Auckland Writers Festival 2026: In Conversation with Alexandra Lapierre
Date: Friday 15 May 2026 Time: 10:00am – 11:00am Venue: Limelight Room, Aotea Centre, Auckland Supported by the Embassy of France
Alexandra Lapierre is a bestselling French novelist, biographer and short story writer. Educated at the Sorbonne and in the US, she has earned some of France’s highest literary honours. Her biography Fanny Stevenson (about the life of Robert Louis Stevenson’s wife) won the Grand Prix des Lectrices de ELLE, and her historical novel Artemisia (about the Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi) became an international bestseller. Her most recent work, The Very Secretive and Passionate Stella Miles Franklin, brings to vivid life the bold young Australian woman who battled misogyny in the literary world.
I had the privilege of interviewing Alexandra at this year’s Auckland Writers Festival, and what a conversation it was. The subjects of her books are all intelligent, charismatic, intellectually hungry women who defied society’s expectations: Belle Greene (my fav), Artemisia, Stella Miles Franklin, Fanny Stevenson. I could say the same about Alexandra herself. An absolute privilege and a joy.
