An iconic figure in Québecois culture, internationally acclaimed writer Nicole Brossard will give readings in both of Canada’s official languages when she visits UBC’s Okanagan campus this week.
Brossard, who lives in Outremont, Que., has published more than 30 books including These Our Mothers, Lovhers, Mauve Desert, and Baroque at Dawn. While she writes in both English and French, her work has also been translated into several other languages, including German and Spanish. Her writing has been widely studied and anthologized and she has won national and international acclaim.
While at UBCO, Brossard will host a French-language reading at the university in the Arts Building, ART 218, 1147 Research Rd. This event takes place Tuesday from 12:30 to 2 p.m. Later that evening, she will hold an English-language reading at the Okanagan Regional Library, 1380 Ellis St, Kelowna. The English-language reading takes place from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
The prolific writer was twice awarded Canada’s Governor General Prize for poetry; in 1974 for Mécanique Jongluese and in 1984 for Double Impression. She has received Quebec’s highest literary honour, le Prix Athanase-David for lifetime achievement in literature, and twice won the Grand Prix de Poesie de la Foundation les Forges. In 2006, she was awarded the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize for the more than 30 books of literature she has produced throughout her career.
Her latest English translation is the poetry collection, White Piano, translated by Robert Majzels and 2013 UBC Okanagan campus writer-in-residence Erín Moure. Brossard co-founded two important Québec literary journals La Barre du Jour and La Nouvelle Barre du Jour.
Her visit is sponsored by the UBC Okanagan Campus Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, UBC Okanagan Campus department of Critical Studies’ French Programme, Okanagan Regional Library, and the Canada Council for the Arts.
