Hélène Cardona is a French poet, linguist, literary translator and actor. She was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, the daughter of Spanish poet Jose Manuel Cardona, from

Ibiza Ibiza (; ; ; #Names and pronunciation, see below) or Iviza is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is 150 kilometres (93 miles) from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of th ...

, and a Greek mother. She is a citizen of France, Spain, and the United States.

Biography

She studied in the

University of Cantabria The University of Cantabria (UC) () is a public university located in Santander, Torrelavega and Comillas in Cantabria, Spain. It was founded in 1972 and comprises 15 schools and colleges. It was selected as Campus of International Ex ...

, Spain and in the Sorbonne in Paris, gaining a master's degree in American Literature. She has received fellowships from the

Goethe-Institut The Goethe-Institut (; GI, ''Goethe Institute'') is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit German culture, cultural organization operational worldwide with more than 150 cultural centres, promoting the study of the German language abroad and en ...

and the

International University of Andalucía The International University of Andalucía () or UNIA is a university in Andalusia, set up in 1994 to complete the region's educational system. It offers postgraduate and specialty courses. It has campuses in four Andalusian provinces: Huelva, ...

. Cardona has worked as a translator for the French Chamber of Commerce, the Canadian Embassy, and for the film industry. her book ''

Life in Suspension Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, organisation, metabolism, growth, adaptation, response ...

'' won the 2017 International Book Award in Poetry. She played the part of Françoise "Fuffi" Drou, the beauty shop proprietor in the film Chocolat.

Works

She is author of: * ''Dreaming My Animal Selves (Bilingual English/French)'' * ''The Astonished Universe/ L'Univers Stupefait'' * ''Life in Suspension'' She has translated: * José Manuel Cardona's ''Birnam Wood/ El Bosque de Birnam (Bilingual English/Spanish)'' * Gabriel Arnou-Laujeac's ''Beyond Elsewhere'' * Dorianne Laux's ''Ce que nous portons'' * Walt Whitman's ''Civil War Writings (Whitman et la Guerre de Sécession) ''

Awards

*2022

Cult Critic Movie Awards Cults are social groups which have unusual, and often extreme, religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals. Extreme devotion to a particular person, object, or goal is another characteristic often ascribed to cults. The term ha ...

References

External links

* * * * French women poets French translators Living people People from Paris French people of Spanish descent French people of Greek descent Year of birth missing (living people) {{France-poet-stub