A Conversation in French with Marie NDiaye and Sylvie Kandé
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Marie NDiaye will join in conversation with Sylvie Kandé about her book Vengeance is Mine, recently translated into English (from the French title La Vengeance m’appartient), and about other books in her remarkable oeuvre.
Marie NDiaye was born in Pithiviers, France in 1967. Born to a French mother and Senegalese father, NDiaye studied linguistics at the Sorbonne and started writing when she was thirteen. She was just eighteen when her first novel, Quant au riche avenir, was published by the highly esteemed Editions de Minuit. Legend has it that immediately after reading her manuscript, Jérôme Lindon, the heroic publisher of Minuit, went straight to Marie NDiaye’s high school to wait for her at the door with a book contract in hand. NDiaye’s impressive debut was heard throughout the French literary scene. Marie NDiaye has since dedicated herself to writing and built one of the most singular yet powerful oeuvres of contemporary French literature. In 2001, she was awarded the prestigious Prix Femina literary prize for her novel Rosie Carpe (Bison Books, 2004), and in 2009, she was awarded the Prix Goncourt for Three Strong Women (Knopf, 2012). The latter was an International Booker Prize finalist. Marie NDiaye has also published Self-portrait in Green (Two Lines Press, 2014) and All My Friends (Two Lines Press, 2013). She is also the recipient of the Gold Medal in the Arts from the Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts. NDiaye’s recent book, La Vengeance m’appartient, is coming out in English translation as Vengence is Mine (Penguin Random House).
Sylvie Kandé is the author of three collections of poetry published by Gallimard. Trained as both a literary critic and a historian, she is also known for her work on the complex conversations that have taken place between Africa and Europe and Africa and its Diasporas. Her areas of specialization include métissage/hybridity and post-racial utopias. She teaches at SUNY Old Westbury.
This event is presented by the Columbia Maison Française with support from Villa Albertine.