Naomi Fontaine

Naomi Fontaine is a Canadian writer from Quebec,[1] noted as one of the most prominent First Nations writers in contemporary francophone Canadian literature.[2] She is a member of the Innu nation.

Naomi Fontaine
Born(1987-09-29)September 29, 1987
Uashat
OccupationNovelist, Teacher
Literary movementCanLit
Notable works
  • Kuessipan
  • Manikanetish

Biography

A member of the Innu nation from Uashat, Quebec, she studied education at the Université Laval.[3]

Her 2011 debut novel Kuessipan[4] received an honourable mention from the Prix des cinq continents de la francophonie in 2012.[5] Kuessipan is an meditative novel about life in the wilds of northeastern Quebec. Fontaine wrote this novel in French at the age of twenty-three. She depicts a community of Innu, nomadic hunters and fishers, and of hard-working mothers and their children, enduring a harsh, sometimes cruel reality with quiet dignity. Pervading the book is a palpable sense of place and time played out as a series of moments. Elders who watch their kin grow up before their eyes; couples engaged in domestic crises, and young people undone by alcohol; caribou-skin drums that bring residents to their feet; and lives spent along a bay that reflects the beauty of the earth and the universal truth that life is a fleeting puzzle whose pieces must be put together before it can be fully lived.[6]

Her second novel, Manikanetish, was published in 2017,[3] and was a shortlisted finalist for the Governor General's Award for French-language fiction at the 2018 Governor General's Awards.[7] Also in 2017, her short piece "Tshinanu" was selected for inclusion in Granta's Canadian issue.[8]

Manikanetish was selected for the 2019 edition of Le Combat des livres, where it was defended by surgeon Stanley Vollant.[9]

Her novel Kuessipan was adapted by Myriam Verreault into the 2019 theatrical feature film Kuessipan.[10] Verreault and Fontaine received a Prix Iris nomination for Best Screenplay at the 22nd Quebec Cinema Awards for the film.

Works
  • Kuessipan. Mémoire d'encrier, 2011
    • (in English) transl. David Homel: Kuessipan. Arsenal Pulp Press 2013
  • Manikanetish. Mémoire d'encrier, 2013
  • (in English) transl. David Homel: Tshinanu. Granta #141, special: Canada september 2017, pp. 279–285 (from the French)
    • (in German and French) transl. Sonja Finck: Tshinanu. In Jennifer Dummer ed.: Pareil, mais différent - Genauso, nur anders. Frankokanadische Erzählungen. Bilingue. dtv, Munich 2020, pp 92–109
  • Avec Olivier Dezutter, Jean-François Létourneau éd.: Tracer un chemin: Meshkanatsheu. Hannenorak, 2017
  • Shuni. Mémoire d'encrier, 2019 (winner of the "Prix littéraire des collégiens", 2020)

References
  1. "Naomi Fontaine : la force des Innus". Ici Radio-Canada, November 5, 2017.
  2. "Rentrée littéraire Coup de coeur : « Kuessipan », de Naomi Fontaine". L'Express, September 9, 2015
  3. "Naomi Fontaine revient aux sources avec Manikanetish" Archived 2019-08-07 at the Wayback Machine. Les malins, September 23, 2017.
  4. The Innu word means to you or your turn. Quill & Quire, fall preview 2013: Canadian novels
  5. "Geneviève Damas, lauréate du 11e prix des cinq continents de la francophonie". Le Nouvelliste, September 26, 2012.
  6. Kuessipan | Arsenal Pulp Press. Retrieved 2020-05-19. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  7. "Prix littéraires du Gouverneur général: les finalistes dévoilés". La Presse, October 3, 2018.
  8. "Why Granta dedicated an entire issue to Canadian writing". Maclean's, November 9, 2017.
  9. "5 combattants dans le ring du Combat national des livres". Ici Radio-Canada, April 8, 2019.
  10. "Tournage du film Kuessipan : montrer la force des jeunes Innus". Ici Radio-Canada, December 9, 2017.
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