Ernaux was born in Lillebonne in Normandy, France, and grew up in nearby Yvetot, where her parents, Blanche (Dumenil) and Alphonse Duchesne, ran a café and grocery in a working-class part … See more

Ernaux started her literary career in 1974 with Les Armoires vides (Cleaned Out), an autobiographical novel. In 1984, she won the Renaudot Prize for another of her works La Place (A Man's … See more

Ernaux supported Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the 2012 French presidential election. In 2018, she expressed her support for the yellow vests protests.
Ernaux has repeatedly indicated her support for the BDS movement, a Palestinian-led … See more

Ernaux was previously married to Philippe Ernaux, with whom she has two sons, Éric (born in 1964) and David (born in 1968). The couple divorced in 1981.
She has been a resident of Cergy-Pontoise, a new town in the Paris suburbs, since the mid-1970s. See more

• Les Armoires vides, Paris: Gallimard, 1974; Gallimard, 1984, ISBN 978-2-07-037600-1
• Ce qu'ils disent ou rien, Paris: Gallimard, 1977; French & European Publications, Incorporated, 1989, ISBN 978-0-7859-2655-9 See more

In addition to numerous theatrical and radio adaptations, Ernaux's novels have been adapted for the cinema on three occasions:
• L'Événement (2021), released in English as Happening and directed by Audrey Diwan. … See more

• 1977 Prix d'Honneur for Ce qu'ils disent ou rien
• 1984 Prix Renaudot for La Place
• 2008 Prix Marguerite-Duras for Les Années
• 2008 Prix François-Mauriac for Les Années See more