French novelist and playwright (born 1967)

"NDiaye" redirects here. For other people of similar names, see Ndiaye (disambiguation) and N'Diaye (disambiguation).

Marie NDiaye (born 4 June 1967) is a French novelist and playwright. She published her first novel, Quant au riche avenir, when she was 17. She won the Prix Goncourt in 2009. Her play Papa doit manger is the sole play by a living female writer to be part of the repertoire of the Comédie française.

Contents

• 1 Biography
• 2 Exile in Berlin
• 3 Awards and honors
• 4 Works
  • 4.1 Novels and short stories
  • 4.2 Plays
  • 4.3 Children's novels
  • 4.4 Essays
  • 4.5 Screenplay
• 5 References
• 6 External links

Biography

NDiaye was born in 1967 in Pithiviers, France, less than a hundred kilometers south of Paris, to a French mother and a Senegalese father. She grew up with her mother and her brother Pap Ndiaye in the suburbs of Paris. Her parents met as students in the mid-1960s, but her father left for Africa when she was only one year old.

She began writing at the age of 12. As a senior in high school, she was discovered by Jerome Lindon, founder of Éditions de Minuit, who published her first novel, Quant au riche avenir, in 1985. She subsequently wrote a further six novels, all published by Minuit, and a collection of short stories. She also wrote her Comédie cl*ique, a 200-page novel made up of a single sentence, which was published by Éditions P.O.L in 1988, when she was 21 years old. As well as novels, NDiaye has written a number of plays and a screenplay. Her 2003 drama Papa doit manger is only the second play by a female writer to be taken into the repertoire of the Comédie française.

In 1998, NDiaye wrote a letter to the press in which she argued that her novel La Sorcière, published two years earlier, had strongly informed the content of Naissance des fantômes, the second novel of successful author Marie Darrieussecq.

Her novel Trois femmes puissantes won the 2009 Prix Goncourt. In his 2013 critical study of the author, Marie NDiaye: Blankness and Recognition, British academic Andrew Asibong describes her as "the epitome of a certain kind of cultural brilliance", arguing elsewhere in the book, a psycho*ytic exploration of the writer's evocation of trauma and disavowal, that "NDiaye's work explores the violence done to the subject's capacity for feeling and knowing".

Exile in Berlin

In an interview published by Les Inrockuptibles on 30 August 2009, NDiaye declared about Sarkozy's France, "I find that France monstrous. The fact that we have chosen to live in Berlin for two years is far from being unrelated to that. We left just after the elections, in a large part because of Sarkozy, even if I am very aware that saying that can seem snobbish. I find that atmosphere of vulgarity and heavy policing detestable ... Besson, Hortefeux, all of those people, I find them monstrous".

Awards and honors

• 2001: Prix Femina for Rosie Carpe
• 2009: Prix Goncourt for Trois femmes puissantes (Three Strong Women)
• 2012: Grand prix du théâtre de l'Académie française
• 2015: Nelly Sachs Prize
• 2016: Ladivine longlisted for Man Booker International Prize
• 2017: Ladivine shortlisted for Best Translated Book Award
• 2018: Ladivine shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award

Works

Novels and short stories

• Quant au riche avenir – Les Editions de Minuit, 1985 (ISBN:2-7073-1018-2)
• Comédie cl*ique – Éditions P.O.L:, 1988 (ISBN:2-86744-082-3)
• La femme changée en bûche – Minuit, 1989 (ISBN:2-7073-1285-1)
• En famille – Minuit, 1991 (ISBN:2-7073-1367-X)
  • Translated into English as Among Family by Heather Doyal – Angela Royal Publishing, 1997 (ISBN:978-1899860401)
• Un temps de saison – Minuit, 1994 (ISBN:2-7073-1474-9)
  • Translated into English as That Time of Year by Jordan Stump – Two Lines Press, 2020 (ISBN:978-1931883917)
• La Sorcière – Minuit, 1996 (ISBN:2-7073-1569-9)
• Rosie Carpe – Minuit, Prix Femina 2001 (ISBN:2-7073-1740-3)
  • Translated into English as Rosie Carpe by Tamsin Black – Bison Books, 2004 (ISBN:978-0803283831)
• Tous mes amis, nouvelles – Minuit, 2004 (ISBN:2-7073-1859-0)
  • Translated into English as All My Friends by Jordan Stump – Two Lines Press, 2013 (ISBN:978-1931883238)
• Autoportrait en vert – Mercure de France, 2005 (ISBN:2-7152-2481-8)
  • Translated into English as Self-Portrait in Green by Jordan Stump – Two Lines Press, 2014 (ISBN:978-1931883399)
• Mon cœur a l'etroit – Éditions Gallimard, 2007 (ISBN:978-2-07-077457-9)
  • Translated into English as My Heart Hemmed In by Jordan Stump – Two Lines Press, 2017 (ISBN:978-1931883627)
• Trois femmes puissantes – Gallimard, Prix Goncourt, 2009 (ISBN:978-2070786541).
  • Translated into English as Three Strong Women by John Fletcher – MacLehose Press & Alfred A. Knopf, 2013 (ISBN:978-0857051073)
• Ladivine – Gallimard, 2013 (ISBN:978-2-07-012669-9)
  • Translated into English as Ladivine by Jordan Stump – Alfred A. Knopf, 2016 (ISBN:978-0385351881) & MacLehose Press, 2016 (ISBN:978-0857053350)
• La Cheffe, roman d'une cuisinière – Gallimard, 2016 (ISBN:978-2070116232)
  • Translated into English as The Cheffe by Jordan Stump – Alfred A. Knopf, 2019 (ISBN:978-0525520474) & MacLehose Press, 2019 (ISBN:978-0857058904)

Plays

• Hilda – Minuit, 1999 (ISBN:2-7073-1661-X)
• Papa doit manger – Minuit, 2003 (ISBN:2-7073-1798-5)
• Rien d'humain – Les Solitaires Intempestifs, 2004 (ISBN:2-84681-095-8)
• Les serpents – Minuit, 2004 (ISBN:2-7073-1856-6)

Children's novels

• La diablesse et son enfant, illustration Nadja – École des Loisirs:, 2000 (ISBN:2211056601)
• Les paradis de Prunelle, illustration Pierre Mornet – Albin Michel Jeunesse, 2003 (ISBN:2226140689)
• Le souhait, illustration Alice Charbin – École des Loisirs, 2005 (ISBN:2211079628)

Essays

• La naufragée – Flohic, 1999 (ISBN:2842340620)

Screenplay

• White Material (2009), co-written with director Claire Denis

References

External links

• Curry, Ginette. "Toubab La!": Literary Representations of Mixed-race Characters in the African Diaspora.Cambridge Scholars Pub., Newcastle, England.2007
• Bio-bibliographie de Marie NDiaye, The University of Western Australia
• Marie Ndiaye, in Label France (magazine), No. 59, 2005
• Critical bibliography (Auteurs.contemporain.info)
• "Où situer Marie Ndiaye?" by Véronique Bonnet (in French)
• The U.S. premiere of Hilda
• Marie NDiaye at IMDb