Khal Torabully is a
Mauritian
Mauritians (singular Mauritian; french: Mauricien; Creole: ''Morisien'') are nationals or natives of the Republic of Mauritius and their descendants. Mauritius is a multi-ethnic society, with notable groups of people of South Asian (notably I ...
poet. Born in
Mauritius
Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...
in 1956, in the capital city
Port Louis
Port Louis (french: Port-Louis; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Polwi or , ) is the capital city of Mauritius. It is mainly located in the Port Louis District, with a small western part in the Black River District. Port Louis is the country's ec ...
, his father was a
Trinidadian
Trinidadians and Tobagonians, colloquially known as Trinis or Trinbagonians, are the people who are identified with the country of Trinidad and Tobago. The country is home to people of many different national, ethnic and religious origins. As a ...
sailor and his mother was a descendant of migrants from
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and
Malaya
Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia:
Political entities
* British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...
.
Work
Khal Torabully left for
Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...
in 1976, to study at the
University of Lyon II. After studies in
comparative literature, Torabully wrote a PhD thesis in
semiology
Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes (semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something, ...
of p
oetics with
Michel Cusin.
Khal Torabully has won several literary awards, among which
ettres-Frontière(Switzerland),
rix du Salon du Livre Insulaire(France) and
rix Missives(France).
Films
* Pic Pic, Nomade d’une île, 1996.
* La traboule des vagues, multibroadcast Tele Lyon Metropole.
* Malcolm de Chazal, (52’), portrait of an artist, with France Telecom.
* Portraits de Mémoire en Gironde, France, 2010.
* The Maritime Memory of the Arabs, Oman TV, Chamarel Films, France 2001.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Torabully, Khal
1956 births
Living people
20th-century Mauritian writers
20th-century French poets
People from Port Louis District
Mauritian people of Indian descent
Mauritian people of Trinidad and Tobago descent
Mauritian people of Malaysian descent
French male poets
French people of Indian descent
French people of Trinidad and Tobago descent
French people of Malaysian descent
21st-century Mauritian writers
21st-century French poets
University of Lyon alumni