Michaël Ferrier (born 14 August 1967) is a French writer, novelist and essayist, living in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

Biography

Ferrier was born in Strasbourg. He comes from a French family and also from Mauritian Creole people and Réunion Creole people, with Indian, French, Malagasy and British origins. After a nomadic childhood (Africa and Indian Ocean), he gained entrance to the highly selective

École Normale Supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, S ...

, at the age of 18, where he passed the agrégation in literature (highest teaching diploma in France) and graduated from the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

. He is currently Professor at

Chuo University , commonly referred to as or , is a private flagship research university in Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1885 as Igirisu Hōritsu Gakkō (the English Law School), Chuo is one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions in the country. The univer ...

, Tokyo, Japan, and director of the Research Group Figures de l'Etranger (In the face of alterity: The image of the Other in arts and society).

Works

Ferrier has published several novels and essays, whose interdisciplinary work (in the fields of literature, art, music and philosophy) includes several books on Japan, which has become a standard reference in the field. His first novel, ''Tokyo, petits portraits de l’aube'', Gallimard, 2004, has been awarded the Prix Littéraire de l’Asie 2005 (Literary Prize from the Association of French Language Writers and the French Minister of Foreign Affairs). His novel ''Sympathie pour le Fantôme'' (Gallimard, 2010) portrays multiple voices ( Ambroise Vollard,

Jeanne Duval Jeanne Duval (; – c. 1862) was a Haitian-born actress and dancer of mixed French and black African ancestry. For 20 years, she was the muse of French poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire. They met in 1842 when Duval left Haiti for Franc ...

and

Edmond Albius Edmond Albius (1829 – 9 August 1880) was a horticulturalist from Réunion. Born into slavery, Albius became an important figure in the cultivation of vanilla. At the age of 12, he invented a technique for pollinating vanilla orchids quickly and ...

) and embraces the contradictions and complexity of French national identity. It has been awarded the Prix littéraire de la Porte Dorée (Literary prize of

Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration The Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration is a museum of immigration history located in the 12th arrondissement of Paris at 293, avenue Daumesnil. The nearest métro station is Porte Dorée. It is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. ...

, the French museum of immigration). His book about

Fukushima may refer to: Japan * Fukushima Prefecture, Japanese prefecture ** Fukushima, Fukushima, capital city of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan ***Fukushima University, national university in Japan *** Fukushima Station (Fukushima) in Fukushima, Fukushim ...

is a major study on the earthquake, the tsunami and the nuclear accident, that has roused the interest of writers and philosophers like

Philippe Sollers Philippe Sollers (; born Philippe Joyaux; 28 November 1936) is a French writer and critic. In 1960 he founded the ''avant garde'' literary journal '' Tel Quel'' (along with writer and art critic Marcelin Pleynet), which was published by Le S ...

and

Jean-Luc Nancy Jean-Luc Nancy ( , ; 26 July 1940 – 23 August 2021) was a French philosopher. Nancy's first book, published in 1973, was ''Le titre de la lettre'' (''The Title of the Letter'', 1992), a reading of the work of French psychoanalyst Jacques Laca ...

(''Fukushima, récit d'un désastre'', Gallimard, 2012). Prestigious universities have devoted conferences to his work (the University of Edinburgh, 2017, the University of Tohoku and the University of London, 2019), and Ferrier is the recipient of numerous literary awards and honors, among them the 2012 Prix Edouard Glissant.

Awards and honours

Michaël Ferrier was shortlisted three times for the

Prix Femina The Prix Femina is a French literary prize created in 1904 by 22 writers for the magazine '' La Vie heureuse'' (today known as '' Femina''). The prize is decided each year by an exclusively female jury. They reward French-language works writte ...

and three times for the

Prix Décembre The ''Prix Décembre'', originally known as the ''Prix Novembre'', is one of France's premier literary awards. It was founded under the name ''Prix Novembre'' in 1989 by Philippe Dennery (Michel Dennery, according to other sources). In 1998, the fou ...

. * 2005 Prix littéraire de l'Asie * 2010 Prix littéraire de la Porte Dorée * 2012 Edouard Glissant Prize * 2015 Franz-Hessel-Preis * 2018

for ''François, portrait d’un absent'' * 2020 Prix Jacques Lacarrière for ''Scrabble, une enfance tchadienne''

Works

;Novels * ''Tokyo, petits portraits de l’aube'',

Éditions Gallimard Éditions Gallimard (), formerly Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française (1911–1919) and Librairie Gallimard (1919–1961), is one of the leading French book publishers. In 2003 it and its subsidiaries published 1,418 titles. Founded by Ga ...

, 2004 * ''Kizu'', Ed.

Arléa Arléa is a French publishing house created in 1986. Arléa publishes thirty new titles each year, including pocket ones. His catalog contains more than a thousand titles: the great classics of Antiquity (whether Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Sanskrit or ...

