About Taos Amrouche
Marie-Louise-Taos Amrouche (Tamazight: Mari-Lwiz Ṭawes Ɛemruc, March 1913 – 2 April 1976) was a Kabyle writer and singer. In 1947, she became the first Kabyle woman to publish a novel. == Biography == She was born in Tunis, Tunisia, into a family of Kabyle Roman Catholic converts, the only daughter in a family of six sons. Her family had moved to Tunisia to escape persecution after their conversion in Algeria. Her mother Fadhma Aït Mansour, who was a famous Kabyle singer, had a great impact on her life, and her literary style would reflect the oral traditions of the Kabylie Berber people of her mother's heritage. Amrouche received her elementary and secondary education in Tunis, and in 1935 went to France for studies at the École Normale at Sèvres. From 1936, in collaboration with her elder brother Jean Amrouche and her mother, Amrouche collected and began to interpret Kabyle songs. In 1939, at the Congrès de Chant de Fès, she received a scholarship to study at the Casa Velasquez in Spain, where she researched the ties between Berber and Spanish popular songs. Her autobiographical first novel, Jacinthe noir, was published in 1947 and is one of the earliest ever published in French by a North African woman writer. With her compilation of tales and poems La Grain magique in 1966, she took the nom de plume Marguerite-Taos, Marguerite being her mother's Christian name.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.