François Blais ( – ) was a Canadian writer from
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
who received the 2020
for his novel ''
Lac Adélard''.
Biography
François Blais was born in 1973 in the small town of
Grand-Mère in the
Mauricie region of Quebec. He grew up in a house with a library filled with titles like
Tintin
Tintin or Tin Tin may refer to:
''The Adventures of Tintin''
* ''The Adventures of Tintin'', a comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé
** Tintin (character), a fictional character in the series
** ''The Adventures of Tintin'' (film), 2011, ...
,
Bob Morane
''Bob Morane'' is a series of adventure books in French, featuring an eponymous protagonist, created by French-speaking Belgian novelist Henri Vernes, the pseudonym of Charles-Henri Dewisme. More than 200 novels have been written since his in ...
, and books from the
Countess of Ségur
Sophie Rostopchine, Countess of Ségur, born Sofiya Feodorovna Rostopchina (russian: Софья Фёдоровна Ростопчина; 1 August 1799 in Saint Petersburg – 8 February 1874 in Paris), was a French writer of Russian Empire, Russ ...
.
He published his first novel, ''Iphigénie en Haute-Ville'' at the age of 32 in 2006, which quickly became a finalist for several literary prizes, namely the
Prix des libraires du Québec, the
Prix France-Québec and the
Prix Senghor de la création littéraire. Although he had until then worked primarily as a translator, Blais published a book almost every year, and beginning in 2016, had alternated between adult and children's books all while being employed as a night custodian for a shopping centre in
Trois-Rivières
Trois-Rivières (, – 'Three Rivers') is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River across from the city of ...
.
Blais was also particularly stingy with biographical details in the rare interviews he did grant.
His work was first translated in 2018, when his novel ''Document 1'' appeared in English under the same title.
He lived in
Quebec City
Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the metropolitan area had a population of 839,311. It is t ...
and, in 2016, moved to a farm in the village of
Charette in the county of
Maskinongé in Quebec to live with his sister.
Blais died there on May 14, 2022, at the age of 49.
On December 16, 2022, the Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services issued a warning about his novel ''The Boy with Upside-Down Feet'', claiming that the book could incite young readers to suicide. There was a swift and negative public reaction to the warning from the media and the literary and medical communities.
Works
Blais' novels contain autobiographical elements, which are often rooted in his hometown of
Grand-Mère in Quebec. Since his works are initially characterized by quirky and scathing humour, he never resorted to
autofiction
In literary criticism, autofiction is a form of fictionalized autobiography.
Autofiction combines two mutually inconsistent narrative forms, namely autobiography and fiction. An author may decide to recount their life in the third person, to mod ...
.
His sixth novel, ''La classe de Madame Valérie'', which traces the life of a group of 11-year-old classmates at Laflèche school in Grand-Mère, Quebec, was published in 2013, and received praise from many, and in particular from veteran Quebec journalist
Pierre Foglia.
''Un livre sur Mélanie Cabay'', inspired by the 1994 disappearance and death of a young woman was published in 2018. In 2020, his novel ''
Lac Adélard'', won the
at the
2020 Governor General's Awards.
His 2012 novel ''Document 1'' was published in English in 2018 by
Book*hug Book*hug, formerly BookThug, is a literary press in Toronto, Canada, founded in 2003, which originally concentrated on experimental poetry and currently publishes contemporary books of literary fiction, literary nonfiction, literature in translation ...
in a translation by JC Sutcliffe, under the same title. It was the first of his works to be translated in another language.
Novels and short stories
*
2006
File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...
– ''Iphigénie en Haute-Ville'' (L’instant même)
*
2007 – ''Nous autres ça compte pas'' (L’instant même)
*
2008 – ''Le Vengeur masqué contre les hommes-perchaude de la lune'' (L’instant même)
*
2009 – ''Vie d’Anne-Sophie Bonenfant'' (L’instant même)
*
2011
File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...
– ''La nuit des morts-vivants'' (L’instant même)
*
2012 – ''Document 1'' (L’instant même)
*
2013
File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...
– ''La classe de madame Valérie'' (L’instant même)
*
2014 – ''Sam'' (L’instant même)
*
2015 – ''Cataonie'' (short stories) (L’instant même)
*
2017 – ''Les Rivières, suivi de Les Montagnes : Deux histoires de fantômes'' (short stories) (L’instant même)
*
2018 – ''Un livre sur Mélanie Cabay'' (L’instant même)
*
2021
File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...
– ''La seule chose qui intéresse tout le monde'' (L'instant même)
Children's books
*
2016 – ''752 lapins'' (400 coups)
*
2017 – ''Le livre où la poule meurt à la fin'' (400 coups)
*
2019 – ''Lac Adélard'', illustrated by Iris Boudreau (La courte échelle)
*
2020
2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...
– ''L’Horoscope'' (400 coups)
Collaborations
*
2015 – "Nous avons un problème", collection of short stories ''Il n’y a que les fous'' (L’instant même)
Awards and honours
*
, laureate in 2020 for ''
Lac Adélard'', illustrated by Iris Boudreau (La courte échelle)
*
Prix jeunesse des libraires du Québec, laureate 2021 in the 12–17 years old category for ''Lac Adélard'', illustrated by Iris Boudreau
*
Prix jeunesse des libraires, co-laureate in 2019 in the 6–11 years old category with Valérie Boivin for ''Le livre où la poule meurt à la fin'' (Les 400 coups)
*
Prix des libraires, finalist in 2014 for his novel ''La classe de madame Valérie'' (L’instant même)
*
Prix de création littéraire de la Bibliothèque de Québec-Salon international du livre de Québec, laureate in 2013 for his novel ''Document 1''
*
Prix des libraires, finalist in 2013 for his novel ''Document 1'' (L’instant même)
*
Prix des libraires, finalist in 2007 for his novel ''Iphigénie en Haute-Ville'' (L’instant même)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blais, Francois
1973 births
2022 deaths
21st-century Canadian writers
Canadian writers in French
French Quebecers
*French
Writers from Quebec
People from Shawinigan