Two years ago, emlyon business school created a student literature association, Libr’Air. For the first time in its history, Libr’Air is launching a book fair on Lyon literature, in a digital format in this special health context!
Can you introduce yourself? What was your journey?
We are both members of the Libr’Air association, the literature association of the Emlyon business school. Louis created the association in 2018 and held the positions of vice-president and canvassing manager with the idea of creating a book fair and Andréa took over in 2019 as manager of the “book fair” project. . Both from preparatory classes, we wanted to share our passion for literature.
What led you to become part of Libr’air?
Louis helped create the association with the aim of sharing his passion for books while making it accessible to everyone, particularly business school students who very often stopped reading after admission to their school. Additionally, the school’s Arts Office had abandoned the literary aspect of its events. We felt like we were lacking cultural events, which Libr’Air has been trying to fill for two years now.
As for Andréa, she considers herself a bit of a “disgruntled literary person” and immediately saw Libr’Air as the ideal opportunity to share her passion and learn from other members. The “young” side of the association was also a major argument, because it meant that it could have responsibilities very quickly, but also that it would have significant room for maneuver during its mandate to create new events and develop more the association.
What differentiation do you want to bring to your mandate?
For Louis, the challenge was huge, because he and the other founders created everything from A to Z (with the support of the school’s Board of Directors of course). It was necessary to bring a theme forgotten at Emlyon up to date and come up with new ideas to stimulate student interest. Everything had to be done! They launched their first events, while maintaining a constant presence on campus to attract students to the association and keep it alive. When they created Libr’Air they expected and still expect to come back in 5 years and see all the work accomplished by the “new kids”.
For the second mandate, that of Andréa, the objective was to continue to develop the association starting from the foundations laid during the first mandate. We therefore continued to organize “Book’in(g)”, evenings of discussions and games around a literary theme. This is the first event created under Louis’ mandate, which initiated others such as literary popularization videos, cocktail evenings and writing competitions. The challenge for our mandate was to prove ourselves to show that we had our place in the associative landscape of emlyon and to prepare the ground so that the next mandate could see their status move from “student initiative” to a real association. .
What is your next event?
We are very happy to be able to present the first edition of the Libr’Air book fair, Les Plumes du Lyon! It will be offered in a digital version, due to COVID-19. This fair aims to highlight Lyon literature and the local book chain.
How has the current health situation changed this event?
The COVID situation initially plunged us into a lot of uncertainty for a long period of time. We had to develop several scenarios and constantly readjust our budget according to new regulations. Shortly before the second confinement, we decided to completely reinvent our event, moving from a traditional book fair with stands, signings, etc. to a 100% digital show on Facebook with conferences via Zoom and competitions to engage the public. We also had to establish a completely new program, because certain authors and publishers had some reservations about the dematerialized format. But fortunately many others trusted us and answered the call.
This situation even gave new meaning to our event, because it allows us to show our support for the local book chain in great difficulty faced with the closure of bookstores and traditional distribution channels. Thus, we have established a partnership with the Lyon bookstore La Virevolte which allows us to win books for participants of the event.
What are your future ambitions?
We hope that Les Plumes du Lyon will take place in physics next year with the ambition of bringing together around thirty authors. Our ultimate goal is for the show to take place every year and become an unmissable event in the Lyon cultural landscape.
How can people participate in your event?
The e-fair will take place from November 23 to November 28, it will alternate interviews with authors and live conferences on very varied themes (uchrony, the publishing profession, Manichaeism in fantasy, hatreds and friendships between writers …). You can follow the event throughout this week by clicking on this link: The interviews and conferences will also be available on YouTube shortly after the end of Les Plumes.
See you soon !
