Annie Ernaux, née Duchesne, was born in 1940 in Lillebonne Normandy. A few years later her parents moved to Yvetot, where they kept a café and grocery shop in a working-class district of the town. She studied at a private Catholic secondary school in Yvetot, encountering girls from more middle-class backgrounds, and experiencing shame of her working-class parents and milieu for the first time. In 1958, at eighteen, she left home for the summer to look after children in a summer camp (colonie de vacances).
During that summer, living for the first time with a group of people of her own age, she had her first sexual experiences, recounted in her recent work Mémoire de fille (A Girl’s Story). In this same book, she also writes about her stay in London as an au pair in 1960, and her first attempt at Higher Education which took the form of primary teacher training in Rouen. At the end of the book we see Annie returning to Rouen from London to take a degree in literature, having abandoned her primary school teacher training course. She had also already written the first pages of her first, unpublished novel in London.
The years that followed saw her married with two sons, qualifying as a secondary school teacher in two competitive examinations, the Capès and the still more prestigious agrégation, and teaching French in a secondary school in Annecy, Haute Savoie. One of her rare returns to Normandy coincided with her father’s final illness and death in 1967. In 1974 Annie Ernaux published her first book, Cleaned Out, a fictionalized account of the illegal abortion she underwent in 1964, and her move from working-class to middle-class culture through education. In 1975 the family moved to Cergy-Pontoise, a new town in the Paris region. Ernaux eventually left secondary school teaching and took up a post at the Cned, Centre for Distance Education. She won both literary acclaim in the form of the Prix Renaudot, and a large readership with the publication of her account of her father’s life, A Man’s Place in 1983. After her divorce in the early 1980s, Ernaux remained in her house in Cergy, where she lives to this day. In 2000 she retired from her teaching post, and devoted herself to writing, and in 2008 published The Years, considered by many to be her crowning achievement in terms both of its content and innovative form, intertwining personal and collective history over six decades. The success of this work was recognized by the award of the Marguerite Duras and the François Mauriac prizes, and the English translation shortlisted for the Man Booker prize International.
Her works overall have received the French language prize and the Marguerite Yourcenar prize, as well as publication of her almost complete works to date in the Quarto edition by Gallimard in 2011 (Ernaux is the first woman writer to be published in this series in her lifetime). In 2014 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Cergy-Pontoise. In October 2022, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature “for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory”.
Image credit: Annie Ernaux/ photo Catherine Hélie, Gallimard.
Chronology of Ernaux’s Life and Works
1940
Birth of Annie Duchesne on the 1st September in Lillebonne, Normandy, Seine-Inférieure. Her parents – Blanche Duménil and Alphonse Duchesne – are the owners of a café and grocery shop on the edge of town, in the district of La Vallée, where the textile mills stood. Her ancestors on both sides were farm workers, the women domestic weavers.
1942
Diagnosis of a congenital dislocation of the hips which meant that at a very young age Annie had to be immobilised in a plaster cast for six months.
1945
August
She almost dies from tetanus and is saved just in time.
October
Her parents sell their business and return home to Yvetot, where the town centre was completely destroyed during the war. They set themselves up in a country style café and grocery shop, in the lower part of Le Clos-des-Parts, an area of Yvetot close to the railway station and to the hospice
1946
April
Annie starts school at a private Catholic boarding school – the pensionnat Saint-Michel, on the Rue des Jardins – as a day pupil. She continues her studies there up to the end of year 12 of secondary schooling.
Summer
Her first sight of the sea at Fécamp on an outing by train with all her mother’s family from Yvetot.
1948
Summer
She spends a few days at Sotteville-sur-Mer, with her mother, staying with one of the latter’s brothers.
1949
Summer
Another short stay at Sotteville-sur-Mer, this time with her father.
1950
May
Her Roman Catholic confirmation. She breaks her arm falling from a bicycle in the yard.
August
Chance discovery of something her parents had hidden from her and would continue to be silent on until they died: that, before her, they had had a little girl, Ginette, who had died from diphtheria at the age of six.
1951
May
First Holy Communion at the Parish Chapel, a former entertainment venue, because the church was being rebuilt.
1952
June
A violent argument between her parents, during which her father threatens to kill her mother: an event that for Annie would signify the end of her childhood.
August
Coach trip to Lourdes, her first outing beyond Normandy.
October
Annie starts secondary level education at the same school (classe de sixième) and excels at her studies throughout. A brilliant school career.
