Patrick Chamoiseau will receive the Center for Fiction's 2024 Lifetime of Excellence in Fiction Award on December 10 at the Center's annual awards benefit. The Center said that Chamoiseau, "a luminary of Caribbean literature born in Fort de France, Martinique," is "world-renowned for his novels, poetry, and essays" and was awarded the Prix Goncourt for his novel Texaco. He is co-author of the influential Caribbean cultural manifesto In Praise of Creoleness; other works include the novels Chronicle of the Seven Sorrows, Solibo Magnificent, Slave Old Man, and the memoir Childhood.
Board chair Erroll McDonald said, "Chamoiseau's importance lies not only in the monumentality of his achievements but in his awareness of sclerotic inequalities in the global economy of literary prestige. His celebration of literary sublimity the world over is inspiring."