It was Dominique Scali’s novel The Sailors Don’t Know How to Swim that won the Bookseller’s Prize in the Quebec Novels, Short Stories, Short Stories category at Club Soda on Thursday night, while Marie-Hélène Voyer won in two categories — for for the first time in the history of the prize – for his essay The Habit of Ruins and his collection of poems Mouron des champs.
Posted yesterday at 10:30pm.
“There were moments in writing this book where I said to myself, ‘Come on, I’m crazy! It was such an impossible mission as a project… Ultimately, I was right in believing that it was worth going a little crazy to get there,” Dominique Scali rejoices at the accolade.
Published by La Peuplade last fall, Sailors Don’t Know How to Swim is set on a 18th-century fictional island in the middle of the Atlantic. The book takes us on the footsteps of an orphan who follows the call of the sea. The author reveals that it took her more than five years to write this second novel.
I did a lot of research because I started from scratch; I had no idea about sailing, I had never sailed before.
Dominique Scali
“Basically it was a bit of a fascination, a curiosity about everything to do with the sea and navigation,” she says. It was really a literary journey and an imaginary journey. »
Two awards for Marie-Hélène Voyer
For her part, the literature professor and poet Marie-Hélène Voyer won the booksellers’ choice in two different categories (essay and poetry), something that had never happened before.
Her two books – The habit of ruins (published by Lux-Verlag) and Mouron des champs (by La Peuplade) – are in a way her “two-headed beast”, she emphasizes.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
Marie Helene Voyer
These are two Siamese manuscripts that were written at the same time. What they have in common is the anger at the confiscation of places that serve us as memories, but also at the confiscation of a word, in Mouron des Champs, where I speak of all these silent women who have put their lives on hold for above all raise their children in rural Quebec.
Marie Helene Voyer
This second volume of poetry, reveals Marie-Hélène Voyer, is a form of reconciliation with the mother figure, because the common thread is her own mother, who was stricken with depression fifteen years ago. “She saw me writing in my journals or notebooks and said to me, ‘Anything you write can be used against you.’ She said it jokingly; Despite everything, he had reservations about seeing me write. The circle of grief undoubtedly comes full circle with this beautiful and immense recognition from Quebec booksellers. »
In her essay “The Habit of Ruins,” she describes in different ways the upstate Quebec, which she feels is little talked about — “rural, humble, lacking in history” — and where she grew up. A text nourished by the stories of her father and grandfather, which, as she specifies, aims to be a plea for the humble beauty of our landscapes and our architecture.
These awards, notes Marie-Hélène Voyer, come on top of the other “good news” that has just arrived around the two books, since Pimpernel is being adapted for the theater by Catherine de Léan, while documentary filmmakers have asked her to continue the reflection that unfolds in The Habit of Ruins.
Prizes in six categories
In the Quebec Comics category, Booksellers chose “Sometimes the Lakes Burn”, Geneviève Bigué’s debut album (released by Front Froid), which also won the Booksellers’ Prize in the Young Adult Comics category last February.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
Genevieve Bigue
Two foreign titles also received awards: “The Gray Bees” by Andreï Kourkov (Liana Levi) in the “Novel-Short Story-Narrative” category and “Dry Cleaning” by Joris Mertens (Rue de Sèvres) in the Comics category.
The books that won the 2023 Bookseller Prize
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Québécois Roman short story narrative category
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Essay Category Quebec
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Category of poetry from Quebec
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Quebec Comics category.
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Category Novels-Short Stories-Tales Outside Quebec
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Comic category outside of Quebec
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The Prix d’excellence of the Association des libraires du Québec, which recognizes a bookseller for his exceptional work, was also awarded to Éliane Ste-Marie of the Exèdre bookstore in Trois-Rivières. This award comes with a $2,000 grant from Quebec Minister of Culture and Communications Mathieu Lacombe.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
Eliane Ste Marie
Since 1994, the Prix des Libraires du Québec has recognized titles selected by booksellers across the province. The Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec awarded a $10,000 grant to the winner of the Quebec Novels, Short Stories and Stories category, while the Quebec Essays category winner received a $10,000 grant of $5,000 from the Montreal Arts Council. The Association des Libraires du Québec is also offering a $3,000 grant to winners of the Quebec Poetry and Quebec Comics categories.