Nancy Louise Huston, OC (born September 16, 1953) is a Canadian-born

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...

and

essayist An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal ...

who writes primarily in French and translates her own works into English.

Biography

Huston was born in Calgary,

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, Canada, the city in which she lived until age fifteen, at which time her family moved to Wilton,

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...

, where she attended High Mowing School. She studied at Sarah Lawrence College in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, where she was given the opportunity to spend a year of her studies in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. Arriving in Paris in 1973, Huston obtained a master's degree from the

École des hautes études en sciences sociales The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (french: École des hautes études en sciences sociales; EHESS) is a graduate ''grande école'' and '' grand établissement'' in Paris focused on academic research in the social sciences. The ...

, writing a thesis on swear words under the supervision of

Roland Barthes Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popula ...

. After many years of marriage to

Tzvetan Todorov Tzvetan Todorov (; ; bg, Цветан Тодоров; 1 March 1939 – 7 February 2017) was a Bulgarian-French historian, philosopher, structuralist literary critic, sociologist and essayist. He was the author of many books and essays, whi ...

, with whom she had two children, Huston now shares her life with Swiss painter Guy Oberson.

Career

Because French was a language acquired at school and university, Huston found that the combination of her eventual command of the language and her distance from it as a non-

native speaker Native Speaker may refer to: * ''Native Speaker'' (novel), a 1995 novel by Chang-Rae Lee * ''Native Speaker'' (album), a 2011 album by Canadian band Braids * Native speaker, a person using their first language or mother tongue {{disambigua ...

helped her to find her literary voice. Since 1980, Huston has published over 45 books of fiction and non-fiction, including theatre and children's books. Some of her publications are self-translations of previously published works. Essentially she writes in French and subsequently self-translates into English but ''Plainsong'' (1993) was written first in English and then self-translated to French as ''Cantique des plaines'' (1993) – it was, however, the French version which first found a publisher. She has 25 fiction publications, of which 13 are original fiction and 11 are self-translations. In her fiction, only ''Trois fois septembre'' (1989), ''Visages de l'aube'' (2001) and ''Infrarouge'' (2010), as well as her three children's books, have not been published in English. She has also published two plays but has not yet translated either. She has 14 non-fiction publications, of which 12 are original publications and two are self-translations. The other ten non-fiction publications have not yet been self-translated. While Huston's often controversial works of non-fiction have been well-received, her fiction has earned her the most critical acclaim. Her first novel, ''Les variations Goldberg'' (1981), was awarded the Prix Contrepoint and was shortlisted for the

Prix Femina The Prix Femina is a French literary prize created in 1904 by 22 writers for the magazine '' La Vie heureuse'' (today known as '' Femina''). The prize is decided each year by an exclusively female jury. They reward French-language works writte ...

. She translated this novel into English as ''The Goldberg Variations'' (1996). Her next major award came in 1993 when she was received the Canadian

Governor General's Award The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual List of awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields. Th ...

for Fiction in French for ''Cantique des Plaines'' (1993). This was initially contested as it was a translation of ''Plainsong'' (1993), but Huston demonstrated that it was an adaptation and kept the prize. A subsequent novel, ''La virevolte'' (1994), won the Prix "L" and the Prix Louis-Hémon. It was published in English in 1996 as ''Slow Emergencies''. Huston's novel, ''Instruments des ténèbres'', has been her most successful novel yet, being shortlisted for the Prix Femina, and the Governor General's Award. It was awarded the

Prix Goncourt des Lycéens The Prix Goncourt des Lycéens is a French literary award created in 1987 as a sort of younger sibling of Prix Goncourt, a prestigious prize for French language literature. The ten members of the Académie Goncourt select twelve literary works as ...

, as well as both the Prix des lectrices (Elle Québec) and the Prix du livre Inter in 1997. In 1998, she was nominated for a Governor General's Award for her novel ''L'Empreinte de l'ange''. The next year she was nominated for a Governor General's Award for translating the work into English as '' The Mark of the Angel''. In 1999, she appeared in the film '' Set Me Free (Emporte-moi)'', also collaborating on the screenplay. Her works have been translated into many languages from Chinese to Russian. In 2005, she was made an Officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the cen ...

, and she received the Prix Femina in 2006 for the novel ''Lignes de faille'' and which, as ''Fault Lines'', has been published by Atlantic Books and is shortlisted for the 2008

Orange Prize The Women's Prize for Fiction (previously with sponsor names Orange Prize for Fiction (1996–2006 and 2009–12), Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction (2007–08) and Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction (2014–2017)) is one of the United Kingdom's m ...

. Her latest novel is ''Infrarouge'' (2010). In 2007, she received an honorary doctorate from the

University of Liège The University of Liège (french: Université de Liège), or ULiège, is a major public university of the French Community of Belgium based in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium. Its official language is French. As of 2020, ULiège is ranked in the 301 ...

. In 2010, she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Ottawa. In 2012, she won the Literary Review's

Bad Sex in Fiction Award ''Literary Review'' is a British literary magazine founded in 1979 by Anne Smith, then head of the Department of English at the University of Edinburgh. Its offices are on Lexington Street in Soho. The magazine was edited for fourteen years by ...

for her novel, ''Infrared''.

Critical Response

Canadian poet and critic Frank Davey in "Big, Bad and Little Known: The Anglophone-Canadian Nancy Huston" (2004), is critical of Huston's English writing style. In response to this misunderstanding of her style, Joseph Pivato in "Nancy Huston Meets le Nouveau Roman" (2016), points out that Huston was influenced by the French writers of le Nouveau Roman and their theory of composition. See her ''Nord perdu'' (1999).

Selected works

Fiction

* ''The Goldberg Variations'' (1996) – self-translation of ' (1981) awarded the

Prix Contrepoint The prix Contrepoint is a French literary award established in 1971 by a group of young French novelists and journalists. Each year a French-speaking novelist is selected. According to Bertrand Labes,. this prize was characterized at its creation ...

in 1982. * ''The Story of Omaya'' (1987) – self-translation of ''Histoire d'Omaya'' (1985) * ''Trois fois septembre'' (1989) o English self-translation* ''Plainsong'' (1993) – ''Cantique des plaines'' (self-translation) (1993) * ''Slow Emergencies'' (1996) – self-translation of ''La Virevolte'' (1994) * ''Instruments of Darkness'' (1997) – self-translation of ''Instruments des ténèbres'' (1996) * ''The Mark of the Angel'' (1998) – self-translation of ''L'empreinte de l'ange'' (1988) * ''Prodigy: A Novella'' (2000) – self-translation of ''Prodige : polyphonie'' (1999) * ''Limbes/Limbo'' (2000) ilingual edition* ''Visages de l'aube'' (2001) ith Valérie Winckler – no English version* ''Dolce Agonia'' (2001) – self-translation of the French version ''Dolce agonia'' (2001), cover illustration by Ralph Petty * ''An Adoration'' (2003) – self-translation of ''Une adoration'' (2003) * ''Fault Lines'' (2007) – self-translation of ''Lignes de faille'' (2006) * ''Infrarouge'' (2010) – Infrared (2012) * ''Danse noire*'' (2013) – o English self-translation as of yet

Theatre

* ''Angela et Marina'' (2002) ith Valérie Grail – no English self-translation* ''Jocaste reine'' (2009, translated as ''Jocasta Regina'', 2010)

Non-fiction

* ''Jouer au papa et à l'amant '' (1979) o English self-translation* ''Dire et interdire : éléments de jurologie'' (1980) o English self-translation* ''Mosaïque de la pornographie : Marie-Thérèse et les autres'' (1982) o English self-translation* ''Journal de la création'' (1990) o English self-translation* ''Tombeau de Romain Gary'' (1995) o English self-translation* ''Pour un patriotisme de l'ambiguïté'' (1995) o English self-translation* ''Nord perdu : suivi de Douze France'' (1999) * ''Losing north: musings on land, tongue and self'' (2002) elf-translation of ''Nord perdu : suivi de Douze France''* ''Professeurs de désespoir'' (2004) o English self-translation* ''Passions d'Annie Leclerc'' (2007) o English self-translation* ''L'espèce fabulatrice'' (2008) * ''The Tale-Tellers: A Short Study of Humankind'' (2008) elf-translation of ''L'espèce fabulatrice''

Correspondence

* ''À l'amour comme à la guerre'' (1984) o English version* ''Lettres parisiennes : autopsie de l'exil'' ith Leila Sebbar(1986) o English version

Selected texts

* ''Désirs et réalités : textes choisis 1978–1994'' (1995) o English version* ''Âmes et corps : textes choisis 1981–2003'' (2004) o English version

Children's fiction

* '' Véra veut la vérité'' (1992) Léa_&_Willi_Glasauer.html" ;"title="Léa_Huston.html" ;"title="ith Léa Huston">Léa & Willi Glasauer">Léa_Huston.html" ;"title="ith Léa Huston">Léa & Willi Glasauer – English version as "Vera learns the Truth"] * ''Dora demande des détails'' (1997) [with Léa & Pascale Bougeault – no English version] * ''Les souliers d'or'' (1998) o English self-translation

Filmography

* '' Stolen Life'' (1998) (as screenwriter)

Notes

References

* Eugene Benson and William Toye, eds. ''The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature, Second Edition''. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1997: 564–565.

External links

Nancy Huston, dea ex machina

Nancy Huston entry at Canadian Encyclopedia
* *
Fonds Nancy Huston (R15463)
at Library and Archives Canada {{DEFAULTSORT:Huston, Nancy 1953 births Canadian women novelists Exophonic writers French–English translators Governor General's Award-winning fiction writers Living people Officers of the Order of Canada Prix Femina winners Prix du Livre Inter winners Prix Goncourt des lycéens winners Waldorf school alumni Writers from Calgary Sarah Lawrence College alumni 20th-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian novelists 20th-century Canadian women writers 21st-century Canadian women writers Canadian novelists in French 20th-century Canadian translators 21st-century Canadian translators Canadian women non-fiction writers