Marc-Edouard Nabe

After drawing cartoons for several publications including Hara-Kiri, Nabe published his first book Au régal des vermines in 1985 and caused controversy when he appeared on French television to promote it.

After having 27 books published by various French publishers, Nabe announced in 2010 that he was now self-publishing and invented the concept of 'anti-édition' ('anti-publishing'), which he described as self-publishing for an author who is already well-known. He was shortlisted for the 2010 Prix Renaudot for his novel L'Homme qui arrêta d'écrire, which became the first self-published book to be shortlisted for a major literary prize in France.

Nabe was born Alain Marc Édouard Zannini in Marseille. He is the only son of the Greek-Turkish-Italian jazz musician Marcel Zanini and Corsican mother Suzanne Zannini. His family moved to Boulogne-Billancourt in 1969. His father became successful with the radio hit Tu veux ou tu veux pas in 1970 and introduced him to many jazz musicians.

At 15 years old, Nabe went to visit the team of magazine Hara-Kiri and submitted his cartoons to cartoonists Georges Wolinski, Gébé and publishing director Professeur Choron. Some of his work was published, with Nabe taking a pen name by combining his middle names with a diminutive of 'nabot', a French pejorative word for short people that his schoolmates used to tease him with. In January 1975, one of Nabe's cartoons appeared on the front cover of newspaper Libération. In 1976, he played the rhythm guitar on one track of his father Marcel Zanini's record Blues and Bounce!, alongside drummer Sam Woodyard and organist Milt Buckner. The track's title, Nabe's Dream, became the title of the first volume of his diary, published in 1991.

Nabe met Hélène Hottiaux after his one-year national service in Charleville-Mezières in 1980. He extensively described their relationship in his diary as well as in the novel Alain Zannini. Their son, Alexandre Zannini, was born in 1990.

From 1982 onwards, Nabe wrote texts and articles for many publications, including Philippe Sollers's L'Infini and Jean-Edern Hallier's L'Idiot International. Many of these texts were collected in Oui and Non in 1998. ...

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