Among the writers invited to the second edition of the Francophone Book Encounters, there is the Goncourt 2021 prize for his book “The Most Secret Memory of Men”. The Senegalese Mohamed Mbougar Sarr led a writing workshop this Friday, March 3. Budding authors, poets, or simply curious, all were eager to listen to the writer’s advice.
Among them, Nuru, a young 23-year-old Congolese: “I find it really inspiring to have role models”. How to recount a memory or overcome a writing block. He shares his experience with the assembly before leaving the field free to the imagination of his students for the day: “We did a writing exercise from a photo. It was a very bizarre exercise, but one that was really inspiring. Me, I came across a photo of my colleagues who were celebrating a birthday. I wrote a short text. It really gave me a lot of ideas.”
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr joined during these four days about fifteen other invited authors, an opportunity for the writer to discover new talents: “It is extremely stimulating to say to oneself that there are not only the writers of the African diaspora but also writers who live on the continent and who also have these projects. We already knew that, but meeting them, and talking to them here, gives me a lot of hope for creation on the African continent”.