Éva Senécal (/evɑ senekal/; born April 20, 1905, in La Patrie, Quebec; died March 14, 1988, in Sherbrooke), was a Québécois poet and novelist who worked for the Sherbrooke newspaper, La Tribune.[1]
Éva Senécal | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | April 20, 1905 La Patrie, Quebec |
| Died | March 14, 1988 (aged 82) Sherbrooke |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Language | French |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Notable works | La Course dans l'aurore, Dans les ombres |
| Notable awards | Prix Albert-Lévesque, 1931 |
Early life and education
editSenécal had a solitary childhood and attended school at the École normale de Saint Hyacinthe in La Patrie. She contracted tuberculosis in her late teens and her long convalescence afforded time for extensive reading and developing her poetry.[2]
Career
editSenécal published her first volume of poetry, Un peu d'angoisse, un peu de fièvre, in 1927. The editor Alfred DesRochers became a supporter of her work, and her success as a poet led to being hired to write for the Sherbrooke newspaper La Tribune from 1930 to 1936 (she later returned to the paper in the mid-1960s).[1] Senécal's novel Dans les ombres generated some controversy when journalist Jules Larivière (Mon magazine) denounced it as having immoral content, but the critical reception was generally warm and the book won the Prix Albert-Lévesque in 1931.[2] Her second novel, Mon Jacques, was published in 1933. Senécal worked as an editor in Montreal in the 1930s, gradually losing interest in writing. Her fragile health remained a barrier in her career.[2] An anthology of Senécal's writing was published in 1987.[3]
Legacy
editThe city of Sherbrooke's first public library was named for her at the time of its foundation in December 1990.[4]
Works
edit- 1927, Un peu d'angoisse… Un peu de fièvre, Montréal, La Patrie.
- 1929, La course dans l'aurore, préface de Louis Philippe Robidoux, Sherbrooke, La Tribune.
- 1931, Dans les ombres, Montréal, Albert Lévesque. (Coll. "Romans de la jeune génération")
- 1933, Mon Jacques, Montréal, Albert Lévesque.
Prizes
edit- 1929 – Poetry prize awarded by l'Action catholique de la jeunesse canadienne (A.C.J.C.), for La Course dans l'aurore[2]
- 1929 – First prize for originality at the Salon des poètes de Lyon, for "Vent du Nord," a poem from La Course dans l'aurore.
- 1931 – Prix Albert-Lévesque, for Dans les ombres
References
edit- ^ a b Hamel-Beaudoin, Françoise (2004). La vie d'Éva Senécal. