Michèle Gautard
Writer - author (novels, books of poetry, plays)
Member of the Society of French writers - Société des Gens de Lettres (SGDL)
Member of la SOFIA
Website: https://ecrivainmichelegautard.com
Blog: https://michele-gautard.blogspot.com
University education: Graduated from University Paris VII - English Institute Charles V (literature) - A degree (British literature) and a master’s degree (American literature).
Activity as writer: For several decades, she has been involved in a research and creation work, mainly based on the writing of notebooks (more than 250 and ongoing). Pages on which she has developed intimate and inner thoughts on being and writing; punctuated with impressions on the world from her numerous travels.
Notebooks are sometimes like wide-open spaces or sometimes they are “dormer windows” opened on the inner being. Some of these pages became bridges which drove her to write a novel, a book of poetry or sometimes a play.
Several of her novels took unexpected forms and became works close to “experimental”. These novels have been written “vertically”, as if they were long poems. One of them was written without punctuation. This “vertical” way of writing became a space where prose and poetry were interwoven for devising fictional stories or novels.
She had also written journal, few short stories and various texts (mainly about painting exhibitions) and articles (analysis of films, books, performing arts and live theater).
The works:
2006, “L’âme de fond” - first novel
2007,
first book of poetry “Au bord des choses” (Publisher, Les Éditions du Net),
translated into German by Rüdiger Fischer, into Italian by Enzo Pelli and into English by the author.
Other books of poetry:
“Le jardin des césures” (Publisher, Éditions Unicité) “Dits-Vers” (Publisher, Les Éditions du Net)
“Vers solitude”
“Partition silencieuse”
These poems were published in several magazines and anthologies in France and abroad.
In 2011 she was invited to read her poems at the French Institute in Berlin during the night of poetry.
· In 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 she was one of the ten winners of the competitions of poetry organized by the collective of the associations of staff of the Ministry of Culture and Communication.
· In 2018 she got a diploma of honor from the Association of French Poets for the book of poetry « Vers solitude ».
Novels written « vertically »:
« Le goût de l’autre » (Publisher, Les Éditions du Net)
« Les amants irradiés » (Publisher, Les Éditions du Net)
« Elles »
Novels:
· « Des hommes en chemin » (Publisher, Les Éditions du Net)
· « L’ange noir »
· « Les anges blessés »
· « Sendai, mon amour » an adaptation from the vertical version entitled “Elles”.
· « Les portes du silence » an adaptation from the vertical version entitled « Le goût de l’autre ».
Notebooks and journal:
· « Encore un jour, l’éternité » The last pages of a life on the edge of the last breath. (Publisher, Les Éditions du Net)
This work was translated into German by Rüdiger Fischer (Noch ein Tag vor der Ewigkeit).
· « Lettres namibiennes » A travel notebook.
· « Journal de cendres » hybrid work (Short stories, poetry, theatre, some pages of a journal…)
Plays :
· « À l’aube de la nuit »
· « Quand s’échappe la lumière »
PUBLICATIONS:
· Publisher, Éditions Unicité « Le jardin des césures»
http://www.editions-unicite.fr/auteurs/GAUTARD-Michele/le-jardin-des-cesures/index.php
· Publisher, Les Éditions du Net - Digital platform, non-exclusive publication at Publisher’s expense (digital and paper publication)
« Des hommes en chemin », « Au bord des choses », « Le goût de l’autre », « Dits-Vers », « Les amants irradiés » and « Encore un jour, l’éternité »
https://www.leseditionsdunet.com/livre/encore-un-jour-leternite
https://www.leseditionsdunet.com/livre/les-amants-irradies
https://www.leseditionsdunet.com/livre/dits-vers
https://www.leseditionsdunet.com/livre/le-gout-de-lautre
https://www.leseditionsdunet.com/livre/au-bord-des-choses
https://www.leseditionsdunet.com/livre/des-hommes-en-chemin
Other creation: “Carnet d’automne” A giant notebook imagined and devised by Michèle Gautard but made with the help of the talented bookbinder Gilles Barnett. 200 pages were hand-sewed. The size of this notebook is 90 cm long, 70 cm wide, 1m40 opened pages. Weight: 30 kilos. A work of writing in progress.
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She conducted her writing work in parallel with her professional activity.
Since 2018, she has decided to be a full-time writer.
Professional activity:
International Development Manager and Representative for Festivals at the Production Department of INA (Institut National de l’Audiovisuel)
· Head of International co-productions in the field of documentaries. She closely worked with numerous documentary film makers. She pitched worldwide their film projects (international markets and conferences, panels, world premiere in New-York …) and helped them in developing their content for fitting the international broadcasting and to finance their films. Then she promoted their documentary films in worldwide festivals.
· She also initiated, devised and managed an international workshop for INA Production. The objective of this workshop was to devise international creative documentary films from the genesis of a project in common with international broadcasters. This workshop was composed of French producers and international commissioning editors. A certain number of films were produced from this synergy.
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