Pierre Michon
{{short description|French writer (born 1945)}}
{{BLP sources|date=May 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2022}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Pierre Michon
| image = Pierre Michon (cropped).jpg
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption =
| pseudonym =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1945|03|28|df=y}}
| birth_place = Châtelus-le-Marcheix, Creuse, France
| death_date =
| death_place =
| resting_place =
| occupation =
| language =
| nationality = French
| education =
| alma_mater =
| period =
| genre = Fiction
| subject =
| movement =
| notableworks =
| spouse = Yaël Pachet
| partner =
| children =
| relatives =
| awards = {{unbulleted list|International Nonino Prize (2017)|Franz Kafka Prize (2019)}}
| signature =
| signature_alt =
| module =
| website =
| portaldisp =
}}
Pierre Michon (born 28 March 1945 in Châtelus-le-Marcheix, Creuse) is a French writer. His first novel, Small Lives (1984), is widely regarded as a genuine masterpiece in contemporary French literature.Le Monde concluded its review with "this beautiful, shuddering text, written with exact mastery, tends towards appeasement. The writing, touched by grace, gives substance to fading souls: that's justification, if any were needed. It consoles us for the indecency of life, which imposes the painful feeling of being too much, of having done nothing for it, and of having to apologise for it." He has won several prizes for Small Lives and for The Origin of the World (1996) as well as for his body of work. His novels and stories have been translated into German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Portuguese, Polish, Serbian, Czech, Norwegian, Estonian, Japanese and English. He won the 2017 International Nonino Prize in Italy.
{{blockquote|With an oeuvre consisting of a stunning confessional novel—Vies minuscules (1984)—and a series of Plutarch-like "lives" devoted to famous artists and poets, Michon commands respect as a sensitive author and gifted stylist who seeks to comprehend how we can make sense out of the irrepressible impulses and unavoidable failures that fill our lives. Whether he is charting the misfortunes of the lowly, portraying his own difficult rise from rural poverty and a broken family to the completion of his first book, or plunging into the destinies of Watteau, Goya, Rimbaud, or Van Gogh, Michon poignantly captures the essence of the compelling courses our lives take.{{cite book|author=Taylor, John|chapter=Of Dignity and Destiny (Pierre Michon) | pages=82–86 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JUeuiFsdIqUC&pg=PA82 | isbn=978-1-4128-3054-6 | title=Paths to Contemporary French Literature | volume=1 | date=31 December 2011 | publisher=Transaction Publishers }} (quote from p. 82)}}
Works
- 1984: Small Lives (Vies minuscules).
- Translated by Jody Gladding and Elizabeth Deshays for Archipelago Books, 2008.
- 1988: Life of Joseph Roulin (Vie de Joseph Roulin).''
- Translated by Wyatt Mason for Mercury House and included in Masters and Servants, 1997.
- 1997: L'empereur d'Occident.
- 1990: Masters and Servants (Maîtres et serviteurs).
- Translated by Wyatt Mason for Mercury House, 1997.
- 1991: Rimbaud the Son (Rimbaud le fils).{{cite book|author=Magedera, Ian H.|chapter=Pierre Michon's biographical fiction (about Rimbaud)|pages=239–250|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OeKaBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA239 | isbn=978-94-012-1143-7 | title=Outsider Biographies: Savage, de Sade, Wainewright, Ned Kelly, Billy the Kid, Rimbaud and Genet: Base Crime and High Art in Biography and Bio-Fiction, 1744-2000 | date=September 2014 | publisher=Rodopi }}
- Translated by Jody Gladding and Elizabeth Deshays for Yale University Press, 2013.
- 1996: The Origin of the World (La Grande Beune).
- Translated by Wyatt Mason for Mercury House, 2002.
- 1996: The King of the Wood (Le roi du bois).
- Translated by Wyatt Mason for Mercury House and included in Masters and Servants, 1997.
- 1997: Trois auteurs.
- 1997: Winter Mythologies (Mythologies d'hiver).
- Translated by Ann Jefferson for Yale University Press, 2017.
- 2002: Abbots (Abbés).
- Translated by Ann Jefferson for Yale University Press, 2017.
- 2002: Corps du roi.
- 2007: Le roi vient quand il veut : propos sur la littérature.
- 2009: The Eleven (Les Onze).
- Translated by Jody Gladding and Elizabeth Deshays for Archipelago Books, 2013.
Awards
References
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20051013150338/http://www.editions-verdier.fr/v2/auteur-michon.html Pierre Michon at publisher's site] (in French)
- [http://www.remue.net/cont/michon.html Pierre Michon at remue.net] (in French)
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110721194529/http://auteurs.contemporain.info/pierre-michon/ Critical bibliography (Auteurs.contemporain.info)] (in French)
- [http://www.mercuryhouse.org/michon.html Pierre Michon at Mercury House] (English translations)
{{Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Michon, Pierre}}
Category:20th-century French non-fiction writers
Category:21st-century French non-fiction writers
Category:Prix Décembre winners
Category:Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française winners
Category:20th-century French male writers
{{France-writer-stub}}