The subject of the 2020 edition is writer Maryse Condé. Born as Maryse Boucolon at Pointe-á-Pitre, Guadeloupe, on February 11, 1937, her parents sent her to study at Lycée Fénelon and Sorbonne in Paris, where she majored in English. In 1959, she married Mamadou Condé, a Guinean actor. After graduating, she taught in Guinea, Ghana and Senegal. Winner of Le Grand Prix Litteraire de la Femme (1986), Le Prix de L’Académie Francaise (1988), Le Prix Carbet de la Caraibe (1997), the Margueritte Yourcenar Prize, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from New York University’s Africana studies program, Condé is the author of numerous novels, including Heremakhonon, Segu, Crossing the Mangrove, Tales from the Heart, Who Slashed Celanire’s Throat?, and The Story of the Cannibal Woman. In addition to her writings, Condé had a distinguished academic career. In 2004 she retired from Columbia University as Professor Emerita of French. She had previously taught at the University of California, Berkeley, UCLA.
- This event has passed.