Maryse Condé

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Maryse Condé (born 1930) is a Guadeloupean, French language author of historical fiction, best known for her novel Segu (1984-1985). Maryse Condé was born as Maryse Boucolon at Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, the youngest of eight children. In 1953, her parents sent her to study at Lycée Fénelon and Sorbonne in Paris, where she majored in English. In 1959, she married Mamadou Condé, an Guinean actor. After graduating, she taught in Guinea, Ghana, and Senegal. In 1981, she divorced, but the following year married Richard Philcox, English language translator of most of her novels.

Condé's novels explore racial, gender, and cultural issues in a variety of historical eras and locales, including the Salem witch trials in I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem (1992) and the 19th century Bambara Empire of Mali in Segu (1987).

In addition to her writings, Condé had a distinguished academic career. In 2004 she retired from Columbia University as Professor Emeritus of French. She had previously taught at the University of California, Berkeley, UCLA, the Sorbonne, The University of Virginia, and the University of Nanterre.

In March of 2007, Condé was the keynote speaker at Franklin College Switzerland's Caribbean Unbound III conference, in Lugano, Switzerland.

[edit] Bibliography

• Heremakhonon (1976)
• I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem (1986)
• Segu (1987)
• A Season in Rihata (1988)
• The Children of Segu (1989)
• Tree of Life (1992)
• Crossing the Mangrove (1995)
• The Last of the African Kings (1997)
• Windward Heights (1998)
• Desirada (1998)
• Le coeur à rire et à pleurer - Souvenirs de mon enfance (1999)
• Who Slashed Celanire's Throat?: A Fantastical Tale (2004)
• The Story of the Cannibal Woman: A Novel (2007)

[edit] External links

• Mekkawi, Mohamed. [Maryse Condé: http://www.howard.edu/library/Assist/Guides/conde.htm Novelist, Playwright, Critic, Teacher: An Introductory Biobibliography]. Washington, D.C.: Howard University Libraries, 1990.
• Biography