About
Audrey Alwett
To marvel is already to resist.
A novelist and comics writer, Audrey Alwett is the author of the bestselling comics series Le Grimoire d’Elfie, Princesse Sara and Le Jardin des fées… As a novelist, she wrote the Magic Charly trilogy for young readers and Sainte Emmerderesse for adults. Her books have sold more than 2 million copies and are translated in 12 countries. She lives in Aix-en-Provence, a city of fountains and history, but feels she has always lived in Literature.
A life in literature
At five, Audrey Alwett dictated her pastoral adventures to her cousin, with a lavish use of the past historic. At eight, she filled whole notebooks with poems and cosmogonic tales. At eleven, she took French classes with Danielle Martinigol, a writer who transformed her relationship with writing.
While studying in Nantes, she published her first short story with ActuSF, followed by others in Lanfeust Mag and the literary review Harfang. She twice won the CROUS student short-story competition. Alongside this, she wrote for the regional daily press (Ouest-France, Presse Océan, L’Écho de la Presqu’île). After a first degree in classics, she earned a Master’s degree in literature specialising in poetic versification, before joining the Gottferdom artists’ studio to make writing her full-time profession.
Storytelling in all its forms fascinates her: a committed champion of the oral tradition, she spent several years as a storyteller. Passionate about 17th-century fairground theatre and the 19th-century novel as much as about the marvellous, she calls herself a Rabelaisian at heart.
Editor, teacher, critic
Publishing from the inside
A professional reader for a publishing house while still a student, Audrey Alwett soon moved to the other side of the desk and became an editor alongside her work as an author.
Series editor
In 2008, having noticed that female readers were almost entirely overlooked in comics, she created the twin imprint BlackBerry and Strawberry at Soleil (now Delcourt). She published authors such as Aurore, Rutile, Rebecca Morse and Beatrice Penco Sechi…
A few years later, she founded the self-published authors’ label Bad Wolf, which later became a fantasy imprint at ActuSF. Its first authors were Christophe Arleston, Isabelle Bauthian, Alex Evans and Morgan of Glencoe.
Literary critic
For several years, she wrote columns for Lanfeust Mag, mostly reviews of novels and comics.
Illustration © Alessandro Barbucci
Passing it on
Être bien édité
From this experience came a masterclass for authors who are starting out, or who were disappointed by a first publication: understanding the publishing system, choosing a publisher, reading a contract… In short: building a peaceful career.
In partnership with Cécile Duquenne’s École d’écriture 2.0.
Commitments
Standing up for authors and for children’s literature
For authors
From 2014 to 2018, she sat on the steering committee of SNAC BD, the French comics authors’ union. In 2018, she was one of the founders of the Ligue des auteurs professionnels.
In 2016, she published the article “Dit-on auteur, auteure ou autrice ?” on her blog, calling for the return of the feminine word autrice. It was read more than 200,000 times, sparked a debate across France and was picked up by many media outlets.
Since 2017, she has also been a member of the Collectif des créatrices de BD contre le sexisme (women comics creators against sexism), for which she wrote the article “Le plafond de verre, c’est pas moi, c’est les autres”.
For young readers
From 2015 to 2017, she sat on the French Ministry of Justice’s commission overseeing publications for young people.
For young adult fiction
On the blog L’horizon et l’infini, she writes portraits of authors who lead the way in young adult fiction, to help this field gain institutional standing and recognition.
She is also the producer of the documentary L’Art de Nora Moretti, made in 2025.
Watch the documentaryEssays
Pieces on the history of the French language and literature, and on equality, including “Auteur, auteure ou autrice ?” (in French).
In pictures
HD photos in the professionals’ area
