Marseille – From April 10 to 12, 2026, the event Effets Réels will take place between Marseille and Aix-en-Provence, the first international festival in France entirely dedicated to non-fiction literature. Part of the program of the Aix Biennale 2026, it is organized by the Effets Réels Association and the Italian Cultural Institute of Marseille in collaboration with Aix-Marseille University. This inaugural edition turns its focus to the northern Mediterranean—France, Italy, Spain, and Catalonia—with particular attention to Ukraine and to writing as a bastion of truth in times of war. Memory and oblivion, conflict, identity, exile, and civic engagement lie at the heart of dialogues, meetings, and performances that weave connections between the personal and the collective, the past and the present. Italy, the guest country of honor at the 2026 Biennale, will play a central role in the festival, with the participation of numerous Italian authors and an opening evening on Friday, April 10 at the Italian Cultural Institute of Marseille, dedicated to literature and conviviality. At 4:00 pm, Strega Prize winner Helena Janeczek will discuss the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction. At 5:00 pm, memory and migration will be explored with Sylvie Tanette, who will retrace the marks left by migration through the story of her Calabrian-Sardinian family, settled in Marseille since the last century. Starting at 6:30 pm, a collective storytelling gathering will invite participants to share a real episode from their own lives. These stories will be anonymously recorded by François Beaune and his sound technician and may become part of the Histoires vraies collection. A participatory experience in which anyone present can become a storyteller. (9colonne)