Sydney Writers' Festival

PHILIPPE CLAUDEL (INTERNATIONAL)
Philippe Claudel was born in 1962. After teaching French for a few years in a secondary school, he began working in specialised centres for children with motor disabilities. During this time he also taught cultural anthropology and literature at the University of Nancy II. His experience of teaching in a prison inspired the novel Le bruit des trousseaux.

His following novel Les Âmes grises was voted best book of the year 2003 by Lire magazine, awarded the Renaudot prize in 2003 and the Elle Readers’ Literary prize in 2004. It has been translated into 23 languages, and published in English as Grey Souls. In 2004, Philippe Claudel was asked by the French publisher Stock to edit a new collection consisting of four novels a year based around the theme of wine.

In September, an adaptation of Grey Souls will be released in French cinemas, co-starring Jacques Villeret, Marina Hands and Denis Podalydès.

Philippe Claudel’s participation is supported by the Embassy of France.

also appearing at...
102: Grit
266: Missing Children

CHRIS WOMERSLEY (LOCAL)
Chris Womersley won the 2007 Josephine Ulrick Literature Prize for his short story The Possibility of Water which will be published in Griffith REVIEW 20: Cities on the Edge.

Chris has had work published in Granta New Writing, Best Australian Short Stories 2006, Australian Short Stories, Griffith REVIEW, Wet Ink, Visible Ink, Antithesis and Vignette Press. His short story The Shed was described by The Times Literary Supplement as one of the stand-out inclusions in Granta and by The Independent as "sly and surreal".

Chris works at Fairfax as a producer/editor and writes occasional reviews for The Monthly. His first novel The Low Road – which was shortlisted for the 2006 Victorian Premiers' Award – was published in 2007.
www.chriswomersley.com

also appearing at...
92: Cities on the Edge
310: Heroes and Criminals
282: The First Time