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Patrick Autréaux

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Patrick Autréaux
Patrick Autréaux (2020)
Patrick Autréaux (2020)
Born (1968-03-14) 14 March 1968 (age 56)
Melun, France
OccupationNovelist
GenreLiterary fiction

Patrick Autréaux is a French writer who has held appointments as a writer-in-residence at Boston University (2018–2019, and 2024)[1] and a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2018).[2] After training in medicine and anthropology, he practiced as an emergency-room psychiatrist in Paris and started writing poetry and contemporary art reviews before publishing fiction. He is affiliated with MIT French +.

An early experience with cancer led him to write three books on the topic of illness: Dans la vallée des larmes, Soigner et Se survivre. Dans la vallée des larmes relates the experience of a thirty-five year old doctor coming to terms with a lymphoma whose diagnosis had been suddenly announced.[3] Soigner is about a patient in remission who resumes his previous role of doctor and cares for his dying grandfather.[4] Se survivre consists of seven meditations on the state of illness.[5]

Since these early writings, his work has developed in new directions: a hidden family drama that unravels during the expulsion of an undocumented person in France (Les Irréguliers), the agitation of a tree shaken by a storm as a metaphor for the loss of a loved one (Le grand vivant) and a narrative retracing Autréaux's personal journey between medicine and literature (La Voix écrite).[6] Les Irréguliers was born out of the experience the author had when seeking news of a detained undocumented friend. Le grand vivant labels itself a “standing poem” which brings to life the dying moments of a beloved grandfather, who until his last breath, had sheltered the presence of his deceased wife and was in the eyes of his grandson, a protective figure.” Le grand vivant was performed in 2015 the French Avignon theater festival. Lastly, La Voix écrite is an autobiographical tale on the long road to writing. This tale speak particularly of the relationship between the author and his former editor “Max” behind whom we decipher “the protective figure of J.-B. Pontalis”, psychoanalyst and editor at Gallimard.[7]

About his novel Quand la parole attend la nuit (Verdier, 2019, selected for the Prix Femina and Prix Décembre),[8][9] the French literary journal AOC noted, “The learning in question here is much broader than that of becoming a practitioner. The art of medicine for Patrick Autréaux is the art of being in the world or, to use one of his terms, of being in the ‘cosmos'.’”[10] His book Pussyboy (Verdier, 2021) is "a strong, disturbing, and daring story without ever being raw, radical in everything it reveals",[11] and according to Diacritik "one of the most important books in recent years"[12] that also signals a new inflection in his work.

Patrick Autréaux announced in 2023 the opening of an autobiographical cycle, titled Constat,[13][14] with the release of The Saint of the Family. Liberation described it as “a text on faith written by an atheist and whose engine is ‘care’ in the strong sense of the term: a concern, a generous responsibility as much as a therapeutic intervention.”[15] The French literary journal Zone Critique[16] added, “The saint of the family is none other than Thérèse de Lisieux, in short Sainte Thérèse... Here, she almost makes herself an imaginary friend of the child in the story... No family inquiry, no hidden motives, or aggressive vindictiveness, but the observation of a reality that was and its progressive surfacing under the watchful reader’s eyes. If the text deploys an attempt to unmask, it is not to reveal any mystery therefore, but to consider the other side of the coin, the flip side of history.” AOC further calls it “a journey along which illusions fall away, the inessential fades away and the meaning of things becomes clearer.”[17]

Patrick Autréaux's work has also been published in numerous journals (such as Esprit, Europe, NRF, Socrates on the beach,[18] MuseMedusa,[19] Lettres Françaises, Décapage, Mettray, Zone Critique, etc.). His poetry has appeared, amongst other outlets, in Phréatique, Poésie 91, Van (Ho Chi Minh City), MuseMedusa (Canada), Sarrazine, Noto, REVU, Margelles, and Catastrophes.[20]

In 2022, he was a Fellow at The Dora Maar House (Nancy B. Negley Artists Residency Program);[21] and in 2023, writer-in-residence at the Internationale House of Literature in Brussels (Passa Porta).

Political positions :

In 2016, Autréaux published with the Diderot Institute a polemical take on the terrorist attack, “Je suis Charlie, un an après”, written for a round table at Harvard University and Boston University.[22][23] And in 2019, Politis published an open letter to his representative LREM about the Yellow Vest Protests: "Congresswoman, why I don't believe you"[24]

List of Works

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Works of fiction

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Translations

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Essays and articles

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Writings on art

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  • madé ou l’Art de la synecdoque (galerie Intérieure, Lille), 2005
  • L’Ithaque d’André Le Bozec (Musée Matisse du Cateau-Cambrésis), 2005
  • Un homme heureux. Portrait d’un collectionneur, in catalogue de la donation Le Bozec (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Cambrai), 2007
  • Parole à voir : dialogues en noir blanc gris (Musée des Ursulines, Mâcon), 20O9
  • Sous-bois, huiles de L. B. Spadavecchia (Faisanderie de Sénart, Étiolles), 2010
  • Alix Le Méléder (galerie Bernard Zürcher, Paris), 2010
  • Vrai corps, œuvres sur papier de Bertrand Lagadec, (Atelier blanc, Champlay), 2010
  • Guy de Lussigny ou L’Art des arlequinades décomposées (catalog on Lussigny, (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Cambrai), 2010
  • Les deux éternités, ardoises de Nicolas Kennett, in "Escaut : rives, dérives" (Somogy Éditions d'art), 2011
  • … du printemps de Thierry Thieû Niang, Éditions du Musée d'Art contemporain du Val-de-Marne|Mac/Val, 2013
  • Texte et entretien in Alix Le Méléder - Traces, peintures, Éditions Tituli, 2016
  • Still life selon TM, préface à Qu'en moi Tokyo s'anonyme de Thibault Marthouret, Éditions Abordo, 2018
  • Eve Gramatzki, l’extase empêchée, in Eve Gramatzki, une histoire critique, 1972–2022, Éditions Méridianes, 2022

