Jean D'Amérique

Jean D'Amérique (b. 1994, Côtes-de-Fer, Haiti) — is a Haitian poet, playwright, and novelist. He lives in Paris and is among the newest voices in contemporary Haitian and French-language literature. In 2019 he co-founded, with the collective Loque urbaine, the festival Transe poétique in Port-au-Prince, of which he is artistic director. His work, published by Cheyne Éditeur, Éditions Théâtrales, and Actes Sud, has been translated into German, English, Haitian Creole, Spanish, and Portuguese.

His poetry collections — Petite fleur du ghetto (2015), Nul chemin dans la peau que saignante étreinte (Cheyne, 2017), Atelier du silence (Cheyne, 2020), and Rhapsodie rouge (Cheyne, 2021) — have each received major prizes: the Prix de Poésie de la Vocation (Fondation Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet) in 2017, the Prix Apollinaire Découverte and Prix Heather-Dohollau in 2021 and 2022 respectively, and the Prix Fetkann ! Maryse Condé de la Poésie and Prix Heredia de l'Académie française in 2021 and 2022. His theater work, published by Éditions Théâtrales, includes Cathédrale des cochons (2020, Prix Jean-Jacques Lerrant des Journées de Lyon) and Opéra poussière (2022, Prix RFI Théâtre, Prix Jacques Scherer, Prix Montluc Résistance et Liberté). His first novel, Soleil à coudre (Actes Sud, 2021), received the Prix Dubreuil du premier roman de la SGDL and the Prix Montluc Résistance et Liberté.