Jean Portante (born 19 December 1950 in Differdange) is a Luxembourgish writer who resides in Paris. He has written novels, stories, plays, journalistic articles and poetry, and has been widely translated.
Numerous books have been translated including in English Point/Erasing, translated by Anne Marie Glasheen (Daedalus, 2003) and In Reality, translated by Zoë Skoulding (Seren Press, 2013). He is a translator of poetry into French from Spanish, Italian, English and German. His novels include Mrs Haroy ou la mémoire de la baleine (Editions Phi, 1997) among others, which has been translated into many languages, and he is also the author of the biography Allen Ginsberg: L'autre Amérique (Le Castor Astral, 1999). Portante’s collection of poems L’Etrange langue (Editions Le Taillis Pré, 2002) won the Mallarmé award in France in 2003, and the same year he was given the Grand Prix d’Automne de la Société des Gens de Lettres for his entire life’s work in poetry. In 2005, Le Castor Astral published a selected poems, La Cendre des mots, covering his work from 1989 to 2005. Since 2006 he has been a member of the Académie Mallarmé. In 2008 he co-founded the French poetry magazine Inuits dans la jungle with the poet Jacques Darras, while in Luxembourg he heads the literary magazine Transkrit. In 2011 he was awarded Luxembourg’s Batty Weber National Prize, which is given every three years for a life’s work. His latest books are En réalité (Editions Phi 2008); La réinvention de l'oubli (Editions le Castor Astral, 2010), Conceptions (Editions Phi, 2012) and Après le tremblement (Editions Le Castor Astral, 2013).
Life
As he describes in his novel Mrs Haroy ou la mémoire de la baleine, from an early age he felt like a world citizen.
However, for Jean Portante, French is a language outside the dyad Italy–Luxembourg, a language learned, tamed, but which always remains to be conquered. Portante called it a "strange language" (the title of one of his collections which was awarded the French Prix Mallarmé in 2003).[1]
Jean Portante started to write when he was 33 years. Before, he studied in Nancy, France. In 1983, when he wrote his first book of poems, Fire and mud, he moved to Paris. He translated works by Juan Gelman and Gonzalo Rojas into French.
Currently, he heads the Luxembourg collection Graphiti (poetry) editions. In France, he is a member of the Académie Mallarmé and the Prix Guillaume Apollinaire. In 2003 he received the Grand Award of the Society, for all his work, and the Prix Mallarmé. Previously, his novel Mrs. Haroy or the memory of the whale to be filmed in 2010 earned him Luxembourg's Servais Prize (best book of the year in any genre).
In Luxembourg, he founded in 2009 the literary magazine Transkrit, dedicated to translating contemporary literature, and Phi.[2] In France, he co-founded, with Jacques Darras and Jean-Yves Reuzeau, the journal Inuits dans la jungle, the first issue being published in June 2008.[3]
In March 2011, he was awarded the Batty Weber Prize for his work as a whole. The jury commented: "Since the beginning of the 1980s, Jean Portante has explored topics related to identity, from memory to forgetfulness, in various literary genres, especially poetry, the novel, drama and the essay. His literary style continues to evolve, marked by strong intertextuality, providing access to new interpretations and inciting pluralized reading." Mention was also made of Portante's efforts to "promote Luxembourg literature both at home and abroad".[4]
Awards
1986 Rutebeuf Prize for poetry, Horizon, vertige & italie intercalaire
1993 Tony Bourg Prize, Ouvert fermé (together with John Sorrento)
1994 Servais Prize, for Mrs Haroy ou la mémoire de la baleine
2003 Louis Montalto Poetry Award of the Society of Men of Letters, (for all his work)
Hexaméron. Dernier jour, suivi de Orphée au pays des mortels. Editions PHI, Luxembourg 2011
Essays
Allen Ginsberg. L’autre Amérique. Essai. Le Castor Astral, Paris, 1999.
