Lyonel Trouillot

Lyonel Trouillot

Lyonel Trouillot at a live broadcast from the Paris Book Fair, March 2010.
Born December 31, 1956
Port-au-Prince (Haiti)
Language French, Haitian Creole
Genre novels, poetry, song lyrics

Lionel Trouillot (born Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on December 31, 1956) is a novelist and poet in French and Haitian Creole, a journalist and a professor of French and Creole literature in Port-au-Prince.

Early life

Lyonel Trouillot was born in a family of lawyers.[1] The writer Évelyne Trouillot is his sister.[2] Following his parents' divorce in the late 1960s, he went to the United States with his mother. He returned to Haiti at age 19, in 1975.[3]

Between 1980-82, political repression forced Trouillot to emigrate to Miami.[1]

He studied at law, but he switched to literature early in his career.[1]

Career

Trouillot has contributed to different newspapers and magazines in Haiti. He has published poetry, and also writes song lyrics for such musical artists as Tambou Libète and Manno Charlemagne.

Trouillot is a co-editor of the journal Cahiers du Vendredi.

Along with his sister Evelyne Trouillat and her daughter Nadève Ménard, he founded a writer's organisation named Pré-Texte.[2]

In 2014 he wrote together with Raoul Peck and Pascal Bonitzer the script for Peck's feature film Murder in Pacot.

Politics

Trouillot is known for his services to democracy in his country, and for his resistance to the Haitian dictatorship. He was part of the Collective Non of intellectuals and artists that helped to force out the democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. He was a member of the transitional government following the departure of Aristide, as a cabinet minister of culture.[1]

Select bibliography

Novels

Poetry

Non-fiction

Awards and recognition

Trouillot was made a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2010.

In 2011, he was awarded the Prix Wepler for his novel Yanvalou pour Charlie.[4] For La Belle Amour humane, he was awarded the Grand Prix du Roman Métis (2011),[5] the Geneva Book Fair Literary Prize (2012),[6] and the Gitanjali Literary Prize (2012).[7]

In 2013, he was awarded the Prix Carbet de la Caraïbe et du Tout-Monde for his work, Parabole du failli.[8]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Olivia Marsaud (November 16, 2009). "Lyonel Trouillot : " Il n'y a d'écriture que politique "". Jeune Afrique. Retrieved December 25, 2013.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Edwidge Danticat (2005). "Evelyne Trouillot". Bomb magazine (90).
  3. "Lyonel Trouillot : Le bel ami humain". Arte TV. April 14, 2013.
  4. Soazig Quéméner (January 17, 2010). "On leur demande, foutre, de diriger!". Le Journal du Dimanche. Retrieved December 25, 2013.
  5. "Le Grand Prix du Roman Métis de la Ville de Saint-Denis" (in French). La Réunion des Livres. Retrieved December 25, 2013.
  6. "Lyonel Trouillot, Prix du Salon du livre de Genève 2012" (in French). Diasporas Noires. Retrieved December 25, 2013.
  7. "Le prix Gitanjali pour Lyonel Trouillot et Poomani". Le Magazine Litteraire (in French). December 11, 2012. Retrieved December 25, 2013.
  8. Dieulermesson Petit Frere (December 18, 2013). "Lyonel Trouillot, lauréat du Prix Carbet de la Caraïbe". Le Nouvelliste.