Alert! The top contender for the most prestigious literary prize in France, the Prix Goncourt, this year, is French-Senegalese author Marie NDiaye, whose latest work is Trois Femmes Puissantes (Three Powerful Women).
NDiaye was born and raised in France to Senegalese parents; she first visited Africa when she was in her twenties. According to Wikipedia, she published her first novel, Quant au riche avenir, when she was only 17 and she won the Prix Femina in 2001 for her novel Rosie Carpe.
The Prix Goncourt comes with a nominal cash award, but “ensures the winner celebrity status and a boost in sales“.
In a historic first, a black woman writer is a hot favourite to scoop France’s top literary prize next week for a haunting novel on family, betrayal and the hellish ordeal of illegal migration from Africa.
French-Senegalese writer Marie NDiaye, 42, is a frontrunner among the eight authors shortlisted for the Goncourt, the most prestigious of France’s annual crop of literary prizes which is to be announced November 2.
NDiaye published her first novel while still at school, aged 17, and has since carved out a place in the French pantheon as a novelist, screenwriter and the only living playwright in the repertoire of the Comedie Francaise.
Here’s a video clip (in French) in which Marie NDiaye discusses Trois femmes puissantes:
Video: Marie NDiaye on her latest novel
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysGlM76xnn4[/youtube]
Good luck to NDiaye!
Photo courtesy lepoint.fr
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November 2nd, 2009 @16:01 #
...and NDiaye has indeed taken the Prix Goncourt:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/nov/02/black-woman-prix-goncourt