Françoise Xenakis (born 27 September 1930) is a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 novelist and journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

. She was born in Blois

Blois

Blois is the capital of Loir-et-Cher department in central France, situated on the banks of the lower river Loire between Orléans and Tours.-History:...

, Loir-et-Cher

Loir-et-Cher

Loir-et-Cher is a département in north-central France named after the rivers Loir and Cher.-History:Loir-et-Cher is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Orléanais and...

. She started her literary career in the early 1960s, and became more well-known during the 1980s, when she started working at Le Matin de Paris

Le Matin de Paris

Le Matin de Paris was a French daily newspaper, founded on 1 March 1977 by Claude Perdriel, and disappearing in 1987...

, a daily newspaper, and for Télématin

Télématin

Télématin is a French breakfast television news show, broadcast on France 2 since January 7, 1985. It is broadcast in Metropolitan France weekdays from 6:30–9:00 am CET. TV5 broadcast the show in Canada in its entirety until September 2011: it now shows a 90 minute version between...

, a breakfast television

Breakfast television

Breakfast television or morning show , is a type of infotainment television program, broadcast live in the morning...

 news show. She chaired the judging panel for the literary prize 30 Million Friends.

In 1953 she married Iannis Xenakis

Iannis Xenakis

Iannis Xenakis was a Romanian-born Greek ethnic, naturalized French composer, music theorist, and architect-engineer. He is commonly recognized as one of the most important post-war avant-garde composers...

, who later went on to become one of the most important classical composers of the post-war avant-garde

Avant-garde

Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

. Their daughter Mâkhi Xenakis, sculptress and painter, was born in 1956.

Selected works

• Le Petit Caillou (1963)
• Des dimanches et des dimanches (1965)
• Aux lèvres pour que j'aie moins soif (1970)
• Écoute (1971)
• Et alors les morts pleureront (1972)
• Moi, j'aime pas la mer (1974)
• L'écrivain ou La sixième roue du carrosse (1975)
• Elle lui dirait dans l'île (1978)
• La Natte coupée (1982)
• Zut! on a encore oublié Madame Freud (1984)
• La Vie exemplaire de Rita Capuchon (1988)
• Le Temps usé (1992)
• Attends-moi (1993; won the Prix des libraires the same year)
• Désolée, mais ça ne se fait pas (1995)
• Chéri, tu viens pour la photo (1999)
• Mouche-toi, Cléopâtre (1999)
• Maman, je veux pas être empereur (2001)
• Regarde, nos chemins se sont fermés (2002)
• Danielle Mitterrand : la petite fille qui voulait être Antigone (2006)