Chantal Kénol was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  After obtaining her bachelor’s degree in English literature, with a minor in linguistics, from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., she returned to Haiti in 1986 to work as a secondary school teacher. She is now co-principal of a private school in Port-au-Prince.  Her time is mostly divided between education and literature.  She is the executive secretary of Association Atelier Jeudi Soir, a collective of writers and artists; she is also a founding member of Association Etonnants Voyageurs, Haiti, which holds an international book and film festival in Haiti every two years, and she sits on the editorial board of the new Haitian literary magazine Demanbre.  Her poems and short stories have been published in newspapers, magazines, and anthologies in Haiti and in France.

photo: Marie Le Gac