Dany Laferrière in conversation with Olivier Barrot
Novelist, essayist, poet, and journalist (born in 1953 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti), winner of the prestigious Prix Medicis, Dany Laferrière is the first Haitian, Canadian, and Québécois to be elected to the Académie française. Laferrière has established himself as one of the premiere chroniclers of the immigrant experience and one of the finest novelists of his generation. His first novel, Comment faire l'amour avec un Nègre sans se fatiguer (1985; tr. How to Make Love to a Negro Without Getting Tired, 1987) was a surprise commercial success. It was followed by Éroshima (1987; tr. Eroshima, 1991), L'odeur du café (Prix Carbet de la Caraïbe, 1991; tr. An Aroma of Coffee, 1993), Le Goût des jeunes filles (1992; tr. Dining with the Dictator, 1995), Pays sans chapeau (1996, tr. Down Among the Dead Men, 1997), La chair du Maître (1997), Dans l'oeil du cyclone (1999), Le Cri des oiseaux fous (2000) and Vers le sud (2006). He also wrote a collection of poetry, Chronique de la dérive douce (1994; tr. A Drifting Year, 1997) and a memoir titled Le Charme des après-midi sans fin (1997). Later works include Je suis fatigué (2000), Je suis un écrivain japonais (2009; tr. I am a Japanese Writer, 2010) (winner of the Grand Prix littéraire international Metropolis bleu, 2009), La fête des morts (2009), L’Énigme du retour (2009; tr. The Return, 2010) (winner of the Prix Médicis, 2009), Tout bouge autour de moi (2010; tr. The World Is Moving Around Me), L’Art Presque perdu de ne rien faire (2011), Journal d’un écrivain en pyjama (2013), and Tout ce qu'on ne te dira pas(2015).
In French
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