Marguerite Claude Françoise Xenakis (née Gargouïl; 27 September 1930 – 12 February 2018) was a French

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...

and

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

, born in

Blois Blois ( ; ) is a commune and the capital city of Loir-et-Cher department, in Centre-Val de Loire, France, on the banks of the lower Loire river between Orléans and Tours. With 45,898 inhabitants by 2019, Blois is the most populated city of the ...

, Loir-et-Cher. She started her literary career in the early 1960s, and became better known during the 1980s, when she started working at ''

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 ("dépôt de bilan" on 6 May). Its foundation is the subject of the documentary ''Numéros zéro'' by Raymond Depardon. Hist ...

'', a daily newspaper, and for ''

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 to 9:00 am CET. TV5 broadcast the show in Canada in its 150-minute entirety ...

'', a

breakfast television Breakfast television (Europe, Canada, and Australia) or morning show (United States) is a type of news or infotainment television programme that broadcasts live in the morning (typically scheduled between 5:00 and 10:00a.m., or if it is a ...

news show. She chaired the judging panel for the literary prize ''30 Million Friends''. In 1953, she married

Iannis Xenakis Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; el, Γιάννης "Ιωάννης" Κλέαρχου Ξενάκης, ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde c ...

, who later went on to become an important classical composer of the post-war

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

. Their daughter Mâkhi Xenakis, sculptor 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)

References

* Bosquet, Alain. 1985. ''Les épouses de Françoise Xenakis'', ''Figaro'' No. 12584 (15 Feb 1985), 36. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Xenakis, Francoise 1930 births 2018 deaths Writers from Blois 20th-century French journalists French television journalists French women writers Prix des libraires winners Women television journalists 20th-century French women