Les Imaginales, The Festival of the Imaginary Worlds : 28th-31st of May 2015, Épinal, France

©Grégory Delaunay&Les Imaginales

The Imaginales, the Festival of the Imaginary Worlds is an event held every year in May since 2002 in Épinal (a small town in northeastern France and the capital – prefecture – of the Vosges department, on the Moselle river, 312 km east from Paris). The festival is organized by the City of Épinal, have been created and directed by Bernard Visse, and the artistic direction is provided by Stephanie Nicot.

Épinal, France

This year’s Imaginales Festival’s theme is Mutation(s).

It is a “salon littéraire” devoted to imaginary stories (fantasy, fantastika, anticipation, magical realism, historical fiction, fairy tales and legends). The name “Imaginales” is a contraction of the words “imaginary”, “magic” and “Épinal”.

After Spain, it’s Great Britain who will be honored at the 2015 Imaginales. The British Guests of Honor are Christopher Priest, Paul McAuley, Charles Stross, M.R. Carey, Kim Newman.

From US, the Guests of Honor are Robin Hobb and Brent Weeks.

Other Guests of Honour are the romanian origin scholar Matei Cazacu, the belgians Stefan Platteau and Cindy Van Wilder, the swiss Laurence Suhner and the french writers Jean-Pierre Andrevon, Jean-Claude Dunyach, Ugo Bellagamba, Francis Berthelot, Pierre Bordage, Lionel Davoust, Jeanne-A Debats, Sylvie Denis, Olivier Gay, Thomas Geha, Laurent Genefort, Johan Heliot, Jean-Philippe Jaworski, Sylvie Lainé, Xavier Mauméjean, Pierre Pevel, Jacques Barbéri, Lionel Davoust, Samantha Bailly, Estelle Faye, Sylvie Lainé, Mélanie Fazi, Thomas Geha, Christian Léourier, Jean-Marc Ligny, Olivier Messac, Sylvie Miller, Natacha Vas-Deyres, Laurent Whale, etc.

Every year since 2002, more than a hundred authors, illustrators, cartoonists, literary critics, filmmakers, scientists, are guests of the City of Epinal. French authors of course, but also Americans, Britons, Italians, Spaniards, Cubans, Australians, Belgians, Swiss …

Among them, renowned authors like Juan Miguel Aguilera, Brian Aldiss, Jean-Pierre Andrevon, Ayerdhal, Peter Curling , Francois Ceresa , Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud ( Prix Renaudot), Philippe Claudel (Prix Goncourt) , Yves Coppens (the famous paleontologist ), Jea -Claude Dunyach, Valerio Evangelisti , Jean-Louis Fetjaine , Christian Grenier, Alain Grousset , Johan Heliot, Robin Hobb , Robert Holdstock, Gérard Klein, Roland Lehoucq (the astrophysicist ), Henri Loevenbruck , Michael Marshall Smith, Michael Pagel, Pierre Pelot, Gilles Servat (Breton origin singer and author of celtic fantasy ), Robert Sheckley, Simonay Bernard, Jean-Michel Truong, Antoine Volodin (Inter Book Award 2000) , Bernard Werber … The list is long already !

Imaginales take place in the Parc du Cours, and some initiatives in several parts of the city. Many activities are offered, including literary cafes and roundtables, conferences and debates, exhibitions, films, animations … Signings in the Book Bubble (Bulle du Livre) are, among many other possibilities, opportunities for the public to meet the guest authors.

The Imaginales Awards were established in May 2002. Five awards’ categories are presented at the festival.

The oldest (established at the first festival in 2002) is the Imaginales Award that recognizes the best works of fantasy in various categories. Since 2004 the Claude Seignolle Award deals with folklore, and since 2007 the Another Earth (Une Autre Terre) Award is dedicated to “a book of anticipation putting a great emphasis on environmental concerns and on the concept of sustainable development”. The Imaginales High School’s Students Award and the Collegians Award are in turn judged by a panel of young readers from the schools and colleges in Lorraine.

The Imaginales Awards recognizes the best works of fantasy of the year in seven categories (1.000 euros for the first five categories, 500 euros for the last two):

• the Best Francophone Novel

• the Best Foreign Novel translated into French

• the Best Work for Youth

• the Best Illustration

• the Best Comics

• The Best Short Story

• the Jury Special Prize

The permanent jury is composed of:

• Jacques Grasser – President, Deputy Mayor of Epinal

• Jacques Baudou, Le Monde (daily) – literary critic

• Anne Besson, professor at the University of Artois

• Annaïg Houesnard, translator

• Jérôme Vincent, site manager of ActuSF

• Jean-Claude Vantroyen, the Belgian daily Le Soir head of culture departement

•Stéphane Wieser, director of the Imaginales festival

The 2014 Imaginales Award to be given on Saturday, May 30th, at 19h, within the Magic Mirror Pavilion :

Best Francophone Novel

“Manesh” by Stefan Platteau (Les Moutons Electriques Press).

Best Foreign Novel (translated into french)

“Comme un conte” (Some Kind of Fairy Tale) by Graham Joyce (UK) (translated by Louise Malagoli, Bragelonne Press).

Best Youth Novel

“La Voie des oracles” by Estelle Faye (Scrineo Press)

Best Illustration

Hélène Larbaigt for “L’étrange cabaret des fées désenchantées” (Mnémos « Ourobores »)

Best Short Story (translated into french)

Père-des-pierres

“Père-des-Pierres“/Stonefather by Orson Scott Card (US) (translated by Jean-Daniel Brèque, L’Atalante Press)

The Jury’s Special Award

Vincent Ferré for the study “Lire J.R.R. Tolkien“/Reading J.R.R. Tolkien (Pocket Press) and for the supervision of the new translation (by Daniel Lauzon, Christian Bourgois Press) of “Seigneur des Anneaux”/Lord of the Rings

http://www.imaginales.fr/pages/prix-imaginales

Organized by the City of Épinal, the Imaginales Festival has a lot of support , especially from the National Book Centre (Centre National du Livre), the Regional Direction of Cultural Affairs of Lorraine, the Regional Council of Lorraine, the Vosges General Council and from private partners.

The Imaginales is an ambitious and original concept (exploring all the territories of the imagination), designed to appeal to the widest audience. Cultural exchanges, intelectually passionate meetings, human contacts, friendliness ! Here the tone of the Imaginales !