Alice Zeniter

Alice Zeniter is a French novelist, playwright, and stage director whose work has gained significant international recognition. Born in Clamart, France, to a French mother and an Algerian father, her bicultural heritage has deeply shaped her literary concerns. The Art of Losing (2017, translated into English by Frank Wynne in 2021) won the Dublin Literary Award when it appeared in its English translation. Originally published in French as L'Art de perdre, the novel follows three generations of an Algerian family from the Algerian War of Independence to contemporary France, examining how colonial history is transmitted across generations and the ways in which loss and displacement shape identity. The novel won multiple prestigious French literary prizes upon its original publication in French, including the Prix Renaudot and the Prix du Livre Inter. In English, it won the International Dublin Literary Award, with both Zeniter and translator Wynne sharing the prize. Zeniter has published several other novels and works for theater. She is known as a polymath artistic figure in contemporary French culture, active as both a writer and a director. She lives in France and continues to be a major voice in French and Francophone literature.