2024-04-10 16:35:56
Gone are the days when Quebec authors known to the general French public could be counted on the fingers of one hand: Réjean Ducharme, Michel Tremblay or Marie-Claire Blais. From now on, Quebec is widely present on the tables of booksellers, in particular thanks to the establishment in France of Quebec publishers. An interest confirmed by the presence in the baccalaureate program of the poet Hélène Dorion and by the Medicis prize awarded to Kevin Lambert for May our joy remain.
Twenty-five years after the Spring of Quebec in France (1999), the focus proposed this weekend by the Paris Book Festival therefore responds to a growing appetite among French readers. “I notice a greater curiosity for the French-speaking world in general, testifies Camille Paulian, co-founder of the literary agency Trames, which collaborates with la Peuplade, le Quartanier, la Pastèque and la Mèche. On questions of society, gender, and the representation of women, Quebec and North America seemed further ahead. It is a much younger society than ours, which is not hampered by the generations above. This young generation of authors has freed us from our inhibitions, with a more oral literature, less locked into questions of style. The relationship with the territory, which resonates in France with ecofeminism, is also important. »
Very strong word of mouth effects
Charlotte Desmousseaux, bookseller of La Vie avant soi, in Nantes, confirms: “In independent bookstores, Quebec authors are supported by very strong word of mouth effects: Encabanée, by Gabrielle Filteau-Chiba, which sells continuously, the Wren, by Jean-François Beauchemin, or Sailors don’t know how to swim, of Dominique Scali. The biggest sale in poetry is When I don’t say anything I still think, by Camille Redman Prud’homme. »
Commercial director of Peuplade, established in France in 2019, Julien Delorme participates in the awareness-raising work undertaken by publishers and by Québec édition, the committee which promotes texts abroad: “The reception has completely changed. We were a folkloric and exotic literature, now we are well adapted into the landscape. Transfers of rights to French publishers have increased enormously. »
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