GauZ'

Gauz was born March 22, 1971 in Plateau, a district of Abidjan, the economic capital of Ivory Coast. He then lived in the neighborhood of Attécoubé before moving to Agnibilékrou, northeast of Abidjan. He also lived in Yopougon, Bouaké, Daloa and Cocody. His first language is Anyin. His father was a teacher and a socialist deputy, and his mother was a nurse and communist. As a child he stayed with extended family when his parents went to Paris to study. He received a master's degree in biochemistry from the Université Félix-Houphouët-Boigny before traveling to France in 1999 on a scholarship, though without a student visa, to obtain another master's degree in biochemistry at Paris VII Jussieu. Once in France, he managed to secure a business visa that expired after a year. During that time, he started a two-year stint as a security guard that would inspire his first novel, Standing Heavy. He eventually obtained a visa and French nationality after the birth of his son. He returned to the Ivory Coast in 2011 and has been living in Grand-Bassam since. He has two children, who still live in Paris. == Career ==

In 2014 Gauz published his debut novel Debout-Payé, a satire of France's colonial legacy, racism and capitalism as seen through the eyes of three undocumented Ivorian security guards in Paris from the 1970s through the early 2000s. Later that year, the novel was the inaugural winner of the newly established Gibert Joseph Booksellers' Prize. In 2022 it was published in English as Standing Heavy and shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2023. The title references the low-wage jobs that require people to stand for many hours. In Camarade Papa, published in 2018 and winner of the Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire that year, Along with other African literary figures, Gauz would then spearhead the Front de Libération des Classiques Africains (FLCA), an initiative that aims to establish a fund to buy back the African rights of francophone African literary classics that are held by French publishers such as Plon, Seuil and Hachette. In 2024 he published Portes (Doors), his fifth novel, inspired by the 1996 occupation of the church of Saint-Bernard in Paris by undocumented African immigrants. It is the final installment of his "trilogy of papers," comprising Standing Heavy and Black Manoo, all which take place in the northeastern African immigrant communities of Paris. In addition to his literary career, Gauz has been active in the film and television sector. After directing several short documentary films, Parole(s) de Fana (2005) and Quand Sankara....(2006), he co-wrote his first feature film screenplay for Beyond the Ocean, a 2006 French film directed by Éliane de Latour about two Ivorian friends who seek better fortune in Europe. ==Published work==

• Debout-Payé, Paris, Le Nouvel Attila, 2014. Translated by Frank Wynne as Standing Heavy (MacLehose Press, 2022; Biblioasis, International Translation Series, 2023). • Camarade Papa, Paris, Le Nouvel Attila, 2018. The book is about "Ivory Coast, Marxism Leninism, and colonization." • Black Manoo, Paris, Le Nouvel Attila, 2020. • Cocoaïans (Naissance d’une nation chocolat), L’Arche, 2022 • Portes, Le Nouvel Attila, 2024. • Aboudia, Rizzoli, 2024 (co-author with Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi), a monograph on the American Ivorian artist Aboudia. == Filmography ==

• Debout-Payé, 2014 Prix des libraires Gibert Joseph; shortlisted for the 2023 International Booker Prize ==References==