The winners of the 30th Booksellers' Prize unveiled
The Prix des libraires du Québec unveiled its winners tonight at its annual gala hosted this year by author and columnist Catherine Éthier and held at Club Soda.
Since 1994, the prize “consecrates the works which have marked the imagination of booksellers by their originality and their literary quality”. Following a lengthy process, booksellers across the province select winners each year in various categories: novel/short story/story, comic, essay, and poetry. Here are the six works awarded at this 30th awards ceremony!
The winners
A first in the history of the Prix des libraires, this year we were treated to a double winner: the author Marie-Hélène Voyer stood out in two categories.
His book Pimpernel, published by La Peuplade, a book that pays homage to his mother, won honors in the Poetry category, which came with a $3,000 grant offered by the Association des libraires du Québec. His other book, The Habit of Ruins, published by Lux publisher, which explores Quebec's troubled relationship with time and space won in the Essay category. A prize that earned him another grant of $5,000 offered by the Conseil des arts de Montréal.
This double mark of recognition to the e regard to my essay The habit of ruins and my collection Chimper fills me with joy at the same time as it makes me a little dizzy.
Marie-Hélène Voyer
Dominique Scali was the winner in the Novel/short stories/Quebec story category with her novel The sailors don't know how to swim, an ambitious fantasy story also published by La Peuplade. The prize is accompanied by a scholarship of $10,000 offered by the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.
I would like to say thank you to the booksellers. More than ever, I have been able to see this year the influence you have in guiding readers in a world saturated with sources of entertainment and information… especially when it comes time to offer a brick of 700 pages!
Dominique Scali
The gray bees, a Ukrainian humanist story denouncing armed conflicts, published by Liana Levi, by Andreï Kourkov, won in the same category, but outside Quebec.
J&rsquo ;hopes that this prize will further strengthen the cultural ties between Quebec and Ukraine and also encourage Ukrainian readers to take a greater interest in Quebec culture and literature.
Andrei Kurkov
On the comic side, these are Sometimes the lakes burn, a story of adolescence, mourning and friendship, by Geneviève Bigué, published by Front Froid, which won the prize in the Quebec category ($3,000 grant from the Association des libraires du Québec) and Dry cleaning, a story about boredom and the need to change one's life, by Joris Merten, published by Rue de Sèvres, in the category outside Quebec.
Library in the spotlight
That's not all. Every year since 2013, the Association des libraires du Québec has honored a bookseller by highlighting their exceptional work. This year, Eliane Ste-Marie, bookseller at the Librairie l'Exèdre in Trois-Rivières, received the Prix d'Excellence for her ” solid experience and her profile as a shadow bookseller who works in hard for the vitality and influence of its business”. She received a $2,000 scholarship from the Minister of Culture and Communications of Quebec.
