Catherine Paysan

Annie Hausen, known by her pen name Catherine Paysan, was a French writer. She won the Grand prix de littérature de la SGDL for her lifetime’s writing.
The daughter of Auguste and Marthe Roulette, she was born Annie Roulette in Aulaines in the Sarthe department of France. She attended a lycée for girls in Le Mans from 1938 to 1939 and then the boys' lycée from 1939 to 1945 while the girls' school was being used as a hospital. She taught at a collège in Paris, where she met her future husband, a Hungarian; after her marriage, she retired from teaching and returned to her native village.
She published several novels, five autobiographical works, two collections of poetry and two plays, and adapted several of her works for film. In 1977, she received the Grand prix de littérature de la SGDL for the whole of her work.
Paysan was named an Officier of the Legion of Honour in 2011. She was also named a Knight in the French National Order of Merit.

Selected works

Écrit pour l'âme des cavaliers, poetry Nous autres les Sanchez, novel, received the Grand prix du Roman from the Société des gens de lettresHistoire d'une salamandre, novel Les Faiseurs de chance, stories Je m’appelle Jéricho, novel Les Feux de la Chandeleur, novel, received the Prix des libraires de France, adapted for film as Hearth Fires Le Nègre de Sables, novel Les Oiseaux migrateurs, play Comme l'or d'un anneau, autobiographical novel L’Empire du taureau, novel Pour le plaisir, autobiographical novel Le Clown de la rue Montorgeuil Dame suisse sur un canapé de reps vert, novel Le Rendez-vous de Strasbourg, novel La Colline d'en face, autobiographical novel 52 poèmes pour une année, poetry La Route vers la fiancée, novel Les Désarmés, stories, received the Prix Goncourt de la NouvelleLa Prière parallèle, novel L’amour là-bas en Allemagne, autobiographical novel