Marguerite Abouet

Marguerite Abouet
Abouet in 2018
Born	1971 Abidjan,Côte d'Ivoire
Nationality	Ivorian
Area(s)	Writer
Notable works	Aya
Awards	Angoulême International Comics Festival Prize for First Comic Book(2006) "Rising Star Award for Best Self-Publisher"Glyph Comics Awards(2008)

Marguerite Abouet(born 1971) is anIvorianwriter ofbandes dessinées,best known for her graphic novel seriesAya.

Biography

Abouet was born in 1971 inAbidjan,Côte d'Ivoire,and at the age of 12 she and her brother moved to France to their great uncle.She currently lives inRomainville,a suburb ofParis,with her husband, illustratorClément Oubrerie(who illustrates her graphic concepts), and their young son.She worked as a legal assistant in Paris while writing her firstgraphic novel,Aya.Abouet had tried to write novels for young people, but she gave up in frustration with what she perceived to be the constraints put on the genre by the publishers. She left her job as a legal assistant to concentrate on writing full-time, including her two follow-up graphic novels toAya(Aya ofYop CityandAya: The Secrets Come Out).

Aya

Ayais Abouet's first published work. It is also her first venture into graphic novels, as well as a collaborative effort with her husband, for whomAyawas the first time illustrating a graphic novel. She was influenced to do a graphic novel byMarjane Satrapi,the author ofPersepolis.It also emerged from her desire to show an Africa with a focus on issues other than war and famine, which is typically what the media focus on in portraying Africa.Her characters attend school, trudge to work, plan for the future and are ensnared in domestic entanglements on the Ivory Coast in the same way as happens everywhere else.The story has been adapted into an animatedfilmco-directed by Abouet.

Abouet denies thatAyais autobiographical, except in the sense that it depicts the Ivory Coast that she is familiar with. The characters are based on people she knew growing up, but the situations are purely fictional.

Ayahas been considered a success especially for a first-time author. It won the 2006Angoulême International Comics Festival Prize for First Comic Bookand has sold over 200,000 copies in France.The Canadian publisherDrawn & Quarterlydistributed the English-language version in the United States. They printed more than 10,000 copies,a significant number for a first-time graphic novel in the U.S.Abouet persuaded her French publisher to sell cheaper, soft-cover copies of the graphic novel in her native Ivory Coast.

References

• Marguerite Abouetat theGrand Comics Database
• Marguerite Abouetat the Comic Book DB (archived fromthe original)
• Marguerite Abouetat Bedetheque(in French)

External links

• Gbadamassi, Falila (29 March 2006)."Aya de Yopougon. Une BD pleine d'humour de Marguerite Abouet et de Clément Oubrerie".Afrik.com(in French).Retrieved10 October2008.
• "Marguerite Abouet & Clement Oubrerie. Aya.(Book review)".World Literature Today.1 September 2007.Retrieved10 October2008.
• "AYA – ein beachtenswerter Comic voller Lebenslust"(in German). Afrikanet.info. Archived fromthe originalon 10 February 2009.
• Taylor, Craig (27 October 2007)."A sketch of life".The Guardian.London.Retrieved23 December2009.
• "Marguerite Abouet",Cultures with Vivendi, 13 January 2017.