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Gail Scott (writer)

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Gail Scott
Born1945 (age 78–79)
Ottawa, Ontario
Occupationnovelist, translator, journalist
NationalityCanadian
Period1970s-present
Notable worksMy Paris, The Obituary, Biting the Error

Gail Scott (born 1945) is a Canadian novelist, short story writer, essayist and translator,[1] best known for her work in experimental forms such as prose poetry[1] and New Narrative.[2]

Born in Ottawa, Ontario in 1945,[3] she was raised in rural Eastern Ontario and educated at Queen's University and the University of Grenoble[3] before moving to Montreal, Quebec in 1967.[2] Initially working as a journalist, she was a founding editor of publications such as The Last Post, Des luttes et des rires des femmes, Spirale and Tessera.[2] Beginning in 1980, she taught journalism at Concordia University until 1991, and published novels and essay collections.[3] While she has never published a poetry collection of her own, her prose work draws heavily on poetic forms and structures, and was anthologized in Prismatic Publics: Innovative Canadian Women's Poetry and Poetics (2009).[1]

She was a nominee for the Governor General's Award for French to English translation at the 2001 Governor General's Awards for The Sailor's Disquiet, her translation of Michael Delisle's Le Désarroi du matelot.[4] She has also published translations of Delisle's Helen avec un secret, Lise Tremblay's La danse juive and France Théoret's Laurence.[2]

She has been a two-time nominee for the Quebec Writers' Federation Awards, for Heroine in 1988[5] and for Main Brides in 1993.[6] With Mary Burger, Robert Glück and Camille Roy, she was a coeditor of Biting the Error: Writers Explore Narrative, which was a Lambda Literary Award nominee for Non-Fiction Anthologies at the 17th Lambda Literary Awards in 2005.[7]

Her novel The Obituary was a shortlisted nominee for the 2011 Grand Prix du livre de Montreal.[8]

She is an out lesbian.[9]

Works

  • Spare Parts (1981)
  • Heroine (1987, ISBN 978-0889224155)
  • Spaces Like Stairs (1989, ISBN 978-0889611313)
  • Main Brides (1993, ISBN 978-0889104563)
  • My Paris (1999, ISBN 978-1564782977)
  • Spare Parts Plus Two (2002, ISBN 978-1552451014)
  • Biting the Error: Writers Explore Narrative (2004, ISBN 978-1552451427)
  • The Obituary (2010, ISBN 978-1552452332)

References

  1. ^ a b c "The Conversationalist: Interview With Gail Scott". Maisonneuve, October 28, 2010.
  2. ^ a b c d "Writing-Translating (from) the In-Between: An Interview with Gail Scott". Studies in Canadian Literature, Volume 31, Number 2 (2006).
  3. ^ a b c Lianne Moyes, Gail Scott: Essays on Her Works. Guernica Editions, 2002. ISBN 978-1550711646. p. 231.
  4. ^ "The kindest cut of all: The G-G's shortlist". The Globe and Mail, October 24, 2001.
  5. ^ "15 writers vying for first English-language Quebec book awards". Montreal Gazette, September 2, 1988.
  6. ^ "QSPELL Book Awards' shortlist announced". Montreal Gazette, September 21, 1993.
  7. ^ 17th Annual Lambda Literary Awards. Lambda Literary Foundation, July 9, 2005.
  8. ^ "Five vying for book prize". Montreal Gazette, November 9, 2011.
  9. ^ "Gay writing for women still a small, exotic flowering in Canada". The Globe and Mail, April 16, 1994.