1958
June
Passes part one of the baccalauréat, Maths and Latin stream.
14 August-27 September
Annie works as an instructor in a summer camp in the Orne district of Normandy. Violent first experience of a sexual relationship, evoked in Mémoire de fille (A Girl’s Story).
October
Enters the Philosophy stream in the Lycée Jeanne d’Arc, Rouen. She lives in a girls’ hostel, run by nuns, in the Rue d’Ernemont.
1959
April
She discovers the writing of Simone de Beauvoir, and reads Le Deuxième sexe (The Second Sex).
June
Passes the baccalauréat, part two, Philosophy stream.
July-August
Instructor in two summer camps, one near Caen, the other near Rouen.
September
Annie passes the competitive entrance exam to win a place at the teacher training college – the École Normale d’Institutrices – in Rouen. She boards in-house. She soon realises that this is not the right course for her.
1960
February
She leaves the École Normale.
From March until the beginning of October, she lives with a family in Finchley, a residential suburb of London, as an au pair. She begins to write. On returning from England, she enrols on the preparatory year in literature at the Faculty of Arts, University of Rouen, then based in Rue Beauvoisine.
1961-1963
She writes a short novel. She obtains her undergraduate degree in Modern Literature but the manuscript of her novel submitted to the publisher, Le Seuil is turned down.
In July 1963, she meets Philippe Ernaux, a political science and sociology student at the University of Bordeaux. She studies for a postgraduate diploma in Rouen and writes a dissertation entitled La femme et l’amour dans le surréalisme (Women and Love in Surrealism). She also takes classes in social psychology.
1964
January
She has an illegal backstreet abortion in Paris.
27 June
Annie marries Philippe Ernaux in Rouen. The student couple settle down in Caudéran, near Bordeaux. She enrols onto the agrégation[1] in Modern Literature in the Faculty of Arts.
25 December
Her first son, Eric is born.
1965
February
Teaching practice at the girls’ Lycée Camille Jullian.
June
Ernaux fails the agrégation. She leaves Caudéran and returns to Yvetot while waiting for Philippe to find a job. The one he gets takes the family to Annecy, as a result of his appointment as Deputy General Secretary at the Town Hall. She enrols onto the agrégation programme in Grenoble but hardly attends classes because of the distance and looking after the child.
1966
May
Ernaux fails the agrégation but passes the written exams for enrolment onto the CAPES in Modern Literature.[2]
October
She starts commuting between Annecy and Lyon where she is a trainee teacher.
1967
25 April
She passes the teaching practice part of the CAPES: a visit to her class by an inspector.
25 June
Her father dies.
September
She is assigned to the lycée in Bonneville in the Valley of the Arve, Haute-Savoie.
1968
5 October
Her second son, David is born.
1969-1971
She obtains a job in Annecy at the Evire Middle School (pupils aged 11-15). She undertakes the agrégation by distance learning and passes. Starts a thesis on Marivaux. Her mother, having sold her café and grocery business, comes to live with her daughter in Annecy, and helps to look after the children.
1972-1973
Writes Les Armoires vides (Cleaned out) in secret and abandons the thesis.
1974
Publication of Les Armoires vides in April with Gallimard.
1975
The family moves with her mother to a new town on the outskirts of Paris – Cergy-Pontoise – where Philippe Ernaux has been appointed to an administrative position. She teaches at Les Louvrais Middle School in Pontoise. Her mother returns to Yvetot six months later.
1977
Publication of Ce qu’ils disent ou rien (Do what they say or else) (Gallimard).
She is assigned to teach higher education courses at the Centre National de Télé-Enseignement (the future Centre National d’Enseignement à Distance),[3] due to a hip problem, arising from the congenital dislocation of the hips. She will continue to teach there until she retires in 2000.
The family moves into the house where Annie Ernaux will continue to live after separating.
1981
Publication of La Femme gelée (A Frozen Woman) (Gallimard).
1982
She and Philippe separate. She writes La Place (A Man’s Place).
1983
September
Her mother, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, moves in with the family and Ernaux becomes a carer for her.
1984
January
Publication of La Place (Gallimard).
February
Her mother goes into hospital in Pontoise and is then placed in long-term care.
November
La Place is awarded the Prix Renaudot.
1986
Her mother dies on the 7th of April.
1987
Annie is invited to Bulgaria and Egypt.
1988
In January, publication of Une femme (A Woman’s Story) (Gallimard). In March, she goes on a trip to Quebec. In September, during a French writers’ visit to the USSR, she meets a Russian man, based in Paris, and they start a relationship, on which Passion simple (Simple Passion) and Se perdre (Getting Lost) are based.
