Dany Laferrière

On 13th April 1953, Dany Laferriere was born in Port au Prince, Haiti. He grew up in the village of Petit Goave, Haiti. After his studies, he started working in journalism in a newspaper and on radio, mostly as a cultural reporter. During the reign of the Duvalier life wasn't easy and as a journalist he often criticized the government. In 1976 after the death of his friend and colleague, Gasner Raymond, fearing for his safety he left Port-au-Prince for Montreal, Canada, where he found work, and also started to write. His first novel was published in 1985: Comment faire l'amour avec un negre sans se fatiguer, How to Make Love to a Negro Without Getting Tired. Also at the same time, he renewed with journalism in different television station in the province of Quebec. From 1990 to 2002, he and his family left Montreal, Canada for Miami, USA where he lived for 10 months out of every year. He has published many novels and received many literary prizes. In 1991, he received le Prix Carbet de la Caraibe, (Ce prix distingue l'oeuvre de fiction ou de reflexion la plus remarquable dans le monde des Caraibes et des Ameriques) for his novel, L'Odeur du cafe. In 1993, he received the Prix Edgar-Lesperance for his novel pour Le Gout des jeunes filles. He published Chronique de la derive douce (1994) which told of his first year in Montreal. In 2002 he received the Prix RFO du Livre for: Cette Grenade dans la main du jeune negre est-elle une arme ou un fruit ? In 2004 he directed his first film from his script: Comment conquerir l'Amerique en une nuit which was shown at Montreal Festival des Films du monde. Seven of his books have been translated into English, and some also have been translated into Spanish, Korean, Swedish. He is one of the rare writers of his generation to be as well known in English or French Canada. He has adapted and collaborated on movie scripts for most of his novels. As for example Voodoo taxi, Ziggy gonna get it. He reunited with the film industry for Vers le sud (2005), a movie directed by Laurent Cantet which was inspired by 3 short stories written by Laferriere.