Michka Assayas (2 November 1958 in Paris) is a French author, music journalist and radio presenter. In France, he is known for his rock reviews and the ''Dictionnaire du rock'' published in 2000 and his radio show on radio

France Inter France Inter () is a major French public radio channel and part of Radio France. It is a " generalist" station, aiming to provide a wide national audience with a full service of news and spoken-word programming, both serious and entertaining, li ...

. For his novel ''Exhibition'', which also appeared in a German translation, he received the Prix Découverte Figaro Magazine Fouquet's in 2002 and the

Prix des Deux Magots The Prix des Deux Magots is a major French literary prize. It is presented to new works, and is generally awarded to works that are more off-beat and less conventional than those that receive the more mainstream Prix Goncourt. The name derives from ...

in 2003. The novel is a tribute to the rock and punk of the 1970s and 1980s. Additionally, Assayas wrote ''Bono On Bono: Conversations With Michka Assayas'' in 2005. It is an intimate look at

Grammy award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

winning

Paul David Hewson Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by his stage name Bono (), is an Irish singer-songwriter, activist, and philanthropist. He is the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the rock band U2. Born and raised in Dublin, he attended M ...

, better known as Bono, main vocalist of the Irish rock band U2.

Early life

Michka Assayas was born in France on 2 November 1958. He is the son of Raymond Assayas, otherwise known as Jacques Rémy, a screenwriter/writer of Turkish-Jewish origin and Catherine de Karolyi, a Hungarian fashion designer. He is the brother of French film director and screenwriter Olivier Assayas.

Education and writing career

A former student of the Ecole Normale Superieure de Fontenay-Saint-Cloud, he worked in the early 80's for ''Rock & Folk'' where he ardently defended some post-punk bands like ''

Joy Division Joy Division were an English rock band formed in Salford in 1976. The group consisted of vocalist Ian Curtis, guitarist/keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris. Sumner and Hook formed the band after atte ...

'' in 1981, and '' New Order'' in 1983. Assayas also worked for '' Libération''. He was also a columnist in the first version of the magazine ''

Les Inrockuptibles ''Les Inrockuptibles'' () is a French cultural magazine. Started as a monthly magazine in 1986, it became weekly in 1995. Now it is a monthly again, since 2021. In the beginning, rock and roll, rock music was the magazine's primary focus, though ...

'' and has written for '' VSD'', ''7 à Paris'', ''Actuel'', and ''

Le Monde de la musique ''Le Monde de la musique'' was a French monthly musical magazine published from 1978 to 2009 with a circulation of 20,000 copies in 2008. It was founded in 1978 by ''Le Monde'' and ''Télérama ''Télérama'' is a weekly French cultural and tel ...

''. He was the prime contractor for the "Dictionnaire du rock" (3 volumes, 2650 pages) which was published in 2000 by

Éditions Robert Laffont Éditions Robert Laffont is a book publishing company in France founded in 1941 by Robert Laffont. Its publications are distributed in almost all francophone countries, but mainly in France, Canada and in Belgium. It is considered one of the most ...

, and was a columnist time in issuing

Bernard Lenoir Bernard Lenoir (born 13 September 1945) is a former radio presenter. He was born in Algeria, which he left in 1962, working on the Côte d'Azur as a DJ. He briefly san in a surf pop group called ''Les Radis Beurre''. ''Best'' n°122, avril 1987) L ...

. He is a longtime friend of the singer Bono of U2, whom he first met him in 1980 while working as a music reporter for the magazine ''Le Monde de la musique''. Assayas finally convinced him to write a book of interviews. The final result, '' Bono on Bono: In Conversations with Michka Assayas'', was published in 2005. From September 2008 to June 2012, he hosted a weekly show on Sunday at 22 pm on the history of rock, 21 Subjective on

France Musique France Musique is a French national public radio channel owned and operated by Radio France. It is devoted to the broadcasting of music, both live and recorded, with particular emphasis on classical music and jazz. History The channel was launch ...

Novels

*''Empty years'' (1990) *''In her skin'' (1994) *''Exhibition, Prix des Deux Magots'' (2002) *''Solo'' (2009) *''Without identity'' (2011)

Chronicles

*''Backfire'' (1991)

About rock

*''The Beatles and the Sixties (W5 Series) (with Claudius) (1997) '' *''Dictionary of rock'' (as editor) (2000) *''Bono on Bono: Conversations with Michka Assayas'' (2005) *''John Lennon: Unfinished Music'' (with Claude Chastagner, Emma Lavigne and Grazia Caroni) (2005) *''New Wave, Photo-Journal from 1977 to 1983'' (with Pierre René Worms) (2009)

Screenplays

*'' Sushi Sushi'' movie by Laurent Perrin (1991) *''Sam enough'' movie by Virginia Thevenet (1992)

Prefaces

*''Fire in the life of Jean-René Huguenin'' (1987) *''Syd Barrett: The lost genius of Pink Floyd Tim Willis'' (2004) *''1001 albums that must be listened to in his life: Rock, Hip Hop, Soul, Dance, World Music, Pop, Techno'' (2006)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Assayas, Michka 20th-century French journalists 21st-century French journalists French music journalists French people of Turkish-Jewish descent French people of Hungarian descent 20th-century French novelists 21st-century French novelists French male screenwriters French screenwriters Writers from Paris ENS Fontenay-Saint-Cloud-Lyon alumni Prix des Deux Magots winners 1958 births Living people Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres French male novelists 20th-century French male writers 21st-century French male writers French male non-fiction writers French Sephardi Jews Mizrahi Jews