Maryse Condé

Maryse Condé
Maryse Condé in 2008
Born	Maryse Boucolon (1937-02-11) 11 February 1937 (age 80) Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe
Language	French
Nationality	Guadeloupean
Education	Lycée Fénelon
Alma mater	University of Paris
Notable works	Segu
Spouse	Mamadou Condé

Maryse Condé (born February 11, 1937) is a French (Guadeloupean) author of historical fiction, best known for her novel Segu (1984–85). In addition, she is a scholar of Francophone literature and Professor Emerita of French at Columbia University.

She writes her novels in French and they have been translated into English and other languages. She has won Le Grand Prix Litteraire de la Femme (1986) and Le Prix de L’Académie Francaise (1988) for her works.

Born as Maryse Boucolon at Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, she was the youngest of eight children. After having graduated from high school, she attended Lycée Fénelon and the Sorbonne in Paris, where she majored in English.

In 1959, she married Mamadou Condé, a Guinean actor. They eventually had four children together.

After graduating, she taught in Guinea, Ghana (from where she was deported in the 1960s because of politics), and Senegal. She returned to Paris, and in 1965 completed her PhD in Caribbean literature at the Sorbonne.

In 1981, she and Condé divorced, having long been separated. The following year she married Richard Philcox, the English-language translator of most of her novels.

In 1985 Condé was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to teach in the US. She became a professor of French and Francophone literature at Columbia University in New York City. In addition to her creative writing, Condé has had a distinguished academic career. In 2004 she retired from Columbia University as Professor Emerita of French. She has also taught at the University of California, Berkeley; UCLA, the Sorbonne, The University of Virginia, and the University of Nanterre. She and her husband split their time between New York City and Guadeloupe.