, 2004 * ''Sympathie pour le Fantôme'', Gallimard, 2010 * ''Fukushima, récit d'un désastre'', Gallimard, 2012 * ''François, portrait d'un absent'', Gallimard, 2018 * ''Ce qui nous arrive '', with Michaël Ferrier, Camille Ammoun, Ersi Sotiropoulou, Fawzi Zebian and Makenzy Orcel, with a preface by Charif Majdalani, Editions Inculte, 2022 ;Novels translated in English * ''Scrabble : une enfance tchadienne'', Mercure de France, Collection Traits et Portraits, 2019 = ''Scrabble, A Chadian Childhood'', translated by Martin Munro, Liverpool University Press, 2022 * ''Mémoires d'Outre-Mer'', Gallimard, 2015 = ''Over Seas of Memory'', translated by Martin Munro, foreword by

Patrick Chamoiseau Patrick Chamoiseau (born 3 December 1953) is a French author from Martinique known for his work in the créolité movement. His work spans a variety of forms and genres, including novels, essays, children's books, screenplays, theatre and comics. ...

, Nebraska University Press, 2019 ;Essays * ''

Louis-Ferdinand Céline Louis Ferdinand Auguste Destouches (27 May 1894 – 1 July 1961), better known by the pen name Louis-Ferdinand Céline ( , ) was a French novelist, polemicist and physician. His first novel ''Journey to the End of the Night'' (1932) won the '' Pr ...

et la chanson'', Ed. du Lerot, 2004 * ''La Tentation de la France, la Tentation du Japon'', Picquier, 2003 * ''Le Goût de Tokyo'', anthology, Mercure de France, 2008 * ''Japon: la Barrière des rencontres'', Ed. Cécile Defaut, 2009 * ''Penser avec Fukushima'' (sous la direction de C. Doumet et M. Ferrier), Nantes, Editions nouvelles Cécile Defaut, 2016 * ''Naufrage'' (about

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

), Gallimard, Collection Tracts, 2020 * ''Dans l'oeil du désastre : créer avec Fukushima'', sous la direction de Michaël Ferrier, éd. Thierry Marchaisse, 2021 , with Makoto Aida, Takashi Arai, Chim↑Pom, Marie Drouet, Hikaru Fujii, Thierry Girard, Yoi Kawakubo, Jacques Kraemer, Hélène Lucien, Bruno Meyssat, Chihiro Minato, Yoann Moreau, Brigitte Mounier, Kôhei Nawa, Shinji Ohmaki, Marc Pallain, Claude-Julie Parisot, Gil Rabier, Noi Sawaragi,

Nobuhiro Suwa is a Japanese film director working in Japan and France. His directorial works and screenplays often make use of improvisation techniques. Currently, Suwa is the President of Tokyo Zokei University. Biography Having graduated from Hirosh ...

, Kota Takeuchi, Kenichi Watanabe,

Yukinori Yanagi is a contemporary Japanese artist. Yukinori Yanagi is a contemporary Japanese artist who has addressed themes of national and transnational sovereignty, globalization and borders, as well as Japan’s imperial history and nationalism. He is co ...

. * ''Notre ami l'atome'' (''Our friend the Atom'', cinematographic writings), Paris, Gallimard, 2021 ;Screenplay - Movies *''The World after Fukushima'', coproduction Arte/Kami Productions (Japon, 2013, 77 min) *''Nuclear Lands, A History of Plutonium'', coproduction Arte France/Seconde Vague Productions/Kami Productions (France, 2015, 83 min) *''Our Friend The Atom'', coproduction Arte France/Radio Télévision Suisse/Kami Productions (France, 2019, 55 min) The three films written by Michaël Ferrier and directed by Kenichi Watanabe were published by Éditions Gallimard in 2021:''Notre ami l'atome'' (Our friend the Atom), Paris, Gallimard, 2021. ;Texts in English * « Creole Japan; or, the Vagaries of Creolization », ''Small Axe'', vol 14, number 3 33, Durham, Duke University Press, 2010 * A special issue about Japanese photography in art press, the international review of contemporary art, contains two interviews with Japanese photographers: « Chihiro Minato: Only Once » and « Japanese photography: In Tokyo with

Araki Araki may refer to: People * Araki (surname) (荒木) * Hirohiko Araki (荒木飛呂彦), a Japanese manga artist, fashion designer and illustrator * Nobuyoshi Araki (荒木経惟), a Japanese photographer and contemporary artist also known by t ...

», ''art press'', number 353, 2009 * « Setouchi. Japan's Festival of the Inland Sea », ''art press'', number 371, 2010 (about the Contemporary Art Festival curated by Fram Kitagawa) * « Art, eroticism and cannibalism in Japan », ''art press2'', number 20, 2011 * « Visualizing the Impossible: Art after Fukushima», ''art press'', number 423, 2015 * « Nature and Creation in Japanese Aesthetics », ''Wabi Sabi Shima, Of the Aesthetics of Perfection and Chaos in the Japanese Archipelago'', Thalie Art Foundation editions, 2015 * « France-Japan: The Coral Writers (From stereotype to prototype, in favor of rethinking a critical approach to Japan) », ''Contemporary French & Francophone Studies'', Volume 21, 2017 - Issue 1: France-Asia, p. 8-27.

References

External links

Tokyo Time Table
Michael Ferrier website
Michaël Ferrier on Gallimard websiteTV program of the National Library of France with Michaël Ferrier.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrier, Michael 1967 births Living people Writers from Strasbourg French travel writers 21st-century French novelists French male novelists French people of Portuguese descent 21st-century French male writers French male non-fiction writers Academic staff of Chuo University

Biography

Works

Awards and honours

Works

References

Further reading

External links