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Poetry General

Major Verbs, The

by (author) Pierre Nepveu

translated by Donald Winkler

Publisher
Vehicule Press
Initial publish date
Oct 2012
Category
General
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781550653397
    Publish Date
    Oct 2012
    List Price
    $18

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Description

Pierre Nepveu is unique among French Quebec poets for having forged a voice at once unadorned, sensuous and adventurous.
His new collection, The Major Verbs,is a masterwork consisting of three sequences: one focussing on an immigrant night cleaner glimpsed on a subway, another, a riff on a group of stones on a table, and the third concerning the poet's parents and their deaths.
The book closes with a long meditative poem written in the American southwest. The Major Verbs (under its original title, Les Verbes Majeur) was nominated for a Governor-General's Award for Poetry in 2010. Nepveu's poetry collection, Mirabel won the 2003 Governor General Award for its original French-language edition and the 2004
Governor General Award for Translation (Judith Cowan,
translator, Signal Editions).

About the authors

Pierre Nepveuis a Montreal critic, essayist, poet and teacher. He has received the Governor General's Award three times-in 1997 for the collection of poems Romans-fleuves, in 1998 for the essay Intérieurs du Nouveau Monde, and in 2003 for Lignes Aériennes. His many other awards include the Québec-Paris Prize, the Prix Victor-Barbeau de l'Académie des lettres du Québec, and the Canada-Swiss Prize. Pierre Nepveu has taught in the Département d'études françaises at the Université de Montréal since 1978.
Donald Winkler is a filmmaker and translator. He won the Governor General's Literary Award for Translation and has been a finalist four times. His translation of Daniel Poliquin's La Kermesse [A Secret Between Us] was a finalist for the 2007 Giller Prize. He lives in Montreal, Quebec.
Writer, playwright, director, actor, journalist, historian, and critic, Jean-Claude Germain is a Quebec icon. He taught at the National Theatre School of Canada and was artistic director of Théâtre d'aujourd'hui (1972-1982). Well-known for his story telling on the radio, he related the year-by-year saga of the history of Montreal from 1642 to 1992 at the morning show CBF-Bonjour, the 350 episodes were ultimately published in three volumes as Le Feuilleton de Montréal/i>.

Pierre Nepveu's profile page

Donald Winkler was born in Winnipeg, graduated from the University of Manitoba, and did graduate study at the Yale School of Drama. From 1967 to 1995 he was a film director and writer at the National Film Board of Canada in Montreal, and since the 1980s, a translator of Quebec literature. In 1994, 2011, and 2013 he won the Governor General Award for French to English translation, and has been a finalist for the prize on three other occasions. His translation of Samuel Archibald's short story collection, "Arvida," was a finalist for the 2015 Giller Prize. He lives in Montreal, Quebec.

Donald Winkler's profile page

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