Étienne, Franck (b. 1936). Poet, novelist, and dramatist, a teacher of mathematics and Haiti's foremost writer in Creole (his works appear under the creolized name Frankétienne). He established his reputation in the 1960s with his poems Au fil du temps (1964), Mon côté gauche (1965), and Chevaux de l'avant-jour (1967). He founded the movement known as ‘Spiralisme’, which advocated a freer narrative form, as seen in his novels Mûr à crever (1968), Ultravocal (1972), and Dézafi (1975). The latter, written in Creole, was the start of a new phase of writing in Creole for the theatre. His most successful play, Pèlin-tèt (Head Traps), was forced to close in 1978 by the Duvalier regime.
[Michael Dash]
