Cécile Cloutier

Cécile Cloutier (June 13, 1930 - September 30, 2017) was a Canadian writer and educator.[1][2]

The daughter of Adrien Cloutier and Maria Lantagne, she was born in Quebec City[3] and studied at the Collège Jésus-Marie de Sillery, at Laval University and at the Université de Paris, going on to earn a doctorate from the Sorbonne and a Master of Philosophy from McMaster University. She studied a variety of languages including Sanskrit and Inuktitut.[1] From 1955 to 1958, she taught French literature, Latin, Greek and Spanish at the Collège des Ursulines and at Marymount College in Quebec City. She was a professor in the French department at the University of Ottawa from 1958 to 1964. She then taught aesthetics and French and Quebec literature at the University of Toronto.[4] Cloutier founded the Canadian Society for Aesthetics (Société canadienne d'esthétique). She was a member of the Société des gens de lettres of France and of the PEN club of Paris.[1]

Her collection of poems L'Écouté received the Governor General's Award for French-language poetry in 1986. Cloutier also received the silver medal of the Société des écrivains français. Her poetry has been translated into a number of languages, including English, Spanish, Danish, Polish and Ukrainian.[1]