For writers, artists, and intellectuals from around the world, Paris, a city where ideas linger in cafés and drift through the narrow streets of the Latin Quarter, has long-served as a haven for free thought and creative expression.
In the 1920s, Paris became a vibrant hub for the Lost Generation that included Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, and Ezra Pound.
In the 1960s, Paris continued to attract expatriate writers such as James Baldwin, Richard Wright, and Chester Himes, who sought creative freedom and escape from racial discrimination in the United States and found refuge in the city’s intellectual and artistic circles.
In 2025, writers still flock here, drawn by the city’s openmindedness, dynamism and diversity. This photo essay captures some highlights of literary Paris, looking back in time as well as to AUP’s own students in their writing element as they become the new generation of writers and creative thinkers working between languages and cultures in the City of Light.
Paris has long been home to literary salons and artistic circles. Many contemporary writers and thinkers still adopt this model to encourage discussion and exchange.
1. The Salon of Victor Hugo (1802-85), 21 rue de Clichy, illustration from La Chronique Illustrée
2. In Paris, you will find people reading everywhere, in parks, on the metro, and even walking down the street.
3. The iconic Shakespeare and Company Bookstore was founded by Sylvia Beach. Featured here is the original bookstore located at 8, rue Dupuytren from 1919 to 1921. From the right: Ernest Hemingway, Sylvia Beach, and two friends.
4. From Café de Flore to Les Deux Magot, the famous eateries of Paris often doubled as lieux for intellectual exchange and meeting places for the literary greats. Still today, students may spend hours at their local café reading, writing and observing their surroundings.
5. The 1980s have arrived, and new student publications like The Planet, L’Esprit, Scripta Politica and Paris/Atlantic signal the rise of student journalists, fiction writers and poets on campus.
6. Today, our community produces more than 12 magazines, journals and creative works. Students serve as writers, journalists, editors, producers, videographers and podcasters, laying the foundation for rich international careers.
7. In 2025, AUP’s literary season included a visit from Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri
8. In 2025, the Writer’s Retreat at the Royaumont Abbey, just 30 km outside Paris, offered students a moment to reflect, recenter and collaborate. Transported by 13th century architecture and a community of resident writers and artists, students unlocked new inspiration for their work.
9. Author and guest lecturer Guadalupe Nettel led AUP students on a tour of Père Lachaise Cemetery, a final resting place for the world’s literary elite.
10. A destination for tourists and travelling authors alike, Shakespeare and Company remains a literary landmark where anyone may attend book readings and signings.
11. Some things in Paris never change. The banks of the Seine are lined with bouquinistes, sellers of used or antiquarian books, postcards and souvenirs.
