Conference-concert with Akira Mizubayashi

Listening to the music of a language, an instrument of peace

The Université Catholique de Lille is honored to welcome Akira Mizubayashi, a major Japanese writer in the French-language literary world and the 2025 Laureate of the Grand Prix de la Francophonie of the Académie Française.
Based in Tokyo, he writes directly in French and explores, throughout his works, the power of art and language as instruments of peace.

“Art in the face of violence, art as a universal form of sharing… In short, art against hatred.”
— Tahar Ben Jelloun

An exceptional literary and musical evening

Under the title “Listening to the Music of a Language, an Instrument of Peace,” Akira Mizubayashi — accompanied by Ken Sugita, violinist with the Orchestre National de Lille, and Jean-Christophe Lannoy, cellist at the Conservatoire de Lille — will engage in a conversation with Anne Prouteau about his work and his vision of language as a space for cultural reconciliation.
The evening will be interspersed with musical interludes — violin and cello — echoing his writings.

Program

• 6:00 pm – University Chapel
  Conversation between Akira Mizubayashi and Anne Prouteau, accompanied by four musical pieces inspired by his literary universe.
• 7:30 pm – Cocktail & Book Signing

This free event is organized by Les Humanités and is open to the public.

About Akira Mizubayashi

Akira Mizubayashi, born in 1951, is a Japanese writer and translator. He lives in Tokyo and writes directly in French. After studying at the National University of Foreign Languages and Civilizations in Tokyo (UNALCET), he traveled to France in 1973 and completed a teacher training program in French as a foreign language at Paul Valéry University in Montpellier. He returned to France in 1979 as a student at the École Normale Supérieure. From 1983 to 2017, he taught French at university in Tokyo.

His books have received numerous awards. Âme brisée won the 2020 Prix des Libraires and the 2021 Readers’ Prize of the Prix Littéraire des Musiciens. In 2024, Suite inoubliable — shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt, the Prix Littéraire Le Monde, and the Prix Giono — received the Prix Roman and the Readers’ Prize of the Prix Littéraire des Musiciens, as well as the Guy Bedouelle Literary Prize.

Photo credit : Francesca Mantovani