Cross-readings: Laurent Demoulin, Marina Skalova, Karim Kattan, Mary-Laure Zoss & Bo Rainotte

Laurent Demoulin teaches at the University of Liège in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures. He is the author of the pamphlet L’Hypocrisie pédagogique, a study on Francis Ponge titled Une rhétorique par objets, and about ten poetry books including Filiation, Trop tard, Même mort, Palimpseste insistant, Ulysse Lumumba, and Poésie (presque) incomplète (Maurice Carême Prize, 2019). He co-published Petites Mythologies liégeoises with Jean-Marie Klinkenberg and conducted interviews with Jacques Dubois in Tout le reste est littérature. His novel Robinson won the Rossel Prize in 2017.

Marina Skalova is a writer and literary translator from Russia and Germany. She is the author of six books, published by Héros-Limite, les Lisières, l'Arche and le Seuil, which fall somewhere between poetry, theater and essays. Her work has been translated in several countries, notably South America, and performed on various European stages. Her next book, Le corps cille, a trilingual book of poetry, will be published by Héros-Limite in 2025. For her, literary translation is a physical, organic practice. In poetry, she has translated, prefaced and composed the anthology Tu es l'avenir by Galina Rymbu (Vanloo, 2023), Verdicts by Lida Youssoupova for éditions zoème (2023) and Parti sans laisser d'adresse by Levin Westermann for Cheyne (2025).

Karim Kattan is a writer from Bethlehem, Palestine. He writes fiction, essays, and poetry in both English and French. His latest novel, L’Eden à l’aube, was published in 2024 by Elyzad. He recently released Hortus Conclusus, a poetry collection published by L’extrême contemporain.

Born in 1955 in Vaulion, Switzerland, Mary-Laure Zoss lives and works in Lausanne. She published Le Noir du ciel with Éditions Empreintes, a collection that won the C.-F. Ramuz Poetry Prize in 2006 and the L-A Finances Foundation Poetry Prize in 2008. With Cheyne, she published Entre chien et loup jetés (Charmettes / Jean-Jacques Rousseau Prize, 2008), Où va se terrer la lumière (2010), Une syllabe, battant de bois (2012), and Au soleil, haine rouée (2014). She also released an artist’s book titled Route with Les éditions du frau (2012), and has published texts in several literary journals, including Revue de Belles-Lettres, N4728 (Angers), and Fario (Paris).

Bo Rainotte was born in Verviers and adopted by Brussels upon reaching adulthood, where he graduated from the Conservatory. He is an actor, techno MC, performer for Fondation Sonore, hip-hop, French and philosophy teacher, and lingerie model. He kept adding feathers to his wings until 2016, when he created the Biche de Ville account on social media to make his poetry accessible. He directed the film Veux Moi, then wrote and composed Kevin, a unique electro-pop-clash album interspersed with spoken word interludes. Author, composer, performer, director, actor, and multidisciplinary artist, Bo is a Swiss army knife of meaning. A punk poet and artivist, he writes out loud what we live in silence. His poetry is intimate, multifaceted, and free. BICHE BOY, his first book, which he also adapted into a solo stage performance, was published in 2025 by maelstrÖm reEvolution.