He is the author of novels, collections of poetry and has translated work by Paul Celan and Robert Creeley among others.
His first book, Décimale blanche (Mercure de France, 1967) was translated into German by Paul Celan, and into English by Cid Corman.
[1] Jean Daive was born in Bon-Secours, a section of the city of Péruwelz located in Wallonia, a predominantly French speaking southern region of Belgium and part of the province of Hainaut.
[2] Publishing since the 1960s and today known as one of the important French avant-garde poets, Daive's work is an investigation alternating between poetry, narration and reflective prose.
According to Peter France, Daive's tense, elliptical poems explore the difficulties of existence in an enigmatic world.