Frankétienne
| Frankétienne | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born |
April 12, 1936 Ravine-Sèche, Haiti |
| Occupation | Writer, poet, playwright, painter, musician |
| Notable awards | Commander 'Ordre des Arts et Lettres' (2010) |
Frankétienne (born Franck Étienne on April 12, 1936 in Ravine-Sèche, Haiti) is a Haitian writer, poet, playwright, painter, musician, activist and intellectual.[1][2] He is recognized as one of Haiti's leading writers and playwrights of both French and Haitian Creole,[3] and is “known as the father of Haitian letters”.[4] As a painter, he is known for his colorful abstract works, often emphasizing the colors blue and red. He was a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2009, made a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et Lettres (Order of the Arts and Letters), and was named UNESCO Artist for Peace in 2010.[1][5]
Early life
Frankétienne was born in Ravine-Sèche, a small village in Haiti. He was abandoned by his father, a rich American industrialist,[2][4] at a young age and was raised by his mother in the Bel Air neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, where she worked as a street merchant to support her eight children, managing to send him, who was the eldest, to school.[2]
Selected works
- Au Fil du Temps, a compilation of poems
- Ultravocal, a novel
- Pèlin Tèt, a play written in Haitian Creole
- Dézafi, a novel about life during under the Duvalier regime, the first ever in Haitian Creole[6]
- Mûr à Crever, a novel
- Les Affres d'un Défi, a novel
- Désastre (12 janvier 2010), painting
- Difficile émergence vers la lumière, painting
References
- 1 2 "Frankétienne". Poetry Translation Centre. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
- 1 2 3 Glover, Kaiama. "Francketienne" (PDF). Hutchins Center for African & African American Research. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
- ↑ Douglas, Rachel (2009-06-16). Frankétienne and Rewriting: A Work in Progress. ISBN 9780739136355. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
- 1 2 Archibold, Randal C. "A Prolific Father of Haitian Letters, Busier Than Ever". The New York Times. p. A5. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
- ↑ "Haitian writer Frankétienne named UNESCO Artist for Peace". United Nations.
- ↑ P. Schutt-Ainé, Haiti: A Basic Reference Book, 103
External links
- Frankétienne author profile on Prince Claus Foundation site
- Île en île: Frankétienne author file (in French), with biography, bibliography, and audio
Further reading
- Douglas, Rachel. Frankétienne and Rewriting: A Work in Progress. New York: Lexington Books, 2009.
- Glover, Kaiama L. Haiti Unbound: A Spiralist Challenge to the Post-Colonial Canon. Liverpool, UK: Liverpool University Press, 2010.
- Jonassaint, Jean. “Frankétienne, Écrivain haïtien,” Dérives 53/54 (1987)
- Schutt-Ainé, Patricia; Staff of Librairie Au Service de la Culture (1994). Haiti: A Basic Reference Book. Miami, Florida: Librairie Au Service de la Culture. p. 103. ISBN 0-9638599-0-0.