MICHELE-JESSICA FIEVRE
NARRATIVE RESUME


THE TRANSLATOR / INTERPRETER

Born in Port-au-Prince, Michele-Jessica (M.J.) FIEVRE is a Certified Haitian-Creole court interpreter and legal translator currently employed by the 11th Judicial Circuit (Miami). Before she became a staff interpreter, she worked for more than 10 years with direct clients and translation agencies, mostly in the counties of Miami Dade, Broward, and West Palm Beach. FIEVRE holds a Diploma Básico de Español Como Lengua Extranjera (DELE).

In 2011, she translated several book-length projects in English, including The Power of a Dream, a memoir by Haitian entrepreneur Mathias Pierre. She has collaborated on many translation projects with The Caribbean Writer and the O, Miami Poetry Festival.

In 2014, FIEVRE wrote three educational scripts for the University of Miami, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. The scripts, turned into short films, were written in both English and Haitian Creole and aimed at educating the Little Haiti community about diabetes, cervical cancer, and the HPV vaccine. In 2014, FIEVRE also wrote a trilingual children’s book, I am Riding, published by One Moore Book in English, French, and Haitian Creole.

FIEVRE translated two of her own short stories in Spanish, and they are forthcoming in a Bolivian mystery anthology.


THE PROFESSIONAL WRITER

FIEVRE holds an MFA from the Creative Writing program at Florida International University.

She is the author of A Sky the Color of Chaos (Beating Windward, 2015), a memoir set in Haiti. She self-published her first mystery novel, Le Feu de la Vengeance, at the age of sixteen. She was nineteen years old when she signed her first book contract with Hachette-Deschamps, in Haiti, for the publication of a Young Adult book titled La Statuette Maléfique. As of today, FIEVRE has authored nine books in French.

In addition to book-length texts, FIEVRE also writes short stories, essays, plays, and poems. She’s included in Une Journée Haïtienne, edited (in French) by Thomas C. Spear. Her short stories and poems in English have appeared in various anthologies and magazines, including 15 Views of Miami (Burrow Press, 2014), The Beautiful Anthology (TNB Books, 2012), and Haiti Noir (Akashic Books, 2011). In 2014, she was a writer-in-residence at the Betsy Hotel and one of her stories (“Sinkhole”) was nominated by the Pushcart Board of Contributing Editors for the Pushcart Prize. Three of her plays have been performed at the Miami MicroTheater.

FIEVRE was interviewed by the University of Miami for the Haitian Diaspora Oral History Collection, which includes videos and selected transcripts of oral history interviews conducted with individuals of Haitian ancestry that are well-renowned in the world of the arts. She’s also included in Florida’s International University’s Digital Library of the Caribbean.



THE EDITOR

FIEVRE is also an editor. In 2010, she founded Sliver of Stone Magazine, a well-loved, bi-annual, online literary magazine dedicated to the publication of work from both emerging and established poets, writers, and visual artists from all parts of the globe. In 2012, she edited So Spoke the Earth, a multilingual anthology about Haiti, which explores the country’s past, present and future as experienced by 54 contributors, for an eclectic, international combination of established and emerging writers. This important anthology about Haiti is a celebration of Haitian spirit, multiculturalism and diversity. In 2013, with Nicholas Garnett and Corey Ginsberg, FIEVRE edited All That Glitters, a nonfiction anthology.

As a board member of the publishing house, Lominy Books, she organizes a yearly writing contest in French, encouraging aspiring writers in Haiti to pursue their dream. In fact, she often returns to Haiti to conduct writing workshops for middle and high school students. She’s regularly featured at both Livres en Folie (LEF) and Foire Internationale du Livre d’Haiti (FILHA), two annual book fairs in Haiti. In 2014, she served as judge for a writing contest organized by the Bureau du Secrétaire d’Etat à l’Intégration des Personnes Handicapées (BSEIPH) for students with physical disabilities.

THE TEACHER

FIEVRE obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Education from Barry University. She taught writing for 8 years at Nova Middle School in Davie, and later became a writing professor at Broward College and Miami Dade College. She’s been a keynote speaker at Tufts University (Massachusetts), at Howard University (Washington, D.C.), at the AWP (Association of Writers & Writing Programs) Conference in Washington and California, and at Michael College (Vermont). Last year, she spent a semester in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, in Bolivia, where she taught writing at the International University. While in South America, she was invited to conduct a seminar at the Alliance Française on the Myths and Legends of the French Antilles, and all her novels in French are available at the Alliance Française de Santa Cruz.

FIEVRE has taught ekphrastic poetry and haiku workshops at the Miami Art Museum, and in various schools, including iTech @ Thomas A. Edison Educational Center (Miami), Tedder Elementary (Pompano Beach), and Miramar High School (Miramar).

She’s participated to the Miami Book Fair International on several occasions. She’s also presented her books at the Anancy Festival, the Haitian Heritage Month Book Festival, and the South Florida Book Festival, and at various literary events at Miami City Hall, Miami Dade College, Broward College (“Caribbean Week” and “Literary Feast”), and the University of Miami. She was a speaker at different events organized by the Consulate General of Haiti for “Mois de la Francophonie.” She’s served twice as a judge for the “Dis Moi Dix Mots” Contest launched by the Cultural Departments of the Consulate General of France and the Consulate General of Haiti, in Miami, for students in the “French Heritage Language Program” and those attending partner universities in Miami.

FIEVRE is a facilitator for Exchange for Change, teaching creative writing at a women correctional facility.