Naomi Fontaine
Born(1987-09-29)September 29, 1987
Uashat
OccupationNovelist, Teacher
Literary movementCanLit
Notable works
  • Kuessipan
  • Manikanetish

Naomi Fontaine is a Canadian writer from Quebec,[1] noted as one of the most prominent First Nations writers in contemporary francophone Canadian literature.[2] She is a member of the Innu nation.

Biography

A member of the Innu nation from Uashat, Quebec, she studied education at the Université Laval.[3]

Her 2011 debut novel Kuessipan[4] received an honourable mention from the Prix des cinq continents de la francophonie in 2012.[5] Kuessipan is an meditative novel about life in the wilds of northeastern Quebec. Fontaine wrote this novel in French at the age of twenty-three. She depicts a community of Innu, nomadic hunters and fishers, and of hard-working mothers and their children, enduring a harsh, sometimes cruel reality with quiet dignity. Pervading the book is a palpable sense of place and time played out as a series of moments. Elders who watch their kin grow up before their eyes; couples engaged in domestic crises, and young people undone by alcohol; caribou-skin drums that bring residents to their feet; and lives spent along a bay that reflects the beauty of the earth and the universal truth that life is a fleeting puzzle whose pieces must be put together before it can be fully lived.[6]

Her second novel, Manikanetish, was published in 2017,[3] and was a shortlisted finalist for the Governor General's Award for French-language fiction at the 2018 Governor General's Awards.[7] Also in 2017, her short piece "Tshinanu" was selected for inclusion in Granta's Canadian issue.[8]

Manikanetish was selected for the 2019 edition of Le Combat des livres, where it was defended by surgeon Stanley Vollant.[9]

Her novel Kuessipan was adapted by Myriam Verreault into the 2019 theatrical feature film Kuessipan.[10] Verreault and Fontaine received a Prix Iris nomination for Best Screenplay at the 22nd Quebec Cinema Awards for the film.

Works

  • Kuessipan. Mémoire d'encrier, 2011
    • (in English) transl. David Homel: Kuessipan. Arsenal Pulp Press 2013
  • Manikanetish. Mémoire d'encrier, 2013
  • (in English) transl. David Homel: Tshinanu. Granta #141, special: Canada september 2017, pp. 279–285 (from the French)
    • (in German and French) transl. Sonja Finck: Tshinanu. In Jennifer Dummer ed.: Pareil, mais différent - Genauso, nur anders. Frankokanadische Erzählungen. Bilingue. dtv, Munich 2020, pp 92–109
  • Avec Olivier Dezutter, Jean-François Létourneau éd.: Tracer un chemin: Meshkanatsheu. Hannenorak, 2017
  • Shuni. Mémoire d'encrier, 2019 (winner of the "Prix littéraire des collégiens", 2020)

References

  1. ↑ "Naomi Fontaine : la force des Innus". Ici Radio-Canada, November 5, 2017.
  2. ↑ "Rentrée littéraire Coup de coeur : « Kuessipan », de Naomi Fontaine". L'Express, September 9, 2015
  3. 1 2 "Naomi Fontaine revient aux sources avec Manikanetish" Archived 2019-08-07 at the Wayback Machine. Les malins, September 23, 2017.
  4. ↑ The Innu word means to you or your turn. Quill & Quire, fall preview 2013: Canadian novels
  5. ↑ "Geneviève Damas, lauréate du 11e prix des cinq continents de la francophonie". Le Nouvelliste, September 26, 2012.
  6. ↑ Kuessipan | Arsenal Pulp Press. Retrieved 2020-05-19. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  7. ↑ "Prix littéraires du Gouverneur général: les finalistes dévoilés". La Presse, October 3, 2018.
  8. ↑ "Why Granta dedicated an entire issue to Canadian writing". Maclean's, November 9, 2017.
  9. ↑ "5 combattants dans le ring du Combat national des livres". Ici Radio-Canada, April 8, 2019.
  10. ↑ "Tournage du film Kuessipan : montrer la force des jeunes Innus". Ici Radio-Canada, December 9, 2017.
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