Phelps, Anthony (1928–)

Anthony Phelps (b. 25 August 1928), Haitian writer, journalist, photographer, filmmaker, and ceramicist. After finishing his secondary schooling in Haiti, Phelps studied chemistry at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. He then studied plastic arts and photography in Montreal and New York. Together with several fellow writers (Davertige, Serge Legagneur, Roland Morisseau, René Philoctète), Phelps founded a literary group, Haïti Littéraire, and a journal, Semences (1962). Phelps was forced to flee Haiti in 1964 because of criticism of the Duvalier regime in his print and radio journalism. In Quebec he worked in television and theater and continued to write. Phelps achieved a level of popular appeal with his live poetry recitals and a number of records. Some of his videos have been broadcast by Radio Québec and in Haiti since the fall of Jean-Claude Duvalier in 1986.

Phelps participated in numerous writers' congresses in Africa and in Latin America and has maintained contacts with Latin American writers. His volume of poetry Orchidée nègre (1985, 1987) won the 1985 prize of Casa de las Américas and was first published in Cuba. He continues to publish in multiple genres and is an important figure within the French Canadian context.

See alsoHaiti; Journalism.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Été (poetry, 1960); Éclats de silence (poetry, 1962); Points cardinaux (poetry, 1966); Le conditionnel (drama, 1968); Mon pays que voici; suivi de Les dits du Fouaux-cailloux (poetry, 1968); Et moi, je suis une île (children's stories, 1973); Moins l'infini (novel, 1973); Motifs pour le temps saisonnier (poetry, 1976); Mémoire en colin-maillard (novel, 1976); La bélière caraïbe (poetry, 1980); Même le soleil est nu (poetry, 1983); and Haïti! Haïti! (thriller, with Gary Klang, 1985).

See also Maurice A. Lubin, "Five Haitian Poets," in Young Poetry of the Americas (1968); F. Raphaël Berrou and Pradel Pompilus, Histoire de la littérature haïtienne illustrée par les textes, vol. 3 (1977), pp. 344-359; Jean Jonassaint, Le pouvoir des mots, les maux du pouvoir (1986), pp. 101-128; Max Dominique, L'arme de la critique littéraire: Littérature et idéologie en Haïti (1988), pp. 217-229. Femme Amérique (2004), La contrainte de l'inachevé (2006)

Additional Bibliography

Costantini, Alessandro. Fantasmi narrative e sovversione linguistica nel romanzo dell'identia in "Mémoire en colinmaillard." Milano: Cisalpino, Universitario, 2002.

                                      Carrol F. Coates