Guy Goffette | |
|---|---|
 Goffette in 2008 | |
| Born | 18 April 1947 Gaume, Belgium |
| Died | 28 March 2024 (aged 76) |
| Nationality | Belgian |
| Occupation(s) | Poet, writer |
Guy Goffette (18 April 1947 – 28 March 2024) was a Belgian-born poet and writer.[1] Goffette published his first book of poems in 1969.[2] After then he worked as an editor at the publishing company Gallimard. Goffette's poetry has been compared to Verlaine (of whom Goffette wrote a fictional "biography") – the contemporary French poet Yves Bonnefoy remarked
Goffette is an heir to Verlaine. A poet who very courageously has decided to remain faithful to his own personal life, in its humblest moments. He keeps things simple, he is marvelously able to capture the emotions and desires common to us all. Goffette is without question one of the best poets of the present moment in France.[3]
Goffette's short fiction (récits) often reimagine historic figures – the poet Paul Verlaine in Verlaine d'ardoise et de pluie (1995) and again in L'autre Verlaine (2007) or the painter Pierre Bonnard through his muse Marthe in Elle, par bonheur et toujours nue (published in English as Forever Nude in 2008). For several years, the American poet and critic Marilyn Hacker has translated a number of his poems, which have appeared in The Paris Review, TriQuarterly, Barrow Street, and Poetry London. A bilingual anthology of her translations of Goffette's poetry, Charlestown Blues , was published in 2007 by University of Chicago Press
In addition to his poetry and his fiction, Goffette was a prolific essayist and a critic who regularly contributed to the Nouvelle Revue Française.
Guy Goffette died on 28 March 2024, at the age of 76.[4]