Anthologie luxembourgeoise. Poésie. Ecrits des Forges, Trois-Rivières 1999
Journal croisé d'un tremblement de terre, Convivium, Luxembourg 2010
Books with artists (selection)
Promenade nocturne dans l’étang en fleur. Poèmes. Avec le peintre Paul di Felice et le compositeur Roland Kaber. Editions Kulturfabrik, Luxembourg 1984
Point dappui. Poèmes. Avec le peintre Scanreigh. Café des attributions, éditeur. Eymoutiers, 1999
Point de suspension. Poèmes. Avec le peintre Marek Sczcesny. Editions PHI, Luxembourg, 1999
L’olive provisoire, poèmes, avec la peintre Anne Slacik. Editions Trans-Signum, Paris mars 2004
Rue du Nord, poèmes, avec la peintre Yarmilla Vesovic, Editions l’Eventail, Tours mars 2004
La hache du pourquoi, poèmes avec Anne Slacik, Paris mai 2004
Le charbon descend, poèmes, avec Anne Slacik, Ed. Lucien Schweitzer, juillet 2004
Tous les feux sont éteints, poèmes, avec la peintre roumaine Augusta de Schucani. Éditions ICI & AILLEURS, Paris décembre 2004.
L’histoire est finie, poèmes avec le peintre luxembourgeois Jean-Marie Biwer, Ed. Red Fox, Irlande, mars 2005
Puisque je fouille dans les mots humides, avec la peintre française Anne Slacik. Éditions Brèche, Alain-Lucien Benoît, Rochefort du Gard, France, avril 2005
Les amants/le souffle, avec la peintre Génia Golendorf. Editions TransSignum, Paris, mars 2006.
Le partage des (p)eaux, avec la peintre Wanda Miluheac. Editions TransSignum, Paris, 2008.
Ce qui advient et ce qui n'advient pas, avec le peintre Robert Brandy, Redfox Press, Irlande, 2010
Le fabricant d’âmes, avec le peintre Bob Verschuuren, Editions Galerie Lucien Schweitzer, Luxembourg, janvier 2013
Translations (selection)
La dernière traversée de la Manche, de Pierre Joris. Poèmes. Editions PHI, Luxembourg 1995 – Hiver clinique, de Ioana Craciunescu. Poèmes. Editions PHI, Luxembourg 1996 – L’épiphanie de l’alphabet, de Maria Luisa Spaziani, Editions PHI. Poèmes Luxembourg 1997 – La cathédrale en flammes, de Guy Rewenig. Roman. Editions du Castor Astral. Paris 1997 – Obscur ouvert, de Juan Gelman. Editions PHI. Poèmes. Luxembourg 1997 – Christ avec renard urbain, de John F. Deane, Editions PHI. Poèmes. Luxembourg 1999 – Poèmes quotidiens, de Esteban S. Cobas. Editions Indigo, Paris 1999 – La nuit avant de monter à bord, de Daniel Samoilovitch. Editions PHI. Poèmes. Luxembourg 2001 – Salaires de l’impie et autres poèmes, de Juan Gelman. Editions PHI. Poèmes. Luxembourg 2002 – Un nirvana cruel, de Jerome Rotheberg. Editions PHI. Poèmes. Luxembourg 2002 – L’illuminé, de Gonzalo Rojas. Editions Myriam Solal. Poèmes. Paris 2003 – Par dessus l’épaule du poème, de Milan Richter, traduction collective, dans le cadre des ateliers de traduction de la poésie contemporaine de l’IPW. Editions PHI, Luxembourg, 2005. – Travaux en vert, de Simona Popescu, traduction collective, dans le cadre des ateliers de traduction de la poésie contemporaine de l’IPW. Editions PHI, Luxembourg, 2007. – Hagen interroge Siegfried sur les oiseaux, de Hans D. Gräf, Editions Alidades, Paris, 2010 – Maria Mariosh, de Reina Maria Rodriguez. Ed. Horizontes insulares, Canaries, 2010 – Espace où tout est bord, de Aléxis Gómez Rosa, Ed, Horizontes Insulares, Canaries, 2010 – Une étrange odeur de monde, de Víctor Rodríguez Nuñez, Editions L'Oreille du loup, Paris, 2011 – L'Amant mondial, de Juan Gelman, Editions Caractères, Paris, 2012 – Pologne/1931 de Jerome Rothenberg, Editions Caractères, Paris, 2013 – Blues en seize, de Stefano Benni, Editions PHI, Luxembourg, 2013
CD: (selection)
CD (and vidéo) Peauéphoné, musique de Jean-Louis Dhermy à partir du texte de Jean Portante : le partage des peaux
CD La Strana lingua. Roberto Carosone canta Jean Portante
Manfred Schmeling, Monika Schmitz-Emans, Multilinguale Literatur im 20. Jahrhundert, Verlag Königshausen & Neumann, 2002, p. 158 ff
Bertrand Westphal, "Orpheus or the art of moving forward: time and history in the novels of Jean Portante:" Swiss journal of Romance Literature No. 29, 1996
