Suzanne Jacob

Suzanne Jacob (born 1943) is a Canadian novelist, poet, playwright, singer-songwriter, and critic.

Born in the town of Amos, in the Abitibi region of Québec, she studied classics at the Collège Notre-Dame de l'Assomption in Nicolet, and also attended classes at the "Atelier de theatre" and the "École de musique".

After moving to Montreal, she attended the University of Montreal where she studied literature and art history. During this time she appeared in two performances of the experimental theatre group, Les Apprentis-Sorciers, a theatrical group that opened up the doors of Montréal to modernist and experimental performance. She taught French between 1966 and 1974. It was at this time that she began to write and perform monologues, poems and songs. In 1970, she won the Prix du Patriote for singer-songwriter of the year. That same year she participated in the Spa festival in Belgium.

Her first novel, "Flore Cocon", was published in 1978. It was also in this year that, with Paul Paré and Patricia Gariépy, she founded the publishing house Le Biocreux. Jacob was the literary director of this publishing house for several years. Suzanne Jacob contributed to a number of literary reviews, including "Liberté" and "La Gazette des femmes". She also recorded two albums, "Suzanne Jacob" (1979) and "Une humaine ambulante" (1980).

Her abundant and diverse output has resulted in novels, essays, short stories, poems, commentary, performance pieces, plays, and installations. Of her work she has said, that from the beginning she has continually tried to use fiction as a way of creating discrepancies, breaks, and uncertainty in the monolithic set of beliefs that surround us, and that without these discrepancies nothing would shake the rigidity of fundamentalism [Jacob, Suzanne: "La Bulle d'encre", Éditions du Boréal, «Boréal Compact» n° 130, 2001. ISBN 978-2-7646-0128-0] . In 1992 and 1993 she was writer in residence at the University of Montréal.

She has lectured in Québec, the United States, Europe and South America. She is a member of the Academy of Arts and Letters of Quebec. She received the Governor General’s Award and the Prix Paris-Quebec for her novel "Laura Laur" (1983). She also received the Governor General’s Award for "La Part de Feu" (1997), which was also awarded the First Prize for Poetry by the Société Radio Canada.

In 2000, Jacob collaborated with Charles Binamé on the film script for "La Beauté de Pandore". In 2002 and 2003 she acted in the television dramas "Trop jeune pour être père" and "Footsteps". In 2007 Suzanne Jacob received the Félix-Antoine-Savard poetry prize for the group of poems entitled "Ils ont été nombreux à répondre", which appeared in issue #125 of the literary review Estuaire.

References

Bibliography

Novels

* "Flore Cocon" (1978)
* "Laura Laur (1983 - Governor General's Award and Prix Paris-Québec)
* "La Passion selon Galatée" (1987)
* "L'Obéissance" (1991)
* "Rouge, mère et fils" (2001)
* "Wells" (2003)
* "Fugueuses" (2005)

hort stories

* "La Survie (1979; translated by Susanna Finnell as "Life, After All", 1989
* "Maude" (1988; translated by Luise von Flotow as "Maude", 1997)
* "Les Aventures de Pomme Douly" (1988)
* "Plages du Maine" (1989; translated by Susanna Finnell as "A Beach in Maine", 1993)
* "Parlez-moi d'amour" (1998)

Poetry

* "Poèmes I - Gémellaires" (1980)
* "Les Écrits de l'eau" (1996)
* "La Part de feu" (1997 – Governor General's Award and Premier prix de poésie de la Société Radio-Canada)
* "Ils ont été nombreux à répondre", #125, la revue Estuaire (2007)

Essays

* "La Bulle d'encre" (1997 - Prix de la revue Études françaises)
* "Comment pourquoi" (2002)

Memoirs

* "Ah—!" (1996)

Discography

* "Une humaine ambulante" (record, 1980)
* "Suzanne Jacob" (record, 1979)

Filmography

As screenwriter

* "La Beauté de Pandore" (2000)

External references

* [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0009404 Suzanne Jacob's] entry in [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=HomePage&Params=A1 The Canadian Encyclopedia]
* [http://www.calq.gouv.qc.ca/calq/actualites/bcjacob_en.htm Quebec Council of Arts and Letters] (Biography) en icon
* [http://www.collectionscanada.ca/literaryarchives/027011-200.151-e.html Library Archives of Canada] (Biography) en icon
* [http://www.editionsboreal.qc.ca/fr-bio.php?idContributor=322 List of available works] (Boréal Publishers) fr icon
* [http://www.academiedeslettresduquebec.ca/suzanne_jacob.html Quebec Academy of Letters] (Biography) fr icon
* [http://auteurs.contemporain.info/suzanne-jacob/ Critical bibliography (Auteurs.contemporain.info)] fr icon
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* [http://www.fiptr.com/FIPTR-en/quoideneuf/actualites/act_Felix-Antoine_Savard2007.html International Festival of Poetry: Poet Suzanne Jacob Awarded the 2007 Félix-Antoine-Savard Poetry Prize] en icon