Marie Etienne
Encyclopedia
Marie Étienne is a French poet
and novelist. In 2009, her book Roi des cent cavaliers (published in France in 2002) and now translated into English as King of a Hundred Horseman won the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation
. Étienne is the author of eleven books of poems and nine books of prose, which her translator Marilyn Hacker
says "could be variously classed as fiction, memoir, and cultural history, some partaking of all three".
From 1979 to 1988, Marie Étienne worked as assistant to the innovative French theater director Antoine Vitez
, whose courses on the theater she had followed as part of her doctoral thesis research, at the Théâtre d’Ivry and the Théâtre national de Chaillot
. Her work with Vitez, including transcriptions of her notebooks of the era, resulted in Antoine Vitez: Ie roman du théâtre (2000), a book Hacker describes as "in a genre Americans would call literary memoir published a decade after the director’s death and almost twenty years after their collaboration. It offers an invaluable aperçu of a collaborative artistic endeavor and a signal era in contemporary French theater".
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and novelist. In 2009, her book Roi des cent cavaliers (published in France in 2002) and now translated into English as King of a Hundred Horseman won the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation
PEN Award for Poetry in Translation
The PEN Award for Poetry in Translation honors a poetry translation published in the preceding year.The award is separate from the similar PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize.-Winners:-See also:*American poetry*List of poetry awards...
. Étienne is the author of eleven books of poems and nine books of prose, which her translator Marilyn Hacker
Marilyn Hacker
Marilyn Hacker is an American poet, translator and critic. She is Professor of English at the City College of New York....
says "could be variously classed as fiction, memoir, and cultural history, some partaking of all three".
From 1979 to 1988, Marie Étienne worked as assistant to the innovative French theater director Antoine Vitez
Antoine Vitez
Antoine Vitez was a French actor, director, and poet.He was born in Paris, France and became an actor at the age of 19. He was director of the Théâtre national de Chaillot for seven years before being named to head the Comedie Francaise, a French theater company.-References:...
, whose courses on the theater she had followed as part of her doctoral thesis research, at the Théâtre d’Ivry and the Théâtre national de Chaillot
Théâtre national de Chaillot
The Théâtre national de Chaillot is a theatre located in the Palais de Chaillot at 1, place du Trocadero, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. Close by the Eiffel Tower and the Trocadéro Gardens—the Théâtre de Chaillot is among the largest concert halls in Paris. It has long been synonymous with...
. Her work with Vitez, including transcriptions of her notebooks of the era, resulted in Antoine Vitez: Ie roman du théâtre (2000), a book Hacker describes as "in a genre Americans would call literary memoir published a decade after the director’s death and almost twenty years after their collaboration. It offers an invaluable aperçu of a collaborative artistic endeavor and a signal era in contemporary French theater".
Works
- Blancs Clos 1977
- Le Point d'Aveugement 1978
Reviews
Originally published in French in 2002, Marie Étienne’s King of a Hundred Horsemen, translated by Marilyn Hacker, occupies an odd position somewhere between poetry and prose, observation and memory, dramatic enunciation and factual report. Although the opening sequence evokes the Parisian poet’s upbringing in French Indochina, the book is constructed around a deliberate lack of any anchoring subjectivity....
Marilyn Hacker’s translation of Marie Étienne’s eleventh book of poems, King of a Hundred Horsemen, represents an ample first introduction to the work of this restlessly inventive French literary figure.