Marc Sony Ricot•©️Charly Amazan
Ottawa, July 17, 2025.- A literary journalist, podcaster and artisan of French-language memory, Marc Sony Ricot has just received the Prix Jacques Roche 2025 in cultural journalism. Based in Montreal, he works consistently to make Haitian literature shine through his chronicles, podcasts and collective commitments. This prize celebrates a free voice, inhabited by words and deeply rooted in cultural transmission.
« Reading, writing... is my way of being in the world. » This almost manifest statement summarizes the itinerary of a man for whom the verb is crossed. Journalist at the Nouvellist, animator of the podcast Des Fous et des Dieux, and of the show Terre des Érudits, Marc Sony Ricot is a discreet but essential figure of contemporary Haitian culture. The Prix Jacques Roche, presented by the Bibliothèque Georges Castera du Limbé, devotes a trajectory where literary engagement becomes an act of resistance.
*A work between transmission and memory*
Located in Montreal, Ricot has never stopped reaching out between Haiti and the world. Through his chronicles and speeches, he circulates the voices of writers, weaves bridges between generations, forms and territories. In 2024 he directed Secrets d'écrire and mystery of reading, a collective work bringing together more than thirty Francophone authors around the intimate relationship to writing. A strong gesture that extends its work of mediation between creators and readers.
*Culture as a collective commitment*
Active member of the Haitian Podcaster Collective, Marc Sony Ricot defends podcast as a lever of cultural democracy. At the crossroads of writing, oral and digital, his work explores contemporary forms of narrative. But always with a red thread: memory, bond, and transmission as an act of beauty. « The one who reads, writes, becomes a smuggler. He opens a way », he claims with conviction.
*A price, a promise, a call*
The Prix Jacques Roche, which pays tribute to the journalist murdered in 2005, rewards every year those who celebrate truth, diversity and culture. Previous winners include Daniel Marcelin, Valérie Marin La Meslée and Claude Bernard Sérant. In receiving this distinction, Ricot salutes his inspiration: Kettly Mars, Evains Wêche, Claude Bernard Sérant, or Marie-André Bélange, who encourages him in the shadows.
Through this award, Marc Sony Ricot launches a vibrant call: « Hold on. Continue to read, to write, to marvel... To read is to open a door, on oneself, on others, on life. » A message of hope, endurance and beauty, like the man who carries it.
WA
