Virginie Despentes is a writer, filmmaker, and noted French feminist critic. She is the author of many award-winning books, including King Kong Theory, Apocalypse Baby (winner of the 2010 Prix Renaudot), and the Vernon Subutex trilogy (shortlisted for the 2018 International Booker Prize). She co-directed the screen adaptations of her controversial novels Baise-Moi and Bye Bye Blondie, and served as screenwriter for the adaptation of her novel Pretty Things.
Sian Reynolds has translated many books on French history, including most of the works of Fernand Braudel. Recent translations include fiction by Virginie Despentes, Antonin Varenne and French crime novelist, Fred Vargas. Four Vargas translations have been awarded the Crime Writers’ Association International Dagger (2006, 2007, 2009, 2013). She is professor emerita of French at the University of Stirling, Scotland.
Frank Wynne is a literary translator. Born in Ireland, he moved to France in 1984 where he discovered a passion for language working as a bookseller in Paris. He began translating literature in the late 1990s before deciding to devote himself to this full time. He has translated works by Michel Houellebecq, Frédéric Beigbeder, Ahmadou Kourouma, Boualem Sansal, Claude Lanzmann, and Almudena Grandes. His work has earned him several awards, including the Scott Moncrieff Prize and the Premio Valle Inclán. Most recently, his translation of Vernon Subutex by Virginie Despentes was shortlisted for the Man Booker International 2018. In 2022 his translation of The Art of Losing by Alice Zeniter won the Dublin Literary Award.