Interviews

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Awards and distinctions

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  • Laureate of the Villa Marguerite-Yourcenar 2011
  • Amic Prize Winner, Prix de l'Académie française 2012
  • Laureate of the Paris-Québec Fellowship 2012
  • Writing Residency Winner, Fondation des Treilles 2015
  • Prix Coupleux-Lassalle 2016
  • Hemingway Grants for translation (Institut français de New York) 2018
  • Writer-in-residence at Boston University (Boston, USA) 2018–2019
  • Dora Maar House fellow (Brown Foundation) 2022
  • Writer-in-Residence at Passa Porta[27] (International house of literature in Brussels)
  • Writer-in-residence at Boston University (Boston, USA) 2024

References

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  1. ^ Boston University. "Patrick Autréaux". Boston University. Archived from the original on 11 March 2018. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  2. ^ Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Patrick Autréaux". Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved 10 March 2018.[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ René de Ceccatty (2 July 2009). ""Dans la vallée des larmes", de Patrick Autréaux : rescapé du naufrage". Le Monde. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
  4. ^ Dominque Lecourt (28 September 2010). "Soigner". La Croix. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
  5. ^ Nathalie Crom (17 June 2013). "Se survivre". Télérama. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
  6. ^ "Strangeness From Within: Toward a Novel". WBUR. 10 June 2018.
  7. ^ Joubert, Sophie (2017-03-17). "La foi en l'écriture et le gardien du seuil". L'Humanite (in French). Paris. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  8. ^ "Le Femina dévoile ses premières sélections 2019". Livres Hebdo (in French). Retrieved 2019-09-21.
  9. ^ "La première sélection du prix Décembre 2019". Livres Hebdo (in French). Retrieved 2019-09-21.
  10. ^ Kantcheff, Christophe (2019-09-08). "Une éducation de carabin – à propos de Quand la parole attend la nuit de Patrick Autréaux - AOC media". AOC media - Analyse Opinion Critique (in French). Retrieved 2023-09-15.
  11. ^ Lecaplain, Guillaume. "L'extase selon Patrick Autréaux". Libération (in French). Retrieved 2023-09-15.
  12. ^ Faerber, Johan (2023-01-09). "Patrick Autréaux : " On écrit souvent là où ça cloche " (La Sainte de la famille)". DIACRITIK (in French). Retrieved 2023-09-15.
  13. ^ Napoli, Gabrielle (2023-02-07). "La sainte de la famille, de Patrick Autréaux : Thérèse et moi". En attendant Nadeau (in French). Retrieved 2023-09-15.
  14. ^ Faerber, Johan (2023-01-09). "Patrick Autréaux : " On écrit souvent là où ça cloche " (La Sainte de la famille)". DIACRITIK (in French). Retrieved 2023-09-15.
  15. ^ Loret, Eric. "Patrick Autréaux, Lisieux dans les yeux". Libération (in French). Retrieved 2023-09-15.
  16. ^ Perez, Rodolphe (2023-01-12). "Patrick Autréaux : Le fil de Thérèse ou le témoin advenu". ZONE CRITIQUE. Retrieved 2023-09-15.
  17. ^ Kantcheff, Christophe (2023-02-13). "Main dans la main – sur La Sainte de la famille de Patrick Autréaux - AOC media". AOC media - Analyse Opinion Critique (in French). Retrieved 2023-09-15.
  18. ^ "Patrick Autréaux's "A School of Life"". Socrates on the Beach. Retrieved 2023-09-15.
  19. ^ "Le gué – MuseMedusa". musemedusa.com. Retrieved 2023-09-15.
  20. ^ "Cinq poèmes". Catastrophes (in French). 2022-09-08. Retrieved 2023-09-15.
  21. ^ "Directory of fellows". The Dora Maar Cultural Center. Fondation Nancy Brown Negley. Retrieved 7 September 2023.
  22. ^ "Violence, Literature, and Politics". Boston University Pardee School of Global Studies. 15 April 2015.
  23. ^ "Patrick Autréaux : " Rendre compte de la violence et des non-dits "". Politis.fr. 17 February 2016. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  24. ^ "Madame la députée En marche, pourquoi je ne vous crois pas…". POLITIS (in French). 2019-01-23. Retrieved 2023-09-19.
  25. ^ "Sublunary Editions | Independent publisher". sublunaryeditions.com. Retrieved 2024-09-20.
  26. ^ La escritura al límite: escribir la sexualidad. Retrieved 2024-09-17 – via www.youtube.com.
  27. ^ "About Passa Porta- passa porta | Passa Porta". www.passaporta.be. Retrieved 2023-09-19.
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