The Canada Council for the Arts announced Wednesday morning the winners of the Governor General’s Literary Awards, including first-time novelist Steve Poutré for his novel Raw milk.
Published at 7:00 a.m.
“It’s a big explosion of happiness for me,” said Steve Poutré on the phone. I feel like this will probably break some kind of imposter syndrome in my case; I didn’t study literature, I never even set foot in a university – I’m a graphic designer – but I always had a good novel on my bedside table and ever since I was When I was little, it was a dream for me to write a novel. »
This first novel, published last winter by Alto, evokes the childhood of a man on his family’s dairy farm. “I left all my childhood memories,” says the author. The tragedies we experienced in my family, the suicides of my grandfather, my aunt, my cousin. »
I treated Raw milk from the perspective of mental illness. I put myself in the shoes of a narrator who would be in a kind of psychosis and who would reread his childhood in a slightly more oblique way.
Steve Poutré
Steve Poutré is already working on his second manuscript, which once again draws its inspiration from the same soil.
The other finalists in the novels and short stories category were big peopleby Mathieu Rolland (Boréal), The version that interests no oneby Emmanuelle Pierrot (Le Quartanier), The account is goodby Louis-Daniel Godin (La Peuplade), as well as Muteby Pascale Beauregard (Boréal).
A feminist essay on sport
In the essay category, Florence-Agathe Dubé-Moreau won the prize for her book Offside: Cultural and feminist chronicle on the professional sports industrypublished last fall by Éditions du Stir-Mage.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, ARCHIVES LA PRESSE
Florence-Agathe Dubé-Moreau
“We are experiencing a historic moment for women’s sport and the place of women in sport,” underlined the author. And I feel extremely proud and lucky that the book is able to participate in this moment. »
I admit that this prize allows us to dream of the relevance of feminist speech in the public space, particularly in a field with a male majority and in a tradition as strong as sport.
Florence-Agathe Dubé-Moreau
Florence-Agathe Dubé-Moreau explained that her goal was to tell “differently” stories about women who play sports – whether they are in relationships with players, cheerleadersreferees, coach or leaders – and to bring a feminist perspective around these postures so that we can collectively see them differently. She also made a point of specifying that Martine Delvaux had been the external proofreader of this book, which is the first effort by Éditions du Stir-Mage to win a Governor General’s Award. “It’s such a fundamental publishing house for the advancement of feminist and critical thought in Quebec. »
The work competed for the price especially in the essays File a complaintby Léa Clermont-Dion (The August Horse), and Satin blackby Stanley Péan (Boréal).
Winners in seven categories
In all, seven titles were selected in French and as many in English among this year’s 70 finalists.
In poetry, it is degenerate poemfrom Névé Dumas (The Goose of Cravan) which was chosen, while in theater, it is about Wollstonecraftby Sarah Berthiaume (Your Mother).
In children’s literature, the winner of the text category is Stéfani Meunier for A bubble outside of time (Leméac). In illustrated children’s books, it is The first Christmas treeby Innu author Ovila Fontaine and illustrator Charlotte Parent (La Pastèque). This work is also being translated into Innu with the aim of serving as an educational tool in schools, in addition to having already been published in Russian.
In the last category – translation from English to French – it was the French version of Philip Lee’s novel that stood out: Restigouche: The long course of the wild rivertranslated by Éric Fontaine (Boréal).
The winners of the Governor General’s Literary Awards receive $25,000 for their book, while the publisher receives $3,000 to promote it and the finalists receive $1,000.
Visit the site for all the details
Related News :