Jean Portante

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).

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). 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. 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. 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".

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• Projets pour un naufrage prémédité. Ed. PHI, Luxembourg, 1987 • Un deux cha cha cha. Ed. PHI, Luxembourg, 1990 • Mrs Haroy ou la mémoire de la baleine, Editions PHI, Luxembourg, 1997 • Mourir partout sauf à Differdange. Roman. Editions PHI, Luxembourg, 2003

• Feu et boue, Editions Caractères, Paris 1983 • L’instant des nœuds, Editions Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris 1984 • Méandres, Editions du Guichet, Paris 1985 • Horizon, vertige & italie intercalaire, Editions Arcam, Paris 1986 (Prix Rutebeuf) • Ex-odes, Editions PHI, Luxembourg 1991 • Ouvert fermé, Editions PHI/L’Orange Bleue 1994 • Effaçonner, poèmes. Editions PHI/Ecrits des Forges. Luxembourg/Québec 1996 • Point. Poèmes. Editions PHI/L’Orange Bleue 1999. • La morte del padre. En plein edizioni. Milan 1999 • La pluie comme un œil. Poèmes. Editions Empreintes, Lausanne 2001 • L’étrange langue. Poèmes. Editions Le Taillis Pré, Namur 2002 (Prix Mallarmé) • L’arbre de la disparition, poèmes, Editions PHI/Ecrits des Forges, Luxembourg/Québec 2004 • La cendre des mots. Anthologie personnelle. Editions Le Castor Astral, Paris. Juin 2005. • Le travail du poumon, Editions Le Castor Astral, Paris, mars 2007. • Je veux dire, poème, Editions Estuaires, Luxembourg, novembre 2007 • En réalité, poème, Editions PHI, Luxembourg, juin 2008 • La réinvention de l'oubli, Editions Le Castor Astral, Paris, juin 2010 • Conceptions, Editions PHI, Luxembourg, juin 2012 • Après le tremblement, Editions Le Castor Astral, Paris, mai 2013 • La Tristesse Cosmique, Editions PHI, Paris, 2017.

• Le mariage de Pythagore, Teatro Vivace, Luxembourg 1995 • Destin Destination. Théâtre. Editions PHI, Luxembourg 1998 • Hexaméron. Dernier jour, suivi de Orphée au pays des mortels. Editions PHI, Luxembourg 2011

• 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

• jeanportante.lu • 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