POETRY

Gestuaire (poèmes), published in 2016 by Gallimard in the Collection Blanche/nrf received the 2017 Prix Louise Labé. Gestuaire is part of a forthcoming anthology in German that brings together some of Kandé’s published and unpublished works.

La Quête infinie de l'autre rive. Épopée en trois chants (Gallimard, Continents Noirs, 2011), short-listed for the Prix Mahogany and the Prix des Découvreurs, received the 2017 Prix Lucienne Gracia-Vincent/Poésie 21 under the auspices of Fondation Saint-John Perse. Staged at La Mézière in May 2017, La quête infinie de l’autre rive is now published in German by Matthes & Seitz as Die unendliche Suche nach dem anderen Ufer (2021) & in English as The Neverending Quest for the Other Shore. An Epic in Three Cantos (Wesleyan U. Press, 2022).

The Neverending Quest for the Other Shore was part of “Atlantic Connections”, a jazz performance of poems presented by Yosvany Terry & Alicia Hall Moran at Farkas Hall, Harvard U. & the Harvard Art Museum on 9/15-16/22 https://harvardartmuseums.org/calendar/jazz-performance-atlantic-connections

In 2022 The Neverending Quest for the Other Shore was one of the Brittle Paper 100 most notable books, and made the Orion magazine Big Poetry list of 28 collections for the National Poetry Month https://orionmagazine.org/article/28-poetry-collections-national-poetry-month/

Lagon, lagunes. Tableau de mémoire (Gallimard, Continents noirs, 2000) is a collection of poetic prose with a postface signed by Édouard Glissant.

Sylvie Kandé created “Hoxo”, a poem to anchor Violaine Lochu & Maurice Gbeffa’s eponymous chorography to be staged at FRAC Nouvelle Aquitaine MECA, Bordeaux, in 2023.

She was invited to read in venues such as the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts à Washington, D.C., the French Embassy in New Delhi, and Fondation Saint John Perse in Aix-en-Provence; in several poetry houses (Paris, Rennes, etc.), in various universities (Columbia U., U. of La Réunion, Paris XII, U. of Milan, etc.), at literary festivals (Africajarc, Lettres-sur-cour, Fête de la Terre à Fontaine-Daniel, Hausacher Lesenfest in Germany, Macondo in Kenya, etc.) and in bookstores (La Hune, Groslier, etc.). She also appeared on various radio and TV programs, including ARTE.

Her poems have been read publicly by Yvan Amar (RFI), Bernard Gabay (Maison de la Wallonie, Paris) and Sonia Emmanuel (Lettres-sur-Cour).