Gaëlle Bélem (born 1984) is a French writer of Réunionese extraction known for the prize-winning coming-of-age novel Un monstre est là, derrière la porte (2020), and the historical novel Le fruit le plus rare : ou la vie d'Edmond Albius (2023).

[1] Gaëlle Bélem was born in Saint-Benoît, Réunion, grew up in a modest family and has been writing since the age of twelve.

[2][3] She left Réunion at the age of 17, and studied in Toulouse, France, at the Lycée Pierre-de-Fermat from 2002 to 2005, and subsequently at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University in 2005 and finally at École Pratique des Hautes Études.

[3] In 2020 she published her first novel Un monstre est là, derrière la porte (translated title: A Monster is There, Behind the Door).

[2][5][7] Not an autobiographical novel, it relates with humor the story of a young girl growing up in a poor and dysfunctional family in Saint-Benoît.