“En tant qu’écrivain j’aurais bien aimé mériter le prix Nobel de médecine, mais ce n’est pas le cas. Si j'ai pu convaincre deux ou trois personnes de renoncer au suicide (en dehors de moi, bien entendu), c'est déjà un résultat.”
(Michel Houellebecq)
Born on February 26, 1958, in Saint-Pierre on the island of Réunion. He grew up with his grandparents in Crecy-La-Chapelle, France. Studied agronomy and computer science in Paris. In 1980, Houellebecq received his degree in agricultural engineering and then worked as a computer scientist at the Ministry of Agriculture. He began writing poetry and essays in the 1980s, which were published in 1991 and 1992 in two volumes, Rester vivant and La Poursuite du bonheur (The Pursuit of Happiness, 2000). He achieved national and international success with the novels Extension du domaine de la lutte (1994) and Les Particules élémentaires (1998). Both novels were also made into films. He received the Prix Goncourt for his novel “La carte et le territoire” (2010, The Map and the Territory, 2011). Houellebecq's books are published in over 40 countries. He is one of the most important but also most controversial authors of our time. Houellebecq taught at the European Graduate School (EGS) in Saas-Fee.
Awards (Selection)
2019 Austrian State Award for European Literature
2019 Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur
2018 Oswald-Spengler-Prize
2017 Austrian Decoration of Honour for Science and Art
2016 Frank-Schirrmacher-Prize
2010 Prix Goncourt
2005 Prix Interallié
2002 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
1996 Prix de Flore
1998 Prix Novembre
1998 Grand Prix national des Lettres
Selected publications
2019 Serotonin (Sérotonine, 2019)
2017 In the Presence of Schopenhauer (En présence de Schopenhauer, 2017)
2015 Submission (Soumission, 2015)
2011 The Map and the Territory (La carte et le territoire, 2010)
2005 The Possibility of an Island (La possibilité d'une île, 2005)
2004 Lanzarote (Lanzarote, 2000)
2002 Platform (Plateforme, 2001)
2002 H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life (Contre le monde, contre la vie, 1991)
2001 Renaissance. Poems (Renaissance, 1999)
2001 The Art of Struggle (Le sens du combat, 1996)
1999 Atomised (Les particules élémentaires, 1998)
1999 Interventions (Interventions, recueil d’essais, 1998)
1999 Whatever (Extension du domaine de la lute, 1994)
Filmography (Selection)
2014 Guillaume Nicloux (director): The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq (L'enlèvement de Michel Houellebecq). Half documentary, half fictional film. Premiered at the Berlinale.
Bibliography (Selection)
2018 Encke, Julia: Wer ist Michel Houellebecq? Porträt eines Provokateurs. Berlin: Rowohlt
2015 Maris, Bernard: Houellebecq, Ökonom. Eine Poetik am Ende des Kapitalismus. Köln: DuMont
2010 Bellanger, Aurélien: Houellebecq, écrivain romantique. Paris: Éditions Léo Scheer
2005 Sabine Van Wesemael: Michel Houellebecq: Le plaisir du texte. Paris: L’Harmattan
2003 Schober, Rita: Auf dem Prüfstand: Zola–Houellebecq Klemperer. Berlin: Verlag Frey
2001 Steinfeld, Thomas (Hrsg.): Das Phänomen Houellebecq. Köln: DuMont