1. Virginie Despentes is one of the most popular French authors from this era.
11 Facts About Virginie Despentes
1. 2.
Virginie Despentes grew up in Nancy, France, in a working-class family.
3.
When she was age 17, Virginie Despentes left her home and abandoned her schooling.
4.
Virginie Despentes had a switchblade in her pocket, but she was too scared to use it.
5.
Virginie Despentes settled in Lyon, where she worked as a maid, a prostitute in "massage parlors" and peep shows, a sales clerk in a record store, a freelance rock journalist, and a pornographic film critic.
6.
Virginie Despentes seemed content to judge Severine superficially, and it felt to me like a betrayal of the novelist's task to render some human truth on the page.
7.
Virginie Despentes noted that critics "derided Despentes for lacking a 'literary style'".
8.
Virginie Despentes won the 1998 Prix de Flore, the 1999 Prix Saint-Valentin for Les Jolies Choses and the 2010 Prix Renaudot for Apocalypse Bebe.
9.
Virginie Despentes was named a member of the Academie Goncourt on 5 January 2016.
10.
Virginie Despentes resigned from this position on 5 January 2020 in order to dedicate more time to writing.
11.
In 2018, Virginie Despentes was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, for Vernon Subutex 1, translated into English by Frank Wynne.