Haitian-born Montrealer wins Blue Met writing prize

Dany Laferrire, a Haitian-born Montrealer known for his provocative and thoughtful novels, has won the 2010 Blue Metropolis Literary Grand Prix.

The $10,000 award announced Tuesday recognizes both literary achievement and an international reputation and is given as part of the annual Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival, which is scheduled for next April.

Laferrire, 56, is author of L' nigme du retour and Je suis un crivain japonais, translated into English as I am a Japanese Writer and due for publication by Douglas & McIntyre in fall 2010.

A journalist, TV and radio host, screenwriter, and director, Laferrire has written 16 novels and won the 2006 Governor General's Award for Je suis fou de Vava, his first novel for children.

A journalist in his native Haiti, he fled in 1978 during the notorious Duvalier regime after a colleague was murdered.

Settling in Montreal, he worked at low-paying jobs until the 1985 publication of Comment faire l'amour avec un Ngre sans se fatiguer (1985), published in English as How to Make Love to a Negro. The semi-autobiographical story of an impoverished black immigrant and his attraction to white women was made into a feature film and translated into several languages.

When you are at the bottom you have to think big," he said of that first big success in an interview with CBC News. "I wrote about sexuality, inter-racial sexuality and humour. I remember I had this title in my head... "

The novel'ssuccess allowed him to move into journalism and he began a column with La Presse. He also is a community leader among Haitians in Montreal.

Laferrire's most recent book in English, Heading South, about three female tourists in 1980s Haiti, was made into a film by French director Laurent Cantet.

"Women are important for me. I was educated by so many women, beautiful women, and I put all of them in my books," Laferrire said, speaking in French.

His childhood was shaped by his grandmother andhis adolescence by his mother and five aunts, who had a profound influence duringthe time his father was in exile.

'Audacity and wit'

Linda Leith, president of Blue Metropolis Foundation, hailed Laferrire for his "audacity and wit," and the catchy titles that help draw readers to his novels.

"In a sense it is very clever it draws people to his work, but they may not be expecting the depth and the seriousness that they find when they read what he has to say, whether it is about the expectation of young men in Haiti, whether it has to do with the place of an immigrant in Montreal or whatever other subject he chooses to focus on," Leith told CBC News.

She said she hopes the prize helps introducer Laferrire's work to English readers. The author has been involved with the Blue Met festival for several years.

"Dany Laferrireis a star. He's been living in our midst in Montreal and it's high time we recognized him for the great writer that he is," she said.

Laferrire is far from a cultural nationalist, considering himself a citizen of the Americas, with his ties to Canada, the U.S. and Haiti.

"To live, it is necessary to take on multiple identities. The most modern individuals, those who are the hope of the modern world, have to understand our complex world," he said.

"You have to have lived as subaltern [a person who is from outside the centre of power] to understand the weight of the world on your back."

He said his style cannot be identified with a single cultural universe, but is a hybrid and he feels free to change voice and to identify with characters different from himself.

In I am A Japanese Writer, a blocked Montreal writer one day learns that he is famous in Japan for having written a novel he never wrote.

Laferrire's latest novel, L'nigme du retour, is shortlisted for the French prizes Prix Mdicis 2009 and Prix Fmina 2009.

He acknowledges Quebec has had a profound influence on him.

"I open my ears. I listen, I see how people behave. I let myself absorb that for the last 30 years," he said.