C�lestine Hitiura Vaite is a Tahitian writer. The daughter of a Tahitian mother and French father, Vaite grew up in the commune of Faaa on the island of Tahiti, French Polynesia. In her youth, Vaite grew up immersed in traditional storytelling. Having won a scholarship to a leading girls' school in Papeete, she became interested in works by French authors like Balzac, Flaubert, Zola and Maupassant. Though a native French speaker, Vaite notably writes in English. She began to write out of homesickness while pregnant with her third child in Australia. Vaite has stated that writing in English gives her a wider audience as well as a greater creative freedom. Her first three novels?Breadfruit, Frangipani, and Tiare?follow Materena Mahi, a "professional cleaner" who lives in Faaa. The novels describe life in contemporary Tahiti from an inside perspective, through anecdotes and often with great humor. Vaite thus brings attention on a region of the world that Western literature has relegated to travel guides or often described in exotic terms. Her first two novels have been translated into French. 

January 1st, 1966 in Papeete (Age 59)