[[File:Gerty Dambury.jpg|thumb|Gerty Dambury (2012)]] '''Gerty Dambury''' (born 1957) is a writer, educator and [[theatre director]] from [[Guadeloupe]]. Since 1981, she has written several plays including ''Lettres indiennes'' (1996) translated as ''Crosscurrents'' (1997). Her first novel ''Les rétifs'' (2012) appeared in English as ''The Restless'' in 2018. It is centred on the police violence in French Guadeloupe in 1967. For her play ''Le rêve de William Alexander Brown'', she was awarded the [[Prix Carbet de la Caraïbe et du Tout-Monde]] in 2015.<ref name=ile>{{cite web|url=https://ile-en-ile.org/dambury/|title=Gerty Dambury|author=Makward, Christiane|publisher=Île en île|accessdate=4 February 2022 |language=fr}}</ref><ref name=fc>{{cite web|url=https://frenchculture.org/books-and-ideas/9130-gerty-dambury-french-intellectual-miami|title=Gerty Dambury A French intellectual in Miami|author=Self, Vanessa|publisher=Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States|accessdate=4 February 2022|language=|archive-date=18 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220118182655/https://frenchculture.org/books-and-ideas/9130-gerty-dambury-french-intellectual-miami|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.franceculture.fr/personne-gerty-dambury|title=Biographie de Gerty Dambury|publisher=France Culture|accessdate=4 February 2022 |language=fr}}</ref>
==Biography== Born on 27 February 1957 in [[Pointe-à-Pitre]], Gert Dambury studied English and Arabic at [[Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis|Paris Vincennes University]]. She went on to study drama at [[Paris Nanterre University]] and at [[Sorbonne Nouvelle University Paris 3|Paris Sorbonne Nouvelle University]].<ref name=ile/>
She first taught English in Guadeloupe and in the Paris region. In 1981, she began writing plays in French or [[French-based creole languages|Creole]]. Her most famous play, ''Lettres indiennes'', comparing [[Martinique]] life for immigrants with that of Guadeloupe, was first performed in [[Avignon]] in 1996 and in English as ''Crosscurrents'' in [[New York City|New York]] in 1997.<ref name=ile/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://works.swarthmore.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1057&context=fac-french|title=Dambury, Gerty|author=Rice-Maximin, Micheline|publisher=Oxford University Press: Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance|date=2003|accessdate=5 February 2022 |language=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.arche-editeur.com/piece/lettres-indiennes-1998|title=Lettres indienne|publisher=L'Arche|accessdate=5 February 2022 |language=fr}}</ref> Her play ''Trames'' (2008), presented in English as ''Shades'', was awarded the prize for drama by the [[Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques]].<ref name=fc/> In 2015, she received the Prix Carbet de la Caraïbe et du Tout-Monde for her play ''Le rêve de William Alexander Brown''.<ref name=frcu>{{cite web|url=https://frenchculture.org/books-and-ideas/authors-on-tour/7481-gerty-dambury|title=Authors on tour: Gerty Dambury|publisher=French Culture|date=2018|accessdate=5 February 2022 |language=}}</ref>
Dambury's first novel, ''Les rétifs'', published in French in 2012, builds on the riots in Guadeloupe in May 1967 when the author was 10 years old. The character Emilienne appears to bear many similarities to Dambury herself.<ref name=frcu/> The novel was published in English as ''The Restless'' in 2018, attracting positive critical support.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.feministpress.org/books-n-z/the-restless|title=The Restless|publisher=The Feminist Press|date=2018|accessdate=5 February 2022 |language=}}</ref>
==See also== *[[Kiyémis]]
==References== {{Reflist|2}}
==External links== *[https://gertydambury.wixsite.com/monsite Gerty Dambury's website] (in French)
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[[Category:1957 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:People from Pointe-à-Pitre]] [[Category:20th-century French poets]] [[Category:20th-century French dramatists and playwrights]] [[Category:21st-century French poets]] [[Category:21st-century French dramatists and playwrights]] [[Category:21st-century French novelists]] [[Category:French women writers]] [[Category:Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis alumni]] [[Category:Paris Nanterre University alumni]] [[Category:Sorbonne Nouvelle University Paris 3 alumni]]