Camille Bordas (born 1987) is a French and American writer and academic. Her writing has been published in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Tin House, Chicago Magazine, and LitHub.
Early life Bordas was born in Lyon and grew up in Mexico City. Her father was an engineer who moved frequently for work, bringing the family with him. She also lived for a time in Paris and near the French Alps . She is the youngest of four children. She studied anthropology, photography, and art history.
Career Bordas published her first novel, Les treize desserts, in 2009, at the age of 22. It is a coming-of-age story about a young orphan who sets out on a journey in search of her own identity. It won the Prix Jean-Claude-Izzo and the Bourse Thyde-Monnier from the Société des gens de lettres.
Her second novel, Partie commune, was published in 2011, and tells the story of a theater director and his troupe who purchase a home with the hopes of turning it into a theater. It won the Prix du deuxième roman in 2012, and was nominated for the Prix du roman Fnac.
She began writing in English at the suggestion of her husband, Adam Levin, and found that it enabled her to distance herself from the characters. Her first novel in English, How to Behave in a Crowd, was published in 2017. It tells the story an eleven-year-old boy in a family of gifted individuals, who notices things his other family members do not. She translated the novel into French herself. It was released in France in 2019 under the title Isidore et les autres.
Her second novel in English, The Material, was released in 2024. It tells the story of one day in the life of students and faculty members in a fictional MFA program for stand-up comedy at a Chicago university. Bordas translated the novel into French herself, and it was published in France in 2025 under the title Des inconnus à qui parler.
Bordas was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2024.
In 2026, a collection of her short fiction, One Sun Only, was released.
For several years, she was an assistant professor at the University of Florida. She was the Visiting Blackburn Artist-in-Residence at Duke University for the 2025–26 academic year.
Personal life Bordas is married to writer Adam Levin, who she met at a reception for the Prix du roman Fnac. She moved to the United States in 2012. She is a fan of the football team Olympique de Marseille and the TV show The Sopranos. She lives in Chicago, and is a naturalized United States citizen.
Bibliography
Novels
Reviews of How to Behave in a Crowd:
Short fiction Collection
StoriesShort stories unless otherwise noted. TitleYearFirst publishedReprinted/collectedNotesMost Die Young2017One Sun Only, 2026The Presentation on Egypt2019One Sun Only, 2026Only Orange2019"Only Orange". The New Yorker. 95 (41): 76–83. 23 December 2019.One Sun Only, 2026The Lottery in Almería2021"The Lottery in Almería," The Paris Review No. 237, Summer 2021.One Sun Only, 2026Offside Constantly2021"Offside Constantly". The New Yorker. 28 June 2021.One Sun Only, 2026One Sun Only2022"One Sun Only". The New Yorker. 7 March 2022. One Sun Only, 2026Colorín Colorado2023"Colorín Colorado." The New Yorker, 3 July 2023.One Sun Only, 2026Understanding the Science2025"Understanding the Science." The New Yorker, 15 December 2025.One Sun Only, 2026
References