Rodney Saint-Éloi. Haiti-born poet, essayist, and publisher Rodney Saint-Éloi authored fifteen books of poetry, such as Je suis la fille du baobab brûlé (finalist for the Prix des libraires [Booksellers award] and the Governor General’s Award in 2015), and Jacques Roche, je t’écris cette lettre (finalist for the Governor General’s Award in 2013). He directs several anthologies. He published Haïti Kenbe la! in 2010 through Michel Lafon (including a preface by Yasmina Khadra), Passion Haïti, Quebec, Septentrion, 2016; Paris Grandvaux, 2019. For the stage, he has directed several shows including Les Bruits du monde, Cabarets Roumain, Senghor, Césaire, Frankétienne. He also authored an essay titled Passion Haïti (Septentrion, 2016). He has received the prestigious Charles-Biddle Award in 2012, was inducted into the Académie des lettres du Québec in 2015, and promoted to Companion of Arts and Letters by the Canada Council for the Arts in 2019. He founded the Mémoire d’encrier publishing house in Montreal in 2003, which he still directs. His latest work includes Nous ne trahirons pas le poème (Mémoire d’encrier, 2019); Quand il fait triste, Bertha chante (Québec Amérique, 2020). An anthology of his poems was published in the famous Collection Points (Éditions du Seuil) in May 2021.
Portrait credit: Martine Doyon.
Banner image: provided by the artist.
