Autumn Letters

Literary Festival #36

The unmissable literary event 17 to 29 November 2026

Since 1991, Lettres d’Automne has been a highlight of late November in Occitanie, transforming Montauban and the surrounding region into a veritable literary capital. This one-of-a-kind festival celebrates the richness of contemporary French-language and international creative works every year, offering two weeks of events centred around a theme and featuring several guests of honour.

Updated on 4 September 2026

Theme for 2026:

creative non-fiction

In November, Montauban will once again be buzzing with the Lettres d’automne festival!

Full programme to be published shortly

Full programme to follow

Guests of Honour 2026

Justine Augier and Christophe Boltanski

For this latest edition, Lettres d’Automne welcomes two guests of honour: Justine Augier and Christophe Boltanski. Their work perfectly embodies the spirit of this year’s chosen theme, creative non-fiction – a thriving hybrid literary genre that blends fiction, documentary, autobiographical inquiry, reportage and poetry.

Their books explore family memory, exile and the transmission of stories between the personal and the collective, whilst examining literature’s power to bear witness to the world. This bold theme will provide an opportunity to examine the boundaries between genres and to explore the new ways in which contemporary literature engages with reality.

Alongside these two leading authors, the festival will bring together numerous French and international writers for over 150 events across some twenty venues in Montauban, remaining true to the popular and international ethos that has made Lettres d’Automne famous since 1991.

Official website

A festival of words, but also of numbers...

A festival that is constantly evolving

Lettres d’Automne continues to flourish year after year. Organised by the Confluences association, each edition of the festival offers two weeks of events, readings, debates and writing workshops across some twenty venues in Montauban: media centres, independent bookshops, theatres, schools, cafés and public spaces. These figures demonstrate the scale of this major cultural event and its strong roots in the region’s educational and social fabric.

An exceptional literary legacy

Over the years, the festival has been proud to welcome the leading voices of contemporary Francophone literature. Guests of honour at previous editions have included renowned authors such as Marie-Hélène Lafon (2025), Jakuta Alikavazovic and Sylvain Prudhomme (2024), Maylis de Kerangal (2023), Alice Zeniter and Pierre Ducrozet (2022), and Mathias Enard (2021), all of whom attest to the high standards and prestige of this literary event.