{{Short description|Haiti writer (born 1953)}} {{Infobox person | name = Jan J. Dominique | image = Jan J. Dominique 2019.jpg | caption = Jan J. Dominique in Quebec in 2019 | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1953|01|25}} | birth_place = Port-au-Prince, Haiti | occupation = Author }}
'''Jan J. Dominique''' (born January 25, 1953, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti) is a Canadian writer, journalist, radio host, and teacher from Haiti.
== Biography == Jan J. Dominique was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1953. She started writing stories and poems at the age of 12. She moved to Quebec, Canada in 1970, where she completed a Master's degree in literature and art history and then worked for a trade union in Montreal. In 1978, Dominique returned to Haiti, where she worked in education, teaching at high school and university level, and contributing towards an educational reform project with the National Institute for Pedagogy. Dominique began a career in journalism because her father, Jean Dominique was also a journalist and owned a radio station. She worked at Radio Haiti alongside her teaching career until 1980, when the Haitian government closed the station, forcing journalists into exile, including her father. In 1986, Radio Haiti reopened, and Dominique left teaching to work there full-time until its closure in 2003.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Adjarian |first=Maude M. |last2=Dominique |first2=Jan J. |date=2005 |title=A Passion for Literature: An Interview with Jan J. Dominique |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41715314 |jstor=41715314|journal=Journal of Haitian Studies |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=76–93 |issn=1090-3488}}</ref>
Dominique published her first novel, ''Memoir of an Amnesiac'' in 1984.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Susanne |last=Rinne |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/214941329 |title=Elles écrivent des Antilles ... : (Haïti, Guadeloupe, Martinique) |date=1999 |publisher=Éd. L'Harmattan |isbn=2-7384-4864-X |oclc=214941329}}</ref> The novel tells the story of a young girl growing up under the dictatorial regime in Haiti and tackles themes of identity, memory, women's writing, and the role of literature.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2004-08-17 |title=les éditions du remue-ménageMémoire d'une amnésique – les éditions du remue-ménage |url=https://www.editions-rm.ca/livres/memoire-dune-amnesique/ |access-date=2023-02-19 |language=fr-FR}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=McCormick |first=Robert H. |date=2009 |title=Memoir of an Amnesiac |url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/memoir-amnesiac/docview/209396226/se-2 |journal=World Literature Today |volume=83 |issue=6 |pages=65–66|id={{ProQuest|<!--Insert ProQuest data here}-->}} }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Balutansky |first=Kathleen M. |date=1990 |editor-last=Davies |editor-first=Carole Boyce |editor2-last=Fido |editor2-first=Elaine Savory |editor3-last=Dominique |editor3-first=Jan J. |editor4-last=Mordecai |editor4-first=Pamela |editor5-last=Wilson |editor5-first=Betty |title=Naming Caribbean Women Writers |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2931337 |jstor=2931337|journal=Callaloo |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=539–550 |doi=10.2307/2931337 |issn=0161-2492|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Dominique submitted the novel to a Haitian literary competition and won the 1984 edition of the ''Prix Deschamps'', allowing ''Memoir'' to be published.<ref name=":0" /> Major themes in Dominique's work include escape and confronting personal and social realities. Her writing often contains autobiographical elements, but Dominique rejects labels of genre, preferring to define her work simply as 'literature'.<ref name=":0" />
After the assassination of her father in 2000, Dominique left Haiti and settled permanently in Montreal, where she worked on rewriting and republishing her works which were originally published in Haiti. Her memoir, ''Wandering Memory'', published in 2008 is an elegy to her father following his death and traces Dominique's life and exile after tragedy, as well as the injustices faced in Haiti.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/5417/ |title=Wandering Memory |isbn=978-0-8139-4586-6 |language=en}}</ref>
Her latest novel, ''L'écho de leurs voix'', released in 2016, tells the story of Haitian immigrants in Montreal.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-08-10 |title=Les éditions du Remue-Ménage écho de leurs voix |url=https://www.editions-rm.ca/livres/lecho-de-leurs-voix/ |access-date=2023-02-19 |language=FR}}</ref>
== Bibliography == * ''Memoir of an Amnesiac'' (''Mémoire d'une amnésique'') (1984) * ''Évasion'' (1996) * ''Inventer... La Célestine'' (2000) * ''Wandering Memory'' (''Mémoire errante'') (2008) * ''L'écho de leurs voix'' (2016)
== References == <references />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dominique, Jan J.}} Category:1953 births Category:20th-century Haitian novelists Category:21st-century Haitian novelists Category:Haitian women novelists Category:20th-century Canadian novelists Category:Canadian women novelists Category:Haitian journalists Category:French-language Haitian writers Category:Living people Category:21st-century Canadian novelists Category:Haitian emigrants to Canada