Delphine Minoui

Paris, 1974. Delphine Minoui is an award-winning author and journalist whose work focuses on the Middle East. Born to a French mother and Iranian father, she has lived and worked in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Egypt. She is currently based in Istanbul (Turkey), where she works as a correspondent for Le Figaro newspaper. Besides her commitment to journalism, for which she has received the Prix Albert Londres 2006, she has written six books, including “Tripoliwood” (Grasset), “I’m writing you from Tehran (Le Seuil, newly translated in English and published by Farrar Straus and Giroux). In 2018, she turned her latest book, “The book rescuers of Daraya, a secret library in Syria” (“Les passeurs de livres de Daraya, une bibliothèque secrète en Syrie” – Le Seuil / Prix des Lectrices de ELLE 2018) into a documentary, “Daraya: a library under the bombs”, which has been aired on France 5 TV channel and granted the Grand Prix and Prix du Jeune Public at the FIGRA Film festival 2019. Her film has also been selected at the FIPA Festival.

Interview: Luisa Etxenike

Luisa Etxenike is a writer born in San Sebastian. She has published, among others: the novels Aves del paraíso, Absoluta presencia, El detective de sonidos, El ángulo ciego (Euskadi Award), Los peces negros, Vino; and the plays La herencia (Buero Vallejo Award), Gernika es ahora and La entrevista; and the poetry collection El arte de la pesca. She is the director of Canal Europa and she runs the literary festival Un mundo de Escritoras. She was awarded the distinction of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government.