The Firsts

Xabi Molia was born in Bayonne, France, in 1977. After studying literature, he wrote a dissertation on Hollywood disaster films for his doctorate in film studies. Molia taught at the Université de Poitiers until 2011, when he left to pursue his career as a novelist and filmmaker full-time. He has directed three feature films and has published numerous books, including six novels. His latest novel, Des Jours sauvages [Wild Days], which tells the story of a group of French stranded on an island after an epidemic ravages the mainland, was published in France in Fall 2020.

Alexander Hertich is Professor of French and Chair of World Languages and Cultures at Bradley University. His translation of René Belletto's novel Dying, which was a finalist for the French-American Foundation Annual Translation Prize, was published by Dalkey Archive Press. His translation of Patrik Ourednik's novel The End of the World Might Not Have Taken Place, also with Dalkey Archive Press, was released in 2020. Other translations include works by Simone de Beauvoir, Étienne Balibar, Nicolas Bouyssi, and Christian Gailly. In addition to translation, he is an active literary scholar and has published in French and English on Patrick Modiano, Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Marie NDiaye, Frédéric Beigbeder, and Raymond Queneau as well as other contemporary French writers.