1989
Lecture tour in Germany and Eastern Europe: Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia.
1990
First trip to the United States.
1992
Publication of Passion simple (Gallimard).
1993
Publication of Journal du dehors (Exteriors) (Gallimard); she is invited to Egypt and to Japan.
1994-1996
Ernaux is invited to give talks in England, South Korea, Tunisia and the US.
1997
January
Publication of La Honte (Shame) and of ‘Je ne suis pas sortie de ma nuit’ (‘I remain in darkness’) (Gallimard). Trips to Naples, Prague, Belgrade and Quebec.
1998-2000
She is invited to Romania and Russia. Publication of L’Événement (Happening) and of La Vie extérieure (Things seen) (Gallimard).
2001
January
Publication of Se perdre (Getting lost) (Gallimard).
2002
She is diagnosed with breast cancer. The first international conference on her work, Annie Ernaux, une oeuvre de l’entre-deux (Annie Ernaux, writing the in-between) is held at the University of Arras.
2003
Publication of L’Écriture comme un couteau (*Writing sharp as a knife), a dialogue with Frédéric-Yves Jeannet (Stock).
Birth of her first grandchild, Louise.
2005
Publication of L’Usage de la photo (The Use of Photography), in collaboration with Marc Marie (Gallimard).
2008
Published in February with Gallimard, Les Années (The Years) receives three literary prizes: Prix Marguerite Duras, Prix François Mauriac and Prix de la Langue française (French Language Award).
2011
Publication of L’Autre fille (The Other Girl) (NiL-Laffont), and L’Atelier noir (The Dark Workshop) (Les Busclats). Most of her texts are brought together in a Quarto-Gallimard collection.
Birth of Ernaux’s second grandchild, Noël.
2012
July
Week-long residential conference on the themes of time and memory (L’oeuvre d’Annie Ernaux: le temps et la mémoire) in her work at the château of Cerisy-la-Salle, Normandy.
2013
Publication of Retour à Yvetot (*Return to Yvetot) (Mauconduit).
Birth of Ernaux’s third grandchild, Blanche.
2014
Publication of ‘Regarde les lumières mon amour’ (‘Look at the lights, my love’) (Le Seuil, ‘Raconter la vie’).
Publication of Le Vrai Lieu: Entretiens avec Michelle Porte (*Where I belong: A dialogue with Michelle Porte) (Gallimard).
Honorary Doctorate awarded by the University of Cergy-Pontoise, at a conference on the theme of engagement, political commitment in her writing.
2016
Publication of Mémoire de fille (A Girl’s Story) (Gallimard).
Les Années wins the European Strega Prize in Italy.[4]
2017
She is awarded the Prix Marguerite Yourcenar for her body of work.
2018
She is awarded the Hemingway Prize for literature for Les Années in Italy.
A fourth grandchild, Tristan is born.
2019
The English translation of Les Années (The Years, trans. Alison L. Strayer) is shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize; Ernaux visits London for this in May. In August she is interviewed at the Edinburgh Book Festival and at the French Institute in Edinburgh.
The Italian translation of Une femme (Una Donna, trans. Lorenzo Flabbi) is awarded the Gregor Von Rezzori Prize.
Ernaux is awarded the International Formentor Prize for the body of her work, and the Academy of Berlin Prize.
2020
Lockdown in Cergy, as a result of the Covid pandemic.
Open letter to the French President Emmanuel Macron, read out on the radio (and subsequently published by Gallimard during lockdown as part of a series, ‘Tracts de Crise’, ‘Crisis Notes’): ‘Be aware, Mr President, that we will no longer let our life be stolen from us.’
2021
Awarded the Prince Pierre of Monaco Foundation Prize.
She is selected to be one of the UK based Royal Society of Literature’s International Writers, and receives the Würth Prize for European literature in Germany.
2022
March
Opening of the Médiathèque Annie Ernaux, a media library in Seine-Saint-Denis. Support for Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s candidacy in the presidential election.
May
Publication of Le Jeune homme (The Young Man) (Gallimard), and an augmented edition of L’Atelier noir (Gallimard).
Les Années Super 8, based on home ciné film from the 1970s and 80s by Philippe Ernaux and directed by Ernaux’s son David Ernaux-Briot (with a voice over text written and spoken by Annie) is selected for the Quinzaine des Cinéastes an independent, non-competitive section which runs in parallel with the Cannes Film Festival; David and Annie travel to Cannes.
