Meet the author: Martine Delvaux

On a Christmas Eve, Martine Delvaux is overcome with sobs while listening to Ne me quitte pas performed by Nina Simone. Where do these tears come from? In this sudden vulnerability, the Quebecois author identifies the contours of a new writing project. After, notably, the masculine insularity (Le Boys Club), the fight against the climate crisis (Firefighters and arsonists), female solidarities (One must love women who cry a lot) or the artistic portrait of a great artist who remained in the shadows (It could have been a film), the author of Thelma Louise and me intends this time to delve into the relationship of women to their voices. And not just any voices: those we call the divas. Neither a novel, nor a biography, nor an essay, De Nina Simone to Beyoncé Ni, Divas is an investigation, sensitive and ample, into these star singers who made their voices resonate in a patriarchal world and who paid the price for it. Around the flagship figure of Nina Simone, soon Maria Callas, Barbara, Céline Dion, Whitney Houston, Amy Winehouse, Madonna, Beyoncé appear and superimpose themselves on Martine Delvaux herself. For alongside biographical anecdotes and an investigation into ambition and creation in the feminine, it is also a reflection on writing in the making that Martine Delvaux delivers before our eyes. The very opposite of silence. Already read and admired by her peers Titiou Lecoq and Louise Chennevière, Divas will mark an important moment of the literary season. In Brussels, Martine Delvaux will be interviewed by Lisette Lombé, national poet (2024-2026) and plural artist whose collages involve many divas. A unique opportunity to hear these two powerful voices dialogue under the sign of flamboyance, creation, and transmission. About Divas: "There are all our lives in this subject." Titiou Lecoq About the author Martine Delvaux is a Quebecois woman of letters, novelist, and essayist. A literature professor in Montreal, she has notably published Thelma, Louise and me (eds. Héliotrope), The world is yours (eds. Les Avrils), Firefighters and Arsonists (eds. Les Avrils), Le Boys club (eds. Payot). In 2024, It could have been a film (eds. Héliotrope) was selected for the Médicis essay prize. About the moderator Lisette Lombé was born in Liège. A plural artist, border-crosser, she comes alive through poetic, scenic, plastic, militant, and pedagogical practices. Co-founder of the Collectif L-SLAM, she was a finalist for the Prix Médicis 2023 with her novel Eunice (eds. du Seuil), and awarded several times for her texts. After having been poet of Belgium from 2024 to 2026 (And our poems will remain riots is published at maelstrÖm reEvolution), she has just translated (with Julie Lombé and Joëlle Sambi) La Vie, not even afraid by Maya Angelou on images by Basquiat (CotCotCot editions).