Networking: the Palais de la Porte Dorée launches its first literary festival in September 2026.

From September 25 to 27, 2026, the Palais de la Porte Dorée will host its first literary festival, Maillage. For a weekend, literature in all its forms takes over the landmark, from the Museum of the History of Immigration to the Tropical Aquarium, with a lineup of numerous authors and programming accessible to everyone. A natural continuation for a venue that has already been presenting a literary prize for more than 15 years.

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Migrations, memory, exile, plural identities, environmental challenges—these are the themes the Palais de la Porte Dorée explores year-round, and they’ll be reflected in the books by the authors present, from novels to comics. The Salon des laques becomes the Bureau of Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, winner of the Porte Dorée Literary Prize in 2018 and the 2021 Goncourt Prize. There he will share his ideal library, present an unreleased piece written for the festival, and offer one-on-one conversations with artists who inspire him.

The Forum of the Palais de la Porte Dorée transforms into a sprawling Story Factory, a participatory space with a stage open to associations and book clubs, a short-story contest, and the creation of a collaborative visual artwork. In the auditorium, the Literary Stage hosts performances at the festival’s opening and closing, such as the Ode to Joy by poet Kiyémis or a sung-and-drawn reading based on C’était notre terre by Mathieu Belezi.

A series of encounters will allow the public to discover the twelve authors and graphic novelists shortlisted for the Porte Dorée 2026 literary and comics prizes. A major joint interview, produced in partnership with Festival America, will bring together for the first time Dinaw Mengestu and Mohamed Mbougar Sarr for a dialogue across the Atlantic.

Also on the agenda: storytelling sessions in the Tropical Aquarium, comic-book and writing workshops, and a literary walking tour tracing the 1931 colonial exhibition proposed by Kévi Donat (Le Paris Noir). The full program is not yet announced, and tickets are not yet on sale.