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P-au-P, 14 from 2024 [AlterPresse] — Haitian writer Louis-Philippe Dalembert received, on Tuesday May 14, 2024, in Paris (France), the prestigious Goncourt poetry prize for all of his work, the jury announced in a press release including read the online agency AlterPresse.
The news is reported by Agence France Presse, which recalls that Dalembert was one of the four finalists for the 2021 Goncourt Prize for his novel “Milwaukee Blues”.
Louis-Philippe Dalembert is the author of around ten collections of poems. The latest, also published in 2021, is called “These islands of full salt and other poems” (Point editions).
Winner of several international literary prizes, Louis Philippe Dalembert, author of “Le Crayon du bon Dieu n’a pas de gum”, has written several other books in French and Creole, in the short story and novel categories, among others.
Born in a working-class neighborhood of Port-au-Prince in 1962, a child and teenager passionate about books, Louis-Philippe Dalembert graduated in journalism and had a doctorate in comparative literature in France.
He received the French Language Prize in 2019, awarded by a jury which included members of the Académie française and the Académie Goncourt.
This is the first time that a Haitian writer has won the Goncourt Prize for poetry.
During the last decade, several Haitian writers have taken part in the prestigious competition for the Goncourt. Lyonel Trouillot was a finalist in 2011 for “La belle amour humaine” (Actes Sud) and Mackenzy Orcel in 2022 for “Une Somme humaine” (Rivages).
In 1982, the Goncourt Short Story Scholarship was awarded to the Haitian writer René Dépestre for “Hallelujah for a Garden Woman,” Linguist-terminologist Robert Berrouët-Oriol reminded AlterPresse [[1]. [apr 14/05/2024 8:30]
[[1] The Library of the Americas has recorded on its site the following information on the Haitian authors, rewarded in the year 2021:
“The Center for the Francophonie of the Americas congratulates three essential authors of the Haitian literary landscape who are among the 65 winners of the Prizes awarded by the French Academy for the year 2021:
Mr. Frankétienne obtains the Grand Prix de la Francophonie, which crowns “the work of a French-speaking natural person who, in his country or on an international scale, will have contributed eminently to the maintenance and illustration of the French language1 “.
Madame Emmelie Prophète-Milcé has won one of the Prizes for the Outreach of French Language and Literature, awarded by the Broquette-Gonin Foundation, “intended for French or foreign personalities who have rendered special services to language and literature “. She thus received the vermeil medal as the 2021 winner.
Mr. Louis-Philippe Dalembert, recipient of the François Coppée Prize for his book of poetry “Cantique du babutiement”, is decorated with a silver medal as the 2021 winner.
