Gilles Vigneault is a Québécois poet, publisher, singer-songwriter, and Quebec nationalist and sovereigntist. Two of his songs are considered by many to be Quebec's unofficial anthems: "Mon pays" and "Gens du pays", and his line Mon pays ce n'est pas un pays, c'est l'hiver became a proverb in Quebec. Vigneault is a Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec, Knight of the Legion of Honour, and Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Tanella Suzanne Boni is an Ivorian poet and novelist. Also an academic, she is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Abidjan. Apart from her teaching and research activities, she was the President of the Association of writers of the Côte d'Ivoire from 1991 to 1997, and later the organizer of the International Poetry Festival in Abidjan from 1998 to 2002.
Sony Lab'ou Tansi, born Marcel Ntsoni, was a Congolese novelist, short-story writer, playwright, and poet. Though he was only 47 when he died, Tansi remains one of the most prolific African writers and the most internationally renowned practitioner of the "New African Writing." His novel The Antipeople won the Grand Prix Littéraire d'Afrique Noire. In his later years, he ran a theatrical company in Brazzaville in the Republic of the Congo.
Tchicaya U Tam'si was a Congolese author; his pen name means "small paper that speaks for its country" in Kikongo.
Benjamin Sehene is a Rwandan author whose work primarily focuses on questions of identity and the events surrounding the Rwandan genocide. He spent much of his life in Canada and lives in France.
Salim Jay is a Franco-Moroccan novelist, essayist and literary critic living in France. He has written about 20 books, numerous essays and more than thousand newspaper articles.
Issa Asgarally is a Mauritian doctor in linguistics and a professor at the Mauritius Institute of Education. He is regarded as a leading intellectual figure on the island and is influential in literature and the media. His native language is Mauritian Creole, though he is fluent in French and English as well.
The Rue de l'Arbre-Sec is an old street located in the 1st arrondissement of Lyon, near the Place des Terreaux and the Opera Nouvel. It starts perpendicular to the rue Édouard-Herriot and ends with the Quai Jean Moulin crossing the rue de la République. The name dates from the 14th century and was probably chosen because of a dry tree that could be seen in this street and of an inn sign.
Charles Le Quintrec was a French poet. He was born in Plescop and died in Lorient in Brittany.
Alphonse Du Breuil or Dubreil was a French botanist and horticulturist. He was born and died in Rouen. In the Jardin des Plantes de Rouen he started the first school for the care of fruit trees. From 1853 he was professor of arboriculture at the Conservatoire des arts et métiers in Paris, and from 1848 was professor of agriculture at the École d'Agriculture.
The Tém an ethnic group of Togo, but also found in Benin and Ghana. There is reported to be about 417,000 of the Tém, with 339,000 in Togo, 60,000 in Ghana and 18,000 in Benin. They speak the Tem language.
Samira Negrouche, francophone Algerian writer and poet, born in Algiers, on September 13, 1980. Also a Medical Doctor, she lives and works in Algeria.
Mitsou Ronat was a French poet, linguist and specialist of literary theory.
Esther Nirina, was a Malagasy poet. Born in 1932 in Madagascar, she lived in Orléans, France from 1953 to 1983, working as a librarian, before returning to Madagascar and establishing herself as a poet. During her career, Nirina was a member of the Académie Malagache, and head of the Society of the Writers of the Indian Ocean (SEROI). Her volume of poetry Simple voyelle was awarded the ADELF Grand Prix Littérature de Madagascar.
The prix Broquette-Gonin was a former prize awarded by the Académie française.
Yahia Belaskri is an Algerian journalist, novelist and short story writer. He is the author of four novels and the recipient of two literary prizes.
Jean-Christophe Bailly is a French writer, poet and playwright.
Diane Jacquin de Margerie is a French woman of letters and translator from English.
Pierre Bourgeade was a French man of letters, playwright, poet, writer, director, journalist, literary critic and photographer. A descendant of Jean Racine, he was also the brother-in-law of the writer Paule Constant.
Valentine Goby is a French writer.