October
She is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. She visits New York for the screening of Les Années Super 8 in the 60th New York Film Festival, as well as a conversation about her work with Kate Sambreno, hosted by Albertine Books. She also presents the film in Bologna at the Archivio Aperto Festival.
Along with other Nobel laureates, she signs a letter calling for the release of imprisoned Egyptian writer Alaa Abd El-Fattah (he would be pardoned and released by Sisi’s government only in September of 2025).
November
Annie and David Ernaux-Briot present Les Années Super 8 at the Paraty Literary Festival in Brazil, where Annie Ernaux is guest of honour.
December
7th December
Ernaux gives the Nobel Prize lecture in Stockholm.
14th December
Les Années Super 8 is on general release in France.
2023
Publication of Une conversation, an exchange with Rose-Marie Lagrave (Éditions de l’EHESS).
Ernaux voices support for the strikes against the government’s pension reform and calls for the release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a Lebanese activist unlawfully held in prison for 39 years (his release would be secured in 2025). In Italy, Ernaux receives the Pordenone literary prize.
February – May
Hectic months of travelling: to India, Scandinavia, Belgium, Switzerland, Turkey (Istanbul).
May
Ernaux is in conversation with Irish writer Sally Rooney at the Charleston Festival, Sussex, UK; she and David Ernaux-Briot answer questions after a screening of Les Années Super 8 in Lewes, a nearby town.
Prix Taormina awarded in Sicily; Ernaux gives a speech on the themes of immigration and women’s rights: ‘La petite fille de Sfax’ (‘The little girl of Sfax’).
2024
February–June
Ernaux writes a preface to Des mots de hasard by Mireille Best (Gallimard, ‘L’Imaginaire’ series). Exhibition of photographs accompanied by texts from Journal du dehors (Exteriors) curated by Lou Stoppard at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris (MEP). Ernaux takes public stance in support of the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank.
September
Inauguration in Cergy of the Annie Ernaux International House for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
October
First English-speaking, international conference on her works in Scotland (Edinburgh and St Andrews): ‘1974-2024: Annie Ernaux’s Years, A Global Perspective’.
November
Release of the film Annie Ernaux, je suis née quelque part by Coralie Miller.
December
Ernaux receives an honorary doctorate from the University of Rouen.
2025
January
Ernaux writes a new preface to the edition of Coco perdu by Louis Guilloux (Gallimard, ‘Folio’ series).
March
Inauguration in Arras of the multi-media travelling exhibition on Ernaux and her work: Annie Ernaux, une lutte des places, curated by Isabelle Roussel-Gillet. Signs national and international petitions against ‘the genocide carried out by Israel.’
October
Receives the Rapallo Prize in Genoa, Italy.
2026
May
Presentation at the Cannes Film Festival of Mémoire de fille, directed by Judith Godrèche, selected in the ‘Un Certain Regard’ section.
June
Participation and speech at the launch rally in Saint-Denis for Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s campaign for the 2027 presidential election.
September
Release of two films: Annie Ernaux: Écrire la vie by Claire Simon (documentary based on interviews with French schoolchildren talking about Ernaux’s work) and Mémoire de fille by Judith Godrèche.
Translated by Jo Halliday and edited by Lyn Thomas and Elise Hugueny-Léger; with permission and grateful thanks to the Cahier de l’Herne Annie Ernaux (dir. Pierre-Louis Fort, L’Herne, 2022) and its English edition (Annie Ernaux: Writing, the Other Life, Seven Stories Press, 2026) whose Repères bio-bibliographiques and timeline provided the basis for this chronology.
First published on the website: 22 October 2026
*indicates books not translated into English to date.
[1] There is no direct equivalent to the French agrégation in the UK or US educational systems. It is a uniquely French advanced competitive and academically rigorous teaching qualification, giving qualified teacher status and other benefits to teachers. It is a higher-level competition than the CAPES, and those who are successful enjoy reduced teaching hours and higher status.
[2] The CAPES (Certificat d’Aptitude au Professorat d’Enseignement au Second Degré) is a national competitive exam permitting teachers to work in a public middle/secondary school or in a lycée. The tests are in two stages, written and oral.
[3] France’s nationally-regulated institution for distance/remote learning from pre-school to university level.
[4] The Prix Strega Européen (Premio Strega Europeo) is an annual literary award established in 2014 that honours a translated European novel whose author has received prior national recognition in their home country.