René Depestre is a Haitian intellectual and writer. Unlike his great predecessor, Jacques Roumain, or his most prominent contemporary, Jacques-Stephen Alexis, Depestre was not born into the Haitian elite, but into a lower middle class family in Jacmel, the southern port town noted for its Carnival, architecture and artists that would continue to feed the poet’s imagination long after he left Haiti. He first came to prominence as a member of the La Ruche group of young militants that formed following Jacques Roumain’s death in 1944. La Ruche was a student journal founded by Depestre, Alexis and others, and for the two young authors in particular it was a means of attaching t…
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Citation: Munro, Martin. "René Depestre". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 November 2010 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12869, accessed 25 November 2024.]
