Frankétienne

Frankétienne (born Jean-Pierre Basilic Dantor Franck Étienne d'Argent; 12 April 1936 – 20 February 2025) was a Haitian novelist, poet, playwright, and painter. He was seen as Haiti's best known writers and playwrights. He was known as the "father of Haitian letters". He was known for writing the first novel to be written entirely in Haitian Creole.

Frankétienne was a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2009. He was named UNESCO Artist for Peace in 2010.

Career
His first novel, Mûr à crever, was published in 1968. Frankétienne's novel, Dézafi (1975), was the first novel written entirely in Haitian Creole. It was an allegory about slavery and political oppression.

He began to paint in 1973 and the first exhibition of his paintings took place in Port-au-Prince in 1974. As of 2004, he had made about a thousand paintings. His style was "expressive" and "abstract," often favoring red and blue, the colors of the Haitian flag.

Following his death, Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé said that Frankétienne "carried the soul of Haiti" in his writings.

Death
Frankétienne died in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on 20 February 2025, at the age of 88. 

Some works
 Au Fil du Temps (1964)
 Mûr à Crever (1968)
 Ultravocal (1972)
 Dézafi (1975)
 Trofouban (1977)
 Pèlin-Tèt (1978)
 Bobomasouri (1984)
 Kaselezo (1985)
 Totolomannwe (1986)
 Adjanoumelezo (1987)
 L'oiseau-schizophone (1993)
 H'Eros-Chimères (2002)
 Désastre (12 janvier 2010), painting
 Difficile émergence vers la lumière, painting

References

Category:1936 births
Category:2025 deaths
Category:Haitian musicians
Category:Novelists
Category:Poets
Category:Playwrights
Category:Painters