Nicole Brossard

Nicole Brossard
220px Nicole Brossard at the award ceremony for the National Order of Quebec in June 2013.
Born	(1943-11-27) November 27, 1943
Nationality	French Canadian
Occupation	Writer
Known for	Poet and novelist
Awards	O.C.

Nicole Brossard, O.C. (born November 27, 1943 in Montreal) is a leading French Canadian formalist poet and novelist.

She lives in Outremont, a suburb of Montreal, Quebec.

Life and work

Brossard wrote her first collection in 1965, Aube à la maison. The collection L'Echo bouge beau marked a break in the evolution of her poetry that included an open and active participation in numerous cultural events (such as poetry recitals). In 1975, she participated in a meeting of writers on women, a point marking both a more activist role in the feminist struggle and writing a poetry that becomes more personal in tone and subjectivity. There are two poles in her writing, both aesthetic and political: on the one hand its modernism and avant-gardism; and on the other a sensual and activist writing that shows a commitment to a feminist consciousness.

Brossard founded a feminist newspaper, Les têtes de pioches, and wrote a play Le nef des sorcières (first performed in 1976). In 1982, she founded a publishing house: L'Intégrale éditrice.

The Nicole Brossard archives are located in downtown Montreal at the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.

Selected bibliography

• Aube à la saison - 1965
• Mordre en sa chair - 1966
• L'écho bouge beau - 1968
• Suite logique - 1970
• Un livre - 1970 (translated in English as A Book)
• Le centre blanc - 1970
• Mécanique jongleuse - 1974 (translated in English as Day-Dream Mechanics; winner of the 1974 Governor General's Award for Poetry)
• La partie pour le tout - 1975
• Sold-Out, étreinte - 1977
• L'amer ou le Chapitre effrite - 1977(translated in English as These Our Mothers)
• French kiss, étreinte / exploration - 1979
• Les sens apparent - 1980 (translated in English as Surfaces of Sense)
• Amantes - 1980 (translated in English as Lovhers; nominated for a Governor General's Award)
• Journal intime - 1984
• Double impression - 1984 (winner of the 1984 Governor General's Award for Poetry)
• Domaine d'écriture - 1985
• La lettre aérienne - 1985 (translated in English as The Aerial Letter)
• Le désert mauve - 1987 (translated in English as Mauve Desert)
• L'amer - 1988
• Installations: avec sans pronoms - 1989
• A tout regard - 1989
• La nuit verte du parc labyrinthe - 1992
• Langues obscures - 1992
• Baroque d'aube - 1995 (translated in English as Baroque at Dawn)
• Vertige de l'avant-scène - 1997 (nominated for a Governor General's Award)
• Au présent des veins - 1999
• Musée de l'os et de l'eau - 1999 (translated into English as Museum of Bone and Water; nominated for a Governor General's Award;)
• Hier - 2001 (translated in English as Yesterday, at the Hotel Clarendon)
• Cahier de roses & de civilisation - 2003 (nominated for a Governor General's Award)

English translations

• These Our Mothers- 1983; translated by Barbara Godard
• Baroque at Dawn - 1997
• Museum of Bone and Water - 2005
• Fluid Arguments - 2005
• Yesterday, at the Hotel Clarendon - 2006
• Picture Theory - 2006
• Mauve Desert - 2006
• Notebook of Roses and Civilization - 2007; translation by Robert Majzels and Erin Moure, shortlisted for the 2008 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize
• Fences in Breathing - 2009
• Nicole Brossard: Selections - 2010; edited by Jennifer Moxley for the series: Poets for the Millennium from University of California Press
• White Piano - 2013; translation by Robert Majzels and Erin Moure, shortlisted for the 2014 Best Translated Book Award

External links

• Griffin Poetry Prize biography, including audio and video clips
• EPC and PennSound link
• The Literary Encyclopedia
• Nicole Brossard's entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia
• Nicole Brossard Bio
• Fine Feminist Workings Susan Rudy's review of Nicole Brossard: Essays on Her Works, by Louise H. Forsyth; published by Guernica Editions in 2005