2007 Governor General’s Literary Awards

Yesterday, the Canadian Council for the Arts announced the winners of the 2007 Governor General’s Literary Awards. Awards are given out every year in seven categories—fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, children’s literature (text and illustration), and translation(!)—to both a work in English and in French. (Quebec self-governance issues aside, this openness is probably one of the reasons Canada’s the fourth best country to live in.)

Aside from Michael Ondaatje—who won for English fiction—most of the other recipients haven’t received much play here in the States. (Go figure.)

Here are some of the winnners:

French Fiction: Sylvain Trudel, Quebec City, for La mer de la Tranquillité (Les éditions Les Allusifs)

This collection burns with the brilliant flame of Sylvain Trudel’s language as he conjures terrible, unforgettable worlds. To read him is an unforgettable and stunning journey from which we do not emerge unscathed.

French Drama: Daniel Danis, St-David-de-Falardeau (QC), for Le chant du Dire-Dire (Leméac Éditeur)

Revealing the language of a great contemporary poet, this fable by Daniel Danis – terrifying and magnificent, violent and sensual, with a deviant oral character – connects with the great mythological tales.

French Poetry: Serge Patrice Thibodeau, Moncton (NB), Seul on est (Les Éditions Perce-Neige)

This is a long poem on the solitary being, imagined, then written like a motif that has been worked in myriad ways in a polished style. The poet’s mastery of language is apparent, with a conciseness that never gives in to facileness. Serge Patrice Thibodeau avoids all the potential traps of literary constraints. The verses give and take meaning in a rhythm and voice that are sustained from the start.

And in translation:

Nigel Spencer, Montreal, for Augustino and the Choir of Destruction
(House of Anansi Press)

English translation of Augustino et le choeur de la destruction by Marie-Claire Blais (Les Éditions du Boréal)

Nigel Spencer has performed a tour de force in Augustino and the Choir of Destruction, his translation of the third volume in Marie-Claire Blais’ trilogy. The poignant and intricate stories of the novel’s astonishing constellation of characters are sensitively conveyed through his moving and innovative use of language. Spencer has risen to the extraordinary challenge of rendering Blais’ uninterrupted stream of hallucinatory prose into an accomplished and lyrical translation.

Lori Saint-Martin and Paul Gagné, Montreal, for Dernières notes
(Les éditions Les Allusifs)

French translation of Last Notes and Other Stories by Tamas Dobozy (Phyllis Bruce Book)

Translators Lori Saint-Martin and Paul Gagné have successfully transposed the diversity of narrative registers (journalism, introspection, recollection) and styles, going from the ironic all the way to the grotesque. They have thus recreated the distancing effect of exile, where the bizarre and the familiar are inseparable.

Congratulations to Les éditions Les Allusifs for publishing two of the award winners. This is one of the hottest new presses I’ve heard about, and it’s good to see that they’re getting the recognition they deserve.