginia Woolf, Orlando, 1928.

Écoutez la journaliste Lauren Bastide en conversation avec Seynabou Sonko, autrice de « Djinns », son premier roman publié aux Éditions Grasset en 2023. Ensemble, elles évoquent les mythes et rituels sénégalais à l’origine de l’univers onirique développé dans son livre et leur influence sur son écriture. Elles reviennent sur son désir d’explorer, grâce à la littérature, la complexité de la nature humaine et sur la manière dont elle a élaboré un langage original, empreint d’oralité et de références socio-culturelles. 

En marge des Rendez-vous littéraires rue Cambon, le podcast « les Rencontres » met en lumière l’acte de naissance d’une écrivaine dans une série imaginée par CHANEL et Charlotte Casiraghi, ambassadrice et porte-parole de la Maison.

Seynabou Sonko, Djinns, © Éditions Grasset & Fasquelle, 2023.

Stephenie Meyer, Saga Twilight @Hachette Livre, 2005-2008.

© J.K. Rowling, 1997-2007, Harry Potter.

© Université Paris 8 ©2019 - Tous droits réservés.

Pour la douzième édition des Rendez-vous littéraires rue Cambon, CHANEL et Charlotte Casiraghi, ambassadrice et porte-parole de la Maison, ont invité l’écrivaine et scénariste Maria Pourchet, en compagnie de l’actrice et ambassadrice de la Maison Rebecca Marder.

Animée par la journaliste et autrice Lauren Bastide, cette conversation consacrée à l’œuvre de Maria Pourchet revient sur les pouvoirs qu’elle attribue à la littérature et l’importance de faire place aux nuances afin de « laisser à la pensée le temps de se faire ».

Une performance musicale de l’artiste musicienne Clara Ysé, accompagnée du pianiste Camille El Bacha, a conclu ce rendez-vous.

(00:00) : Ouverture par Charlotte Casiraghi 

(02:18) : Introduction par Lauren Bastide 

(03:36) : Lecture d’un extrait de « Western » par Rebecca Marder 

(10:03) : Entre littérature et sociologie 

(15:40) : Charlotte Casiraghi sur le travail de Maria Pourchet 

(18:05) : Écrire dans le contexte « Me Too » 

(21:00) : Une passion commune pour le théâtre 

(25:00) :  Écrire sur la passion 

(27:00) : Le vêtement comme vecteur des émotions d’un personnage 

(30:26) : Lecture d’un extrait de « Toutes les femmes sauf une » par Rebecca Marder 

(36:40) : L’écriture comme catharsis 

(39:43) : Sur la maternité et la déconstruction du langage 

(42:11) : L’origine du tort fait aux femmes par les femmes 

(48:50) : La maternité dans la littérature 

(51:42) : Lecture d’un extrait de « Feu » par Rebecca Marder 

(59:15) : La figure de l’enfant dans la littérature comme témoignage de l’honnêteté 

(1:03:13) : La figure rassurante du patriarcat 

(1:05:21) : Les prochains projets de Maria Pourchet 

(1:06:43) : Performance musicale de Clara Ysé, accompagnée de Camille El Bacha 

Giorgio Agamben, Qu'est-ce que le contemporain ?, Traduction par Maxime Rovere, © Éditions Payot & Rivages, 2008.

Maria Pourchet, Western, © Éditions Stock, 2023.

© Comédie-Française.

Maria Pourchet, Feu, © Fayard, 2021.

© Amis du Théâtre Populaire. Tous droits réservés.

Maria Pourchet, Toutes les femmes sauf une, © Fayard, 2018.

Albert Cohen, Le livre de ma mère, © Éditions Gallimard, 1954.

Romain Gary, Pseudo, publié par Le Mercure de France © Éditions Gallimard, 1976.

Romain Gary, Gros-Câlin, publié par Le Mercure de France © Éditions Gallimard, 1974.

Romain Gary, La vie devant soi, publié par Le Mercure de France © Éditions Gallimard, 1975.

Clara YSÉ « Douce », autrice-compositrice : Clara YSÉ

Éditions Tomboylab et Sony Music Publishing.

Clara YSÉ « La Maison », autrice-compositrice : Clara YSÉ

Éditions Tomboylab et Sony Music Publishing.

Listen to author and critic Erica Wagner in conversation with Nikki May, writer of “Wahala”, her first novel published by HarperCollins in 2022. Through Ronke, Simi and Boo, the three mixed-race heroines of her book, the writer explores interracial relationships, what defines multicultural identity and captures women’s evolving roles in home and work. They also evoke Nikki May’s early vocation as a writer and the late realisation of her literary career.

As part of the Rendez-vous littéraires rue Cambon [Literary Rendezvous at Rue Cambon], the podcast "les Rencontres" highlights the birth of a writer in a series imagined by CHANEL and House ambassador and spokesperson Charlotte Casiraghi.

(00:00) Introduction

(00:40) Presentation of Nikki May and her novel “Wahala” by Erica Wagner

(03 : 23) On the author’s vocation as a writer

(05:58) On dropping out of medical school

(07:35) The writers that inspire her

(09:25) On exploring her British and Nigerian identities

(11:53) On the publication process of her novel

(13:56) Reading an extract of “Wahala” by Nikki May

(16:14) On following an online writing course

(17:46) On the writing process of her novel

(20:24) Her first reader

(21:00) On writing unperfect life for her characters

(22:54) The most challenging aspect of writing and the author’s advices on how to overcome it

(24:59) On the reception of the book

(28:43) The ending questionnaire of “les Rencontres”

Nikki May, Wahala: A Novel, Transworld, 2022.

Wahala: A Novel by Nikki May. Copyright © 2022 by Nikki May. Published by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.

Nikki May, Overnight success 58 years in the making, 2023

© BBC.

© Comedy Women in Print New Voice Award in 2023.

© Kirkus Reviews.

Author Carole Bell, Publisher © National Public Radio. 

Liane Moriarty, Big Little Lies, Penguin, 2014.

Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven, Knopf, 2014.

Fred Vargas, The Three Evangelists, Vintage Books, 1995.

© Booker Prize Foundation.

Percival Everett, The Trees, © Graywolf Press, 2021.

Paula Hawkins, The Girl on the Train, Riverhead Books, 2015.

Emma Stonex, The Lamplighters, Penguin Books, 2021.

Beaches by Iris Rainer Dart. Copyright © 1985 by Iris Rainer Dart. Published by HarperCollins Publishers.

Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, 1814

Écoutez la journaliste Lauren Bastide en conversation avec Marie Vingtras, autrice de « Blizzard », son premier roman publié aux Éditions de l’Olivier en 2021. Ensemble, elles reviennent sur son goût pour la littérature étrangère et sur l’origine de son pseudonyme. Elles échangent également à propos du long processus d’écriture de ce livre et le nouvel éclairage que lui apportent ses lecteurs.

En marge des Rendez-vous littéraires rue Cambon, le podcast « les Rencontres » met en lumière l’acte de naissance d’une écrivaine dans une série imaginée par CHANEL et Charlotte Casiraghi, ambassadrice et porte-parole de la Maison.

Écoutez maintenant sur chanel.com

(00:00) Introduction 

(00:32) Présentation de Marie Vingtras et de « Blizzard » par Lauren Bastide 

(01:52) Sa rencontre avec la lecture et l’écriture 

(04:26) Sur la place de l’écriture dans son métier d’avocate 

(06:09) La difficulté d’écrire en tant que femme 

(07:18 ) Sur le choix de prendre un pseudonyme 

(10:04) Le processus de publication de son roman 

(12:34) Lecture d’un extrait de « Blizzard » par Marie Vingtras 

(14:08) À propos du processus d’écriture de son roman 

(20:54) Sur le choix de placer l’intrigue de son roman en Alaska 

(22:33) Écrire sur la culpabilité 

(26:05) À propos de la réception du roman 

(31:23) Le questionnaire de fin du podcast « Les Rencontres » 

Blizzard, Marie Vingtras, © Éditions de l’Olivier, 2021, Points, 2023.

© Le Prix des Libraires.

© Apostrophes.

Jean Giono, Le hussard sur le toit, © Gallimard, 1951.

© Maison de la poésie.

© La Grande Librairie.