Nicole Brossard


Nicole Brossard is a French-Canadian formalist poet and novelist. Her work is known for exploration of feminist themes and for challenging masculine-oriented language and points of view in French literature.
She lives in Outremont, a suburb of Montreal, Canada.

Early life

Brossard was born in Montreal, Quebec. She attended Collège Marguerite Bourgeoys and the Université de Montréal.

Career

Brossard wrote her first collection in 1965, Aube à la saison. The collection L'Echo bouge beau marked a break in the evolution of her poetry that included an open and active participation in many literary and cultural events, including poetry recitals.
In 1975, she participated in a meeting of writers on women, after which she began to take an activist role in the feminist movement, and to write poetry with a more personal and subjective tone. Her writing includes sensual, aesthetic and feminist political content.
Brossard co-founded a feminist newspaper, Les têtes de pioches, with France Théoret. She wrote a play Le nef des sorcières.
In 1982, she founded a publishing house: L'Intégrale éditrice. Brossard's poetry collection, Double Impression, won the 1984 Governor General's Award. In 1987 her romance novel, Le désert mauve, was published.
The Nicole Brossard archives are located in downtown Montreal at the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec. and at Library and Archives Canada.
In April 2019, Brossard was announced as the 2019 Griffin Lifetime Recognition Award recipient.

Awards

Selected bibliography

  • Aube à la saison - 1965
  • Mordre en sa chair - 1966
  • L'écho bouge beau - 1968
  • Suite logique - 1970
  • Un livre - 1970
  • Le centre blanc - 1970
  • Mécanique jongleuse - 1974
  • La partie pour le tout - 1975
  • Sold-Out, étreinte / illustration - 1977
  • L'amèr ou le Chapitre effrité - 1977
  • French kiss, étreinte / exploration - 1979
  • Les sens apparent - 1980
  • Amantes - 1980
  • Journal intime - 1984
  • Double impression - 1984
  • Domaine d'écriture - 1985
  • La lettre aérienne - 1985
  • Le désert mauve - 1987
  • L'amer - 1988
  • Installations: avec sans pronoms - 1989
  • A tout regard - 1989
  • La nuit verte du parc labyrinthe - 1992
  • Langues obscures - 1992
  • Baroque d'aube - 1995
  • Vertige de l'avant-scène - 1997
  • Au présent des veins - 1999
  • Musée de l'os et de l'eau - 1999
  • Hier - 2001
  • Cahier de roses & de civilisation - 2003
;English translations