Kettly Mars - Haiti Observer Blog

On Saturday, November 21, 2015, in the presence of distinguished personalities from the literary circle and friends of writer Kettly Mars, during a gala dinner at the Palace of Culture of Treichville, Abidjan (Ivory Coast), the Haitian writer Kettly Mars, has been awarded the 'Prix Ivoire' by the jury for African Francophone Literature for her novel "Je suis vivant (I am alive)" published in April 2015 by Mercure de France Press. The jury was headed by Ivorian writer Werewere-Liking (winner of Prix Noma 2005), well known for his work titled "Amputated Memory". "Prix Ivoire" is an important literary prize, awarded every year with the support of the Ivorian Minister of Culture and Francophone and the French Embassy in Cote d"ivoire at the initiative of the Ivorian Association for Akwaba Culture.

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Kettly Mars (September 3, 1958, Port-au-Prince) is a bold Haitian poet and novelist, writes in French. Her books have been translated in English, Dutch, Italian, Danish and Japanese languages. She studied classical language and spent first twenty-five years of her career in office administrative jobs. Her evocative style of writing offers fresh insights on contemporary realities and a clear exposure of Haitian society. Although the themes of her works are set on Haiti but they have a universal approach with their diversified classes, cultures, genders, human race, spirituality, power and violence. Her first published writings were erotically charged poems from which she moved far in her later works. However, the clarity and honesty with which she approaches the sensitive and erotic side of human body and mind has remained unchanged in her later matured works. She proceeded to write with a new style since 1996 and got her first reward by winning the Jacques-Stephen Alexis contest. Her important works are: Un parfum d'encens (1999), Kasale (first novel, 2003), L'heure hybride (2005), Fado (2008), Saisons sauvages (2010), Le prince noir de Lillian Russell, with Leslie Péan (2011), Aux Frontières de la soif (2013). On November 21, 2015, she has been honored with the "Prix Ivoire Award" by the jury for African Francophone Literature in French for her novel "Je suis vivant (I am alive)" published in April 2015.

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