Sam Cohen and Audrey Couppé de Kermadec in conversation
Wednesday 23 Apr 2025 from 7pm to 8:30pm
Free upon registration
A unique literary encounter between the singular voices of American author Sam Cohen and artist, poet and performer Audrey Couppé de Kermadec.
Sam Cohen presents SARAHLAND (Burn ~Août), a collection of short stories in which the characters, all named Sarah, reinvent their place in the world by escaping gender norms and societal expectations. Her writing is as incisive as it is whimsical, weaving tales in which mutant bodies and subversive desires redraw the contours of identity.
Audrey Couppé de Kermadec unveils Prier dans l'intestin du monde (published by Trouble), a visceral, sensory text that questions the porosity between the intimate and the collective, the body and the sacred, flesh and language. It's a plunge into organic writing where poetic breath becomes a form of embodied prayer.
Through a dialogue between these two works, this encounter offers a reflection on the metamorphosis of identities, the power of bodies in resistance and new forms of queer and poetic narrative.
The discussion will be followed by an exchange with the audience and a book signing.
After publishing in various anthologies and literary magazines (Queer Flora, Fauna, and Funga, Weird Sister Collection, etc.), she published Sarahland, a collection of short stories, in 2021. She teaches writing at university as a creative writing lecturer. She has been nominated for and won numerous literary prizes, including the ALMA Award (Best Jewish Story Collection of 2021), the Jewish Women's Archive Book List, the Golden Poppy Award in Fiction (finalist) and the Chautauqua Janus Prize.
Through a transdisciplinary practice, they are interested in coloniality, the magico-religious practices of the West Indies and the links between blackness, the sacred, queerness and collective resistance. Their eco-poetic approach turns stagnant nature and clandestine landscapes into salvation cocoons, where rest and inertia become utopian tools of regeneration for the marginalised. Co-founder of the SMAC collective (Santé mentale dans l'art contemporain), their work explores alternative forms of rebellion and care.