Constance Debré
Constance Debré will spend the summer semester 2025 as Samuel Fischer Guest Professor at the Peter Szondi Institute of the FU Berlin. Constance was born in 1972 and worked as a lawyer before devoting herself full-time to writing. She has published four novels to date: Play Boy (Stock, 2018), Love Me Tender (Flammarion, 2020), Nom (Flammarion, 2022), Offenses (Flammarion, 2023).
I believe opposition is at the core of writing, writing is always writing against (death, the world, the constant defeat in any existence…), and because I believe individuals, self and style, are always a proposition against all the other propositions.
Constance Debré
With her sharp eye for identity, freedom and social constraints, Constance Debré has taken the international literary scene by storm. Now she is bringing her unmistakable style to Freie Universität Berlin as a S. Fischer guest professor in the summer semester of 2025.
She gained international attention through her radical break with her previous life as a lawyer in the Parisian bourgeoisie and her uncompromising exploration of identity, freedom and social norms. She achieved her literary breakthrough in 2018 with Play Boy, an astute and provocative reflection on her departure from social expectations, which also marks the beginning of her new stage of life. With Love Me Tender (2020), she deepened the themes of freedom and loss by taking up the conflicts surrounding motherhood and the self-determination of a queer woman in a literary way. Her most recent work Nom (2022) also remains governed by a minimalist, precise style. Critics praise Debré’s idiosyncratic narrative style, which at times shines a light on queer love with brutal directness and then again with quiet emotionality.
Seminar WRITING AGAINST
« What’s wrong with the world? I am. »
Constance Debré will offer the course “WRITING AGAINST” at the Freie Universität Berlin and will reinterpret the Chesterton quote “What’s wrong with the World? – I am.” under the theme of resistance.
The focus is on the idea that writing is an act of resistance – against conventions, rules, expectations or the world itself. The course is based on the reinterpretation of the Chesterton quote . “What’s wrong with the world? – I am.” becomes ‘The world is wrong, therefore I am’ – as a basis for writing from an individual perspective.
The seminar will be held in English.
Upcoming Event
June 18: Constance Debré and Miryam Schellbach at daadgalerie
What does it mean to capture an aesthetic in literature—not as ornament, but as a way of thinking, a method of structuring the world, a means of approaching truth through form? How can language—structured, selective—approach something essential about existence?
These are among the questions that French writer Constance Debré will explore in an evening dedicated to literary aesthetics. Debré first gained wide attention with Play Boy (2018), a provocative and sharply observant novel. In Love Me Tender (2020), she expanded her focus on themes of freedom and loss. Her most recent book, Nom (2022), continues her commitment to form and minimalism.
Critics have praised her voice for its unusual combination of austerity and emotional resonance—at times brutal in its directness, at others quietly lyrical. Topics such as motherhood, family, and sexuality appear in her writing not as subjects to be explored, but as part of the landscape.
In conversation with Miryam Schellbach, editor and literary critic, Debré will reflect on the function of fiction, the demands of form, and the role of style as a mode of thought. The event will be held in English. Free admission.
Events
On May 6, Constance Debre will give her inaugural lecture at the Freie Universität Berlin.
The public event will take place on June 18 at the DAAD Gallery in Berlin.
She will also be at the Institut français Berlin on 28 April for the German book premiere of Playboy. More info here.
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Inaugural Lecture
Books
