Michèle Causse

• Born — 29 July 1936 • Birthplace — Martel, Lot, France • Died — 29 July 2010 • Place of death — Zurich, Switzerland • Occupation — Author • Known for — Radical activism

Causse was born in the Martel region of Lot in France. She later taught in Tunisia, and then lived for ten years in Rome, where she studied Chinese. After that, she moved to Martinique and then to the United States before emigrating to Canada.

Causse translated between the French, English, and Italian languages and was fluent in all three languages. Her translations of works included texts by Herman Melville, Gertrude Stein, Ti-Grace Atkinson, Djuna Barnes, Jane Bowles, Willa Cather, Mary Daly, Ignazio Silone, and Alice Munro.

In her last years, she lived in the southwest of France. Causse chose to end her life on her 74th birthday, with assistance from Dignitas, a Swiss non-profit organization for physician-assisted suicide. Although Causse had no terminal illness, she listed several medical issues as reasoning for her medically-assisted death, including vertebral compression fractures exacerbated by osteoporosis, the loss of a kidney, and asthma. She died on 29 July 2010. Her death was filmed and shown in the documentary Dignitas - la mort sur ordonnance, which aired on Swiss television.

• La narrée navrée, lecture, Centenaire de Violette Leduc, video, Arras, 2007 • Une écrivain en terres occupées, film de Michel Garcia-Luna, DVD 47mn20, Ed. Lunaprod, 2005 • Corps de paroles, film of Suzanne Vertue and Dianne Heffernan, 37mn, Video-elles, Montreal, 1989 • A la lettre, cassette, Ed. Anne-Marie Alonzo, Montréal

• Nomen est omen, post-face in "Défigures du soi", (inédit) • Claude Cahun ou la mutante héroïque, Pour une anthologie des créatrices lesbiennes dans la Résistance, a cura di Paola Guazzo, Bagdam Espace Lesbien, avril 2008 • La narrée navrée, Centenaire de Violette Leduc, Revue Trésors à prendre, dir. Elisabeth Seys, 2007 • Inside Deep throat, commentary on the film Deep Throat, in collaboration with Katy Barasc, Sysiphe, 2006 • Pourquoi les gays ne peuvent-ils pas être les alliés objectifs des lesbiennes?, Les Pénélopes, 2002, Bagdam Espace Lesbien, 2006 • Noir dessein (lettre à Nicolas Hulot), Bagdam Espace Lesbien, 2006 • Le genre comme espace de contention, Université de Beyrouth, 2005 • A propos de Lynndie England: Tragédie de la mimesis ou comment muer l'objet en sujet répréhensible, in collaboration with Katy Barasc, Sysiphe, 2004 • Qui a peur de Valerie Solanas?, Bagdam Espace Edition, Toulouse, 2004, pages 19–35 • Hommage à Monique Wittig, Tribute to Monique Wittig. Extrait du chapitre "La grande Pérégrine" in Voyages de la Grande Naine en Androssie (Ed. Trois, Montréal, 1993), numéro spécial, Labrys-études féministes, Brasília-Montreal-Paris, September 2003 • Sur le voile, Sisyphe, 2003 • Une politique textuelle inédite: l'alphalecte in Lesbianisme et féminisme. Histoires politiques, Ed. L'harmattan, 2002 • L'universite: Alma mater ou père indigne?, 2e Colloque international d'études lesbiennes: La grande dissidence et le grand effroi, Actes du colloque Espace lesbien n° 2, Bagdam Espace Edition, Toulouse, 2001

Michèle Causse is recorded with the occupation biographer. Recorded as linguist, translator, poet, biographer and essayist.