Kettly Mars

Kettly Mars is a Haitian poet and novelist. She writes in French, and her books have been translated in English, Italian, Dutch, Danish, and Japanese.

Mars was born on September 3, 1958, in Port-au-Prince. She studied classical languages and worked the first twenty five years of her career as an office worker.

Since she was young she has been fascinated by poetry and around her age of thirty five years she began to write poems herself. Initially she wrote on the importance of love, the human body and sexuality in everyday life.

Her novels are situated in Haiti, although her themes are rather universal. She makes combinations between for instance gender, human race, social class, spirituality, power and violence. In 2003 her first novel appeared, called Kasalé; since then more novels followed. Her work is characterized by a vivid realistic reflection of the society.

Since about 2010 she works on an anthology on literature that was written in the 18th, 19th and 20th century by Haitian women.

• 1996: Prix Jacques-Stephen Alexis
• 2006: Prix Senghor
• 2011: Bourse Barbancourt
• 2011: Prince Claus Award