Jovette
Marchessault (February 9, 1938 – December 31, 2012)[1]
was a Canadian writer and artist from Quebec, who worked in a variety of
literary and artistic domains including novels, poetry, drama, painting and
sculpture. An important pioneer of lesbian and feminist literature and art in
Canada,[2]
many of her most noted works were inspired by other real-life women in
literature and art, including
Violette
Leduc, Gertrude
Stein and
Alice B.
Toklas, Emily Carr, Anaïs Nin and Helena Blavatsky.[3]
Born in Montreal, Marchessault worked in a textile factory in her youth
before travelling extensively in the late 1950s on a journey of self-discovery
that would inform much of her work. By 1970, she was regularly exhibiting
artwork in Montreal, Toronto, New York City, Paris and Brussels. She published
her first novel, Le Crachat solaire, in 1975; this would be the first
volume in her Comme une enfant de la terre trilogy, which also included
the novels La Mère des herbes (1981) and Des Cailloux blancs pour
les forêts obscures (1987). As a playwright, she published numerous plays;
her early works Les Vaches de nuit, Les Faiseuses d'anges and
Chronique lesbienne du moyen-âge québécois were also republished in 1980
in one volume as Triptyque lesbien.[3]
Marchessault contributed as a journalist to publications such as Le
Devoir, Châtelaine, La Vie en rose, La Nouvelle barre du
jour, Fireweed and 13 Moon. She co-founded the publishing
house Squawtach Press, and was a lecturer in the theater department at the
Université du Québec à Montréal.[3]
Marchessault's play La Terre est trop courte, Violette Leduc was a
nominee for French-language Drama at the 1982 Governor General's Awards, and
her play Le Voyage magnifique d'Emily Carr won the award at the 1990
Governor General's Awards.[3]
She was inducted into the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec in
1993.[3]
A portrait of Marchessault, by artist Robert Laliberté, is held by the
Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives' National Portrait Collection, in honor of
her role as a builder of LGBT culture and history in Canada.[4]
My published books:
BACK TO HOME PAGE
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jovette_Marchessault