Chloé Delaume
Chloé Delaume (born Nathalie Dalain in 1973) is a French novelist, performer, musician, and occasional singer.
Biography
Born in Paris, Delaume spent her childhood in Beirut. In 1983, at ten years old, she witnessed her father murder her mother, then kill himself. She then lived with her grandparents, her uncle and aunt. She is the niece of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah.[1]
Delaume enrolled at the Université de Paris X to become a teacher, just like her mother did. Seemingly disappointed by the university's system, Delaume decided to write on her own while getting jobs as a waitress at hostess bars, which prompted her to write her first published novel for Farrago/Léo Scheer editions: Les Mouflettes d'Atropos. She then collaborated under her birth name on the literary magazine Le matricule des anges.
Chloé Delaume is her pen name: the name Chloé hails from the heroine of the novel L'Écume des jours by Boris Vian and her last name, Delaume, comes from Antonin Artaud's writings/play L'Arve et l'Aume.
Life and writing
Chloé Delaume has written various novels in which she uses an original form of poetic research. Apart from writing novels, she composes and collaborates lyrics to Julien Locquet's musical project Dorine Muraille. These collaborations have also spurred multimedia performances.
Le Cri du sablier, won the Prix Décembre in 2001.
Autofiction, technology, biopower, gameplay, literary activism and the struggle against psychosis are some of the prevalent motifs throughout her body of work.
Works
- Les Mouflettes d'Atropos, Éditions Farrago, 2000
- Mes Week-ends sont pires que les vôtres, Éditions du Néant, 2001
- Le Cri du sablier, Éditions farrago/Léo Scheer, 2001
- La Vanité des Somnambules, Éditions Farrago/Léo Scheer, 2003
- Monologue pour épluchures d'Atrides, Éditions du C.I.P.M., 2003
- Corpus Simsi, Éditions Léo Scheer, 2003
- Certainement pas, Éditions Verticales, 2004
- Les Juins ont tous la même peau, Éditions La Chasse au Snark, 2005
- J'habite dans la télévision, Éditions Verticales, 2006
- Neuf Leçons de littérature, 2007
- Chanson de geste & Opinions, Éditions Mac/Val, 2007
- La Dernière Fille avant la guerre, Éditions Naïve Sessions, 2007
- La Nuit je suis Buffy Summers, Éditions èe, 2007
- Transhumances, Éditions èe, 2007
- Dans ma maison sous terre, Seuil (Fiction & cie collection), 2008
- Eden matin midi et soir, Joca Seria, 2009
- Narcisse et ses aiguilles, L'une et l'autre, 2009
- Au commencement était l'adverbe, 2010
- La Règle du je, PUF, 2010
- Sillages, Cadex, 2010
- Le Deuil des deux syllabes, L'une et l'autre, 2011
- Une femme avec personne dedans, Seuil, 2012
- Perceptions, illustrations de François Alary, éditions Joca Seria, 2012
- Où le sang nous appelle, avec Daniel Schneidermann, Seuil, 2013
- Les Sorcières de la République, Seuil, 2016
- Mes Bien Chères Sœurs, Seuil, 2019