Place aux Nouvelles Festival

Lauzerte, hilltop village and capital of the short story

Perched on a rocky outcrop in the hills of Quercy Blanc, the medieval village of Lauzerte — listed among the Most Beautiful Villages of France — hosts one of the few literary festivals in France entirely dedicated to an often-overlooked genre: the short story and short texts, at the end of each summer. Place aux Nouvelles has made this village in Tarn-et-Garonne a recognized destination for lovers of living literature and professionals in the publishing world.

The festival was created nearly two decades ago with a clear and original ambition: to celebrate the short story as a literary form in its own right, as demanding and rich as the novel, but too often relegated to the margins of French literary life. This unique gamble has found its audience. Year after year, Place aux Nouvelles attracts a community of passionate readers, committed authors, and publishers who believe in the future of the short text to this village of a few hundred inhabitants.

A festival with a unique format

Place aux Nouvelles operates on a two-part schedule that gives it a particular identity. In the spring, the association selects three collections of short stories for the Place aux Nouvelles Prize. These three titles are announced to partner booksellers and the public, who are invited to read them in the months leading up to the festival. A jury of readers, composed of local residents and association members, debates, argues, and finally chooses the winner of the prize.

At the end of the summer, the festival itself takes place in Lauzerte over two intense days. The authors present — around twenty — participate in public readings, round tables, writing workshops, and book signing sessions. The atmosphere is one of intimate encounters between authors and readers, far from the mechanics of large literary fairs. The awarding of the Place aux Nouvelles Prize is one of the highlights of the weekend, rewarding an author and promoting the short story to the general public.

The short story in the spotlight

The short story is a literary form with paradoxical contours. On the one hand, the greatest authors in world literature — Chekhov, Maupassant, Borges, Carver, Alice Munro — have excelled in it. On the other hand, the genre remains difficult to sell in bookstores and little valued in the French cultural media. It is precisely against this injustice that Place aux Nouvelles has stood since its creation.

The festival features authors with very diverse aesthetics, reflecting the diversity of the contemporary short story: social realism, fantasy, humor, autobiographical narratives, historical short stories... This plurality guarantees the public a rich and surprising literary experience, where each author brings their personal vision of the possibilities of the short text. Readers who are unfamiliar with the short story often leave converted, with a list of titles to read.

The beautiful 2025 edition

The 19th edition of Place aux Nouvelles, on September 13 and 14, 2025, confirmed the festival's health and the vitality of contemporary French-language short stories. Around twenty authors responded to the call for this annual event in the hilltop village of Lauzerte.

The guest of honor for this edition was Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse, a Franco-Rwandan author whose collection Ejo (Autrement, 2023) was critically acclaimed for its narrative power and its remarkable precision in addressing the memory of the Rwandan genocide through short forms. Her presence at the festival led to a particularly moving encounter with the public, discussing memory, transmission, and the writing of the unspeakable.

The writing workshops, led by professional authors, allowed participants of all levels to engage with the constraints of the short story — the need to get to the essential, to find the detail that reveals everything, to build a narrative arc in just a few pages. These workshops are often experienced as revelations by those who participate.

Lauzerte, heritage setting for the festival

The choice of Lauzerte as the permanent venue for the festival is not insignificant. This medieval village is a bastide founded in the 12th century, whose arcades and paved alleys have retained their intact charm. Classified among the Most Beautiful Villages of France, Lauzerte is also a stop on the Way of Saint James of Compostela (GR 65), which gives it a dimension of openness and passage that resonates with the literary spirit of the festival.

The special atmosphere of the village — its panoramas of the Quercy countryside, its blonde stone houses, its shaded squares — offers an ideal setting for literary encounters and exchanges. Outdoor readings, book signings in the village squares, conversations extending onto terraces with views of the countryside: everything contributes to making Place aux Nouvelles an extraordinary festival, where literature is integrated into the landscape.