A Passion for Literature: An Interview with Jan J. Dominique1

MM: Tell me something about your life and background. I'm especially interested in hearing about the experiences that most influenced your choice of career as a (radio) journalist and writer. JJ: I did my studies in Canada, where I earned a Master's degree in literature and art history. On returning to Haiti, I did radio apprentice work. I don't have a formal background in journalism. In Haiti, there's no school of journalism, so I learned it by doing. I did things that were really basic. While I learned the trade, I was also a high school and college instructor. MM: Here in Haiti? JJ: Yes. While I was in Montreal, I didn't do any work in radio journalism. I worked for a trade union. It was great because the job was about human services and was interesting in every way. Then I returned to Haiti in 1978 and in 1980, the government was repressing democratic movements, including independent radio stations. I stopped working at Radio Haiti because the station closed down and journalists went into exile. At that point, I worked exclusively in education and was both a high school and university teacher. I also took part in an educational reform project at the National Institute for Pedagogy that involved program development and evaluation. For six years I did nothing else. In 1986, I left education but continued to teach a few courses. It was a painful decision, but I had to choose. I couldn't teach full-time and do radio work again. So, beginning in 1986, I worked as a reporter, an editor, to learn the profession. Gradually, I became more interested in cultural and educational broadcasts than in daily news and information. In 1995, I began managing the administrative affairs of the radio full-time. Because that job is so demanding, I could not continue on in education at all. Now where writing is concerned: writing is not considered a profession here in Haiti. I've been writing for a long time, ever since I was 12 years old. Writing has thus been an activity that parallels all else that I have done in my life. There's never been a chance for me to sit down for a year, six months or even a month and say that I only write. That's never been possible. So I've done writing alongside everything else I do. And as for publishing, that has been very difficult. There isn't much opportunity for publishing in Haiti, and as I was also very timid at the start of my writing career, I didn't want to send my work abroad. MM: You're speaking of [your first book] Memoire d'une amnesique? JJ: That piece was the first I entered into a literary competition in Haiti [the 1984 Prix Deschamps]. I didn't dare enter it elsewhere. It won and the interest generated by the book reassured me of the value of my writing. More than that, winning guaranteed that the book would be published by the sponsor. So it's for that reason that the book could come out. Afterwards, I felt more confident. I could continue to write and say to myself that I would eventually publish again later on and that it really didn't matter when. After all, the first book had been well-received. MM: Abroad, too? JJ: Yes indeed. I felt calmer, more certain of myself. And so I was able to continue writing. MM: What led you to write your first work, Memoire d'une amnesique? JJ: The story in Memoire was the story of writing for me. I've always written stories-and, most certainly, poetry, just like all young girls. The early stories never satisfied me. And when I began writing Memoire, I felt as though something happened that was becoming important for me. I could reflect on what I was doing and telling stories was no longer the only goal. I've also written for the theater-I've really experimented with all forms of writing. It's a pleasure and I love to tell stories. So I never really made the decision at any one moment to write Memoire. It's the result of everything I've done. It's writing that hails from the unconscious and that all of a sudden became something on which I could reflect. …

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