Élise Turcotte won the Montreal Book Grand Prize on Wednesday evening for her work Self-portrait of another.
This is the second time that the short story writer and novelist has won this honor. She won the Grand Prix with Guyana (Leméac), in 2011.
Self-portrait of another is an intimate and family story, which is outlined and which intersects the cultural and intellectual history of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, where the author seeks to revive the memory of a woman in a sort of investigation which does not will never truly be resolved, described the president of the jury, Carole David.
We follow a writer in the footsteps of her aunt, who died tragically decades earlier.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE CITY OF MONTREAL
“It is an exploration of the self very skillfully turned towards the other in a fluid and captivating writing,” added Mme David.
“Self-portrait of another by Élise Turcotte is a work remarkable for its depth and poetry, which reminds us of the power of literature in the construction of a more enlightened and empathetic society”, for her part underlined the head of culture, heritage, of gastronomy and nightlife to the executive committee, Ericka Alneus.
In recent years, Élise Turcotte also won the prestigious 2024 Athanase-David Prize, the highest distinction awarded to a person for their remarkable contribution to Quebec literature, the Governor General’s Literary Award for her novel The foreign house (Leméac, 2002), as well as the Ringuet prize from the Académie des lettres du Québec for The appearance of the deer (Alto, 2019).
She is the fifth person to win the Grand Prix du livre de Montréal a second time since its creation in 1965.
By winning this prize, the author also gets her hands on a $15,000 scholarship.
This year’s jury was composed of Daniel Grenier, Marie-Pascale Huglo, Josianne Létourneau, Luba Markovskaia and Akos Verboczy, under the presidency of Carole David.
Self-portrait of another was published by Éditions Alto.
