29^th Leukerbad International Literary Festival

Authors

Jean d’Amérique

Haiti

The Haitian author, playwright, rapper, and poet Jean D’Amérique was born in 1994 and lives in Paris. He has published poetry collections, plays, and rap albums which have won multiple awards. He never wanted to write a novel—in 2021 he did nonetheless.
Zerrissene Sonne (A Sun to be Sewn) was published in German translation to great praise. With lyrical power, D’Amérique tells the story of his twelve-year-old protagonist Tête Fêlée (Cracked Head) living in the slums of Port-au-Prince. It’s the story of a resistant female character, the story of Haiti, and of a complicated love.
The author himself said in an interview in ila about his inspiration: “The neighborhood and the human lives about which I write are the surroundings in which I spent my youth. It is marked by violence and social inequality. The state has abandoned this part of the population. But in contrast to the way they are usually depicted, these places hold a profound humaneness: here people have a desire and a rage to live. Yet daily violence and state violence prevent them from living.
In addition to his work as a writer, Jean D’Amérique is the editor of the poetry magazine Davertige and director of the festival Transe Poétique in Port-au-Prince. He is currently the writer-in-residence at the Literature House Zurich.

A Sun to be Sewn. Translated by Thierry Kehou. 2022

Back...