Lyonel Trouillot

Lionel Trouillot (born Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on December 31, 1956) is a novelist and poet in French and Haitian Creole, a journalist and a professor of French and Creole literature in Port-au-Prince.

Early life

Lyonel Trouillot was born in a family of lawyers. The writer Évelyne Trouillot is his sister. Following his parents' divorce in the late 1960s, he went to the United States with his mother. He returned to Haiti at age 19, in 1975.

Between 1980-82, political repression forced Trouillot to emigrate to Miami.

He studied at law, but he switched to literature early in his career.

Career

Trouillot has contributed to different newspapers and magazines in Haiti. He has published poetry, and also writes song lyrics for such musical artists as Tambou Libète and Manno Charlemagne.

Trouillot is a co-editor of the journal Cahiers du Vendredi.

Along with his sister Evelyne Trouillat and her daughter Nadève Ménard, he founded a writer's organisation named Pré-Texte.

In 2014 he wrote together with Raoul Peck and Pascal Bonitzer the script for Peck's feature film Murder in Pacot.

Politics

Trouillot is known for his political stances, and for his resistance to the Haitian Duvalierist dictatorship. He was also part of the Collective Non of intellectuals and artists that helped to build momentum for the U.S. and paramilitary backed ouster of the democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. He was a member of the unelected transitional government following the departure of Aristide, as a cabinet minister of culture.

The unelected transitional government of Gerard Latortue (that Trouillot was a member of between 2004-2006) was shown to be involved in massive human rights violations and to work closely with the "families" the local elite groups within the country while being heavily funded by the US bush regime: http://www.ijdh.org/CSHRhaitireport.pdf

Select bibliography

Novels

• Rue des pas perdus, Mémoire, Port-au-Prince, 1996
• Thérèse en mille morceaux, Actes Sud, Arles, 2000
• Les Enfants des héros, Actes Sud, Arles, 2002
• Bicentenaire, Actes Sud, Arles, 2004
• L'Amour avant que j'oublie, Actes Sud, Arles, 2007
• Yanvalou pour Charlie, Actes Sud, Arles, 2009
  • dt. Yanvalou für Charlie, 2016, Traduction Barbara Heber-Schärer, Claudia Steinitz, Liebeskind Verlagsbuchhandlung, ISBN 978-3-95438-066-4
• La Belle Amour humaine, Actes Sud, Arles, 2011
• Le Doux Parfum des temps à venir, Actes Sud, Arles, 2013
• Parabole du failli, Actes Sud, Arles, 2013

Poetry

• Éloge de la contemplation, Riveneuve, Paris, 2009.

Non-fiction

• Haïti le dur devoir d'exister, with Amélie Baron, Mémoire d'Encrier, Montréal, 2010.
• Objectif : l'autre, André Versaille, Brussels, 2012.

Awards and recognition

Trouillot was made a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2010.

In 2011, he was awarded the Prix Wepler for his novel Yanvalou pour Charlie. For La Belle Amour humane, he was awarded the Grand Prix du Roman Métis (2011), the Geneva Book Fair Literary Prize (2012), and the Gitanjali Literary Prize (2012).

In 2013, he was awarded the Prix Carbet de la Caraïbe et du Tout-Monde for his work, Parabole du failli.