« C‘is a recognition to be the invited publisher at the comedy of the book, this great festival watched by the whole of France and by Paris. But it is also the recognition of the guys and girls in the country where we chose to settle 25 years ago »welcomes Marion Mazauric, founder of the independent publishing house at the Diable Vauvert, honored for this 40e Edition of the Comedy of the Book. « It was a little crazy bet that some, at the time, had to look with a lot of doubt and amazement »adds Régis Penalva, artistic director of the literary festival. « Indeed there are 25 years, some things were not obvious to everyone, or in what we published, nor in the place where we did it »confirms Marion Mazauric.
For a quarter of a century, it has been in Camargue Gardoise, in the heart of rural France, that the devil has been working to open genres and have new voices of writers emerged from pop-cultures. « We publish a very open catalog on contemporary cultures : punk, science fiction, imagination, all queer cultures, hip-hop, urban cultures … An urban catalog, rock-and-roll, nonconformist, feminist, which focuses on all minorities, from bullfighting to gay culture », summarizes its founder.
« A haven of editorial freedom »
-An act of resistance in a department, the Gard, which has become one of the main fiefs of the national rally. « Somewhere, each book we read works in the right sense the humanity of these places », Consider Marion Mazauric.
From the Devil Vauvert publishes, since its beginnings, certain great precursors of counter-cultures such as the poet of the poor Charles Bukowski, the iconic philosopher Angela Davis, the great voice of the Afrofuturism Octavia E. Butler or even the snipers of Anglo-Saxon literature, Douglas Coupland, Irvine Welsh and John King. « Marion Mazauric was also one of the first in the French literary universe to take seriously, as a generalist editor, the literature components of the imaginary, science fiction, fantasy, etc. “, underlines Penalva Régis. The house has also set the mission « to defend impertinent young French people » Like Nicolas Rey, Régis de Sà Moreira and Thomas Gunzig. In an increasingly concentrated sector, « She knew how to stand out and never lose her soul as an apprentice witch. Witness its latest creation, the eco -feminist collection “Nouvelles moons”, led by Élise Thiébaut », describes the artistic director of the comedy of the book.
« We gathered a catalog of writers that we wanted to support in the long term. Maybe that’s the great reward after 25 years : having succeeded in creating a haven of editorial freedom for a hundred authors who are continuing their work regardless of all the standards weighing. It is not nothing in the current context of publishing, where 80% of the market is under the control of industrial capital, with the ideological, economic and pressure risks that it can suppose. This space is more and more precious »estimates Marion Mazauric. « The idea, for the future, is not to grow but to continue. And the time commits us to do it more and more firmly. »
