More than a week after publication in Release of a platform signed by more than 1,200 actors of the French cultural scene refusing the appointment of the writer Sylvain Tesson as godfather of the Spring of Poets, the artistic director of the event, Sophie Nauleau, announced her resignation this Friday 26 January.
“The choice, which I fully accept, of Sylvain Tesson as the magical godfather of “La Grace” (theme of the 2024 edition, from March 9 to 25) has triggered a startling, dismaying, not to say monstrous, cabal”writes Sophie Nauleau in a press release published by AFP. “In this context, no words being audible, I preferred to reserve mine for silence”she explains, referring to the column describing the writer as“reactionary icon”.
In 2018, the appointment of Sophie Nauleau as artistic director of Printemps, replacing Jean-Pierre Siméon, annoyed and fueled internal accusations. This former producer at France Culture is the companion of the poet André Velter, on whom she wrote her thesis (André Velter long-distance troubadour), himself creator of the Spring of Poets and former director of the “Poésie” collection at Gallimard, a collection chaired since 2018 by Jean-Pierre Siméon… who directed the Spring of Poets until that same year and currently chairs the Prix Apollinaire . “This dad-style operation is crazy inbreeding, it prevents discovery and ossifies the environment”deplores a poet, who preferred to remain anonymous.
Wednesday in The worldeight former employees also denounced a working method “traumatic”made of “moral violence” and D’“humiliation” led by the resigning director. The institution, whose mission is to “raise awareness of poetry in all its forms”is also accused of being too close, even under the control of Gallimard and its “Poésie” and “Blanche” collections.
More information to come.