{{Short description|French writer and actress (1941–2025)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2024}} {{Use British English|date= August 2024}} {{Infobox person | name = Florence Delay | image = Florence Delay-FIG 2009 (cropped).jpg | caption = Delay in 2009 | birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1941|3|19}} | birth_place = Paris, France | death_date = {{death date and age|2025|7|1|1941|3|19|df=y}} | death_place = Paris, France | occupation = {{hlist|Actress|writer|educator}} | education = Lycée Jean de La Fontaine<br>Faculté des lettres de Paris<br>University of Paris | years_active = 1960–2025 | father = Jean Delay | relatives = Claude Delay (sister) | spouse = {{marriage|Maurice Bernart|2011|2025|end=died}} | children = }}
'''Florence Delay''' ({{IPA|fr|flɔʁɑ̃s dəlɛ}}; 19 March 1941 – 1 July 2025) was a French writer and actress. She was a member of the Académie française from 2000. Delay notably wrote novels, essays and plays (in collaboration with Jacques Roubaud) and translated texts from Spanish.
Delay was also known for portraying Joan of Arc in the 1962 Robert Bresson film ''The Trial of Joan of Arc''.
==Early life and education== Florence Delay wa born on 19 March 1941{{citation needed|date=February 2026}} the second daughter of Marie-Madeleine Carrez and Jean Delay, psychiatrist and writer. She was the sister of Claude Delay, writer and psychoanalyst.{{citation needed|date=February 2026}}
She attended the Lycée Jean de La Fontaine and then studied Spanish at Faculté des lettres de Paris and at the Sorbonne. After obtaining her Spanish degree, she taught general and comparative literature at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle.<ref name="LM2015" />
==Career== In 1962, aged 20, she played the title role of Joan of Arc in ''Procès de Jeanne d'Arc (The Trial of Joan of Arc)'' by Robert Bresson.<ref name="LeFig2015">{{cite news| language=fr | title=Florence Delay, ses vies sans modes d'emploi | work=Le Figaro | last=Héliot | first=Armelle | date=19 March 2015 | url=https://www.lefigaro.fr/culture/2015/03/19/03004-20150319ARTFIG00167-florence-delay-ses-vies-sans-modes-d-emploi.php }}</ref><ref name="Libe2015">{{cite news |language=fr |title=Florence Delay, planches de salut |work= Libération | last=Devarrieux |first=Claire |date=11 February 2015 |url=https://www.liberation.fr/livres/2015/02/11/florence-delay-planches-de-salut_1200399/ }}</ref><ref name="LM2015">{{cite news| language=fr | title=Florence Delay: On peut mener plusieurs vies | last=Houssin | first=Xavier | date=3 March 2015 | work=Le Monde | url= https://www.lemonde.fr/livres/article/2015/03/05/florence-delay-on-peut-mener-plusieurs-vies_4588012_3260.html }}</ref>
After studying at the École du Vieux-Colombier, she was then a trainee stage manager at the Festival d'Avignon, assistant to Raymond Rouleau at the Théâtre du Gymnase, and to Georges Wilson at the Théâtre national populaire (TNP). She translated ''La Celestina'' by Fernando de Rojas, staged by Antoine Vitez in 1989; and then, in another version, by Christian Schiaretti, at the TNP in 2011, as well as works from the Spanish Golden Age (Calderón de la Barca, Lope de Vega).<ref name="Libe2015" />
In 1973, she published her first novel, ''Minuit sur les jeux''.<ref name="LeFig2015" /><ref name="LM2015" /><ref name="LM2021">{{cite news| language=fr | title=Le temps retrouvé de Florence Delay | last=Gabriel | first=Fabrice | date=27 February 2021 | work=Le Monde | url=https://www.lemonde.fr/livres/article/2021/02/27/le-temps-retrouve-de-florence-delay_6071417_3260.html }}</ref> Starting with ''Petites Formes en prose après Edison'' (1987), she alternated between novels, essays and other writings.<ref name="Académie" />
With Jacques Roubaud of the Oulipo, she compiled ''Graal Théâtre,'' a series of ten plays about the Arthurian legend, from 1977 to 2005.<ref name="Libe2015" />
Delay was a juror for the Prix Femina (1978{{nbnd}}1982), a member of the reading committee of Éditions Gallimard (1979{{nbnd}}1987), a member of the editorial board of the journal ''Critique'' (1978{{nbnd}}1995), a drama columnist for ''La Nouvelle Revue française'' (1978{{nbnd}}1985), and a member of the reading committee of the Comédie-Française (2002{{nbnd}}2006).
She was an actress, narrator or writer in movies by Chris Marker, Hugo Santiago, Benoît Jacquot, {{ill|Emilio Maillé|es}}, and Michel Deville.
==Honours and awards== Delay was awarded the Prix Femina in 1983 for her novel ''Riche et légère'',<ref name="LeFig2015" /> the Prix Francois-Mauriac de la région Aquitaine in 1990 for ''Etxemendi'',<ref name="Académie" /> the Grand Prix du Roman de la Ville de Paris in 1999<ref name="Académie" /> and the Prix de l'Essai de l'Académie française for ''Dit Nerval''.<ref name="Académie" />
On 14 December 2000, Delay was elected as a member of the Académie française.<ref name="Académie">{{cite web |title=Les immortels |url=https://www.academie-francaise.fr/les-immortels/florence-delay?fauteuil=10&election=14-12-2000 |website=Académie française |access-date=16 August 2024 |language=French}}</ref>
==Personal life and death== Delay was married to the film producer Maurice Bernart. She died in Paris on 1 July 2025, at the age of 84.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.academie-francaise.fr/actualites/deces-de-mme-florence-delay-f10|title=Décès de Mme Florence Delay (F10)|language=French|date=1 July 2025}}</ref>
==Bibliography== [[File:Photo Florence Delay Biarritz 2021.jpg|thumb|Florence Delay in Biarritz in 2021]]
* ''Minuit sur les jeux'' (1973) * ''Le aïe aïe de la corne de brume'' (1975) * ''Graal théâtre'' (in coll. with Jacques Roubaud, 1977–1981) * ''L'Insuccès de la fête'' (1980) * ''Riche et légère'' (1983) * ''Acte de la Passion, in Théâtre espagnol du XVI<sup>e</sup> siècle'' (1983) * ''Marco Polo, le nouveau livre des merveilles'', (in coll. with Jean Marie Adiaffi, Sony Labou Tansi, Jacques Savoie, Louis Caron, Abdelaziz Kacem, Jacques Lacarrière, Bertrand Visage – 1985) * ''Course d'amour pendant le deuil'' (1986) * ''L'Éclypse de la balle, d'Arnaldo Calveyra'' (1987) * ''Il me semble, Mesdames ou Les Dames de Fontainebleau'' (1987) * ''Petites formes en prose après Edison'' (1987) * ''"La sortie au jour" in Le Livre sacré de l'ancienne Égypte'' (1987) * ''Le divin Narcisse, et autres textes, de Sor Juana Inès de la Cruz'', (in coll. with Frédéric Magne and Jacques Roubaud, 1987) * ''La Décadence de l'analphabétisme, de José Bergamín'' (1988) * ''Partition rouge. Poèmes et chants des Indiens d'Amérique du Nord'', (in coll. with Jacques Roubaud, 1988) * ''La Célestine (version courte), de Fernando de Rojas'' (1989) * ''La Solitude sonore du toreo, de José Bergamín'' (1989) * ''L'Hexaméron'' (in coll. with Michel Chaillou, Michel Deguy, Natacha Michel, Denis Roche, Jacques Roubaud, 1990) * ''Etxemendi'' (1990) * ''Semaines de Suzanne'' (in coll. with Patrick Deville, Jean Echenoz, Sonja Greenlee, Harry Mathew, Mark Polizzotti, Olivier Rolin, 1991) * ''Les Moitiés, de Ramón Gómez de la Serna'', (in coll. with Pierre Lartigue, 1991) * ''Catalina, enquête'' (1994) * ''Œillet rouge sur le sable'' (1994) * ''La Fin des temps ordinaires'' (1996) * ''La Séduction brève'' (1997) * ''Six poèmes galiciens, de Federico García Lorca'' (1998) * ''L'Homme du Luxembourg, d'Arnaldo Calveyra'' (1998) * ''Beauténébreux, de José Bergamín'' (1999) * ''Dit Nerval, essai'' (1999) * ''Michée, Aggée, Zacharie, Malachie'', (with Maurice Roger and Arnaud Sérandour, 2001) * ''Le Grand Théâtre du monde suivi de Procès en séparation de l'Âme et du Corps, de Pedro Calderón de la Basca'' (2004) * ''Mon Espagne. Or et Ciel'', Hermann (2008)
== Filmography == * ''The Trial of Joan of Arc'' (1962) * ''Le Jouet criminel'' (1969, short) * ''Collections privées'' (1979, segment "Kusa-Meikyu", voice) * ''Écoute voir...'' (1979) * ''Les Années Arruza...'' (1996)
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{in lang|fr}} [http://www.academie-francaise.fr/les-immortels/florence-delay L'Académie française] * {{IMDb name|name=Florence Delay|id=0140316}} * {{discogs artist|Florence Delay}}
{{Académie française Seat 10}} {{Prix Femina}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Delay, Florence}} Category:1941 births Category:2025 deaths Category:Writers from Paris Category:University of Paris alumni Category:Members of the Académie Française Category:French women novelists Category:Prix Femina winners Category:French women dramatists and playwrights