 Dany Laferrière was born in the village of Petit Goave, Haiti, in 1953. In 1957, Francois Duvalier was elected President of Haiti and by 1967 he had declared himself president for life. Duvalier's brutal dictatorial regime tolerated no opposition, and thousands were summarily executed as a result. Before his death in 1971, Duvalier arranged to have his son, Jean-Claude Duvalier, secede him as President. The younger Duvalier ran the country in the same violent fashion as his father until political unrest forced him to escape to France in 1986. During Baby Doc's regime, it is estimated that further tens of thousands of people were killed or driven into exile. Among those who were forced to flee was Dany Laferrière. While living in Haiti, Laferrièrewrote for Le Petit Samedi Soir, and worked for Radio-Haiti International. When his life became endangered in the late 1970s, Laferrière immigrated to Quebec. He has published a number of novels, among them; How to Make Love to a Negro (1987), An Aroma of Coffee (1993), Dining with the Dictator (1994) and A Drifting Year (1997). He has received many prizes for his writing, notably the Carbet de la Caraibe Prize, and the Edgar-Lesperance Prize.
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