Marie-Hélène Lafon (born 1962) is a French educator and award-winning writer. She was born in

Aurillac Aurillac (; ) is the prefecture of the Cantal department, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France. Geography Aurillac is at above sea level and located at the foot of the Cantal mountains in a small sedimentary basin. The city is b ...

in the

Cantal Cantal (; or ) is a rural Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region of France, with its Prefectures in France, prefecture in Aurillac. Its other principal towns are Saint-Flour, Cantal, Saint-Flou ...

department and grew up on the family farm there. She was educated at a religious

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...

in Saint-Flour and, after moving to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1980, continued her studies at the Sorbonne. She took her agrégation de grammaire in 1987, going on to teach classical literature. Lafon only began writing when she was 34, publishing her first novel ''Le soir du chien'' in 2001.

Selected works

Source: * ''Le soir du chien'', novel (2001), received the Prix Renaudot young adult * ''Liturgie'', stories (2002), received the Prix Renaissance de la Nouvelle * ''Sur la photo'', novel (2003) * ''Mo : roman'', novel (2005) * ''Organes'', stories (2006) * ''La maison Santoire'' (2007) * ''Les Derniers Indiens'', novel (2008) * ''L'annonce'', novel (2009) * ''Gordana'', novel (2009) * ''Les Pays'', novel (2012), received the Globe de Cristal Award * ''Album'', alphabet book (2012) * ''Tensions toniques - les récits de Marie-Hélène Lafon'', stories (2012) * ''Traversée'' (2013) * ''Joseph'' (2014) * ''Chantiers'' (2015) * ''Histoires'' (2016), received the Prix Goncourt de la nouvelle * ''Nos vies'' (2017) * ''Histoire du fils'' (2020), received the

Prix Renaudot The Prix Théophraste-Renaudot or () is a French literary award. History The prize was created in 1926 by ten art critics awaiting the results of deliberation of the jury of the Prix Goncourt. While not officially related to the Prix Goncour ...

Legacy

The university library of Letters, Languages and Human Sciences of

Clermont Auvergne University Clermont Auvergne University () is a public university, public research university with its main campus in Clermont-Ferrand, France. It was created with the merger of Blaise Pascal University and the University of Auvergne on 1 January 2017. C ...

was renamed in her name in October 2021.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lafon, Marie-Helene 1962 births Living people French women novelists Prix Goncourt de la nouvelle recipients French educators People from Aurillac Prix Renaudot winners Prix Renaudot des lycéens winners