Patrick Chamoiseau 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...

 author from Martinique

Martinique

Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...

 known for his work in the créolité

Créolité

Créolité is a literary movement first developed in the 1980s by Martinican writers Patrick Chamoiseau, Jean Bernabé and Raphaël Confiant. The trio published Eloge de la créolité in 1989 as a response to the perceived inadequacies of the négritude movement...

 movement.

Biography

Chamoiseau was born on December 3, 1953 in Fort-de-France

Fort-de-France

Fort-de-France is the capital of France's Caribbean overseas department of Martinique. It is also one of the major cities in the Caribbean. Exports include sugar, rum, tinned fruit, and cacao.-Geography:...

, Martinique, where he currently resides. After he studied law in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 he returned to Martinique inspired by Édouard Glissant

Édouard Glissant

Édouard Glissant was a Martinican writer, poet and literary critic. He is widely recognised as one of the most influential figures in Caribbean thought and cultural commentary.-Life:...

 to take a close interest in Creole culture. Chamoiseau is the author of a historical work on the Antilles

Antilles

The Antilles islands form the greater part of the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea. The Antilles are divided into two major groups: the "Greater Antilles" to the north and west, including the larger islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola , and Puerto Rico; and the smaller "Lesser Antilles" on the...

 under the reign of Napoléon Bonaparte

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...

 and several non-fiction books which include Éloge de la créolité

Créolité

Créolité is a literary movement first developed in the 1980s by Martinican writers Patrick Chamoiseau, Jean Bernabé and Raphaël Confiant. The trio published Eloge de la créolité in 1989 as a response to the perceived inadequacies of the négritude movement...

(In Praise of Creoleness), co-authored with Jean Bernabé

Jean Bernabé

Jean Bernabé is a writer and linguist.Bernabé is a professor of language and culture at the Université Antilles-Guyane...

 and Raphaël Confiant

Raphaël Confiant

Raphaël Confiant is a Martinican writer known for his literary commitment towards Creole literature.-Biography:Raphaël Confiant was born in 1951 in Le Lorrain, Martinique. He studied English and Political Science at the University of Aix-Marseille...

.
Awarded the Prix Carbet (1990) for Chemins d’enfance. His novel Texaco was awarded the Prix Goncourt

Prix Goncourt

The Prix Goncourt is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year"...

 in 1992, and was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

Chamoiseau may also safely be considered as one of the most innovative writers to hit the French literary scene since Louis-Ferdinand Céline

Louis-Ferdinand Céline

Louis-Ferdinand Céline was the pen name of French writer and physician Louis-Ferdinand Destouches . Céline was chosen after his grandmother's first name. He is considered one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century, developing a new style of writing that modernized both French and...

. His freeform use of French language — a highly complex yet fluid mixture of constant invention and "creolism" — fuels a poignant and sensuous depiction of Martinique people in particular and humanity at large.

Novels

• Chronique des sept misères (1986)
• Solibo magnifique (1988)
• Antan d'enfance (1990).
• Texaco (1992)
• Chemin d'école (1994). (published in English under the title "School Days")
• L'Esclave vieil homme et le molosse(1997)
• Biblique des derniers gestes (2002)
• À Bout d'enfance (2005)
• Un dimanche au cachot (2007)
• Les Neuf Consciences du malfini (2009)

Antan d'enfance, Chemin d'école and À Bout d'enfance form the autobiographical trilogy: Une enfance Créole.

Films

• l'Exil du roi Behanzin (1994)
• Le Passage du Milieu (2000)
• Biguine (2004)
• Nord Plage (2004)
• Aliker (2007)

Comics

• "Monsieur Coutcha", under the name "Abel", with Tony DELSHAM (one of the first caribbean cartoons, published during the 1970).
• Encyclomerveille d'un tueur 1. L'Orphelin de Cocoyer Grands-Bois (2009)

Essays

• "Éloge de la créolité" (with Jean Bernabé et Raphaël Confiant) (1989)
• "Lettres créoles. Tracées antillaises et continentales de la littérature" (with Raphaël Confiant) (1991)
• "Martinique" (with V. Renaudeau) (1994)
• "Guyane: Traces-Mémoires du bagne" (1994)
• "Ecrire en pays dominé" (1997)
• "Elmire des sept bonheurs: confidences d'un vieux travailleur de la distillerie Saint-Etienne" (1998)

External links

• Patrick Chamoiseau, biography, bibliography, interview, and links, "île en île", City University of New York, 2002-2003.
• Critical bibliography (Auteurs.contemporain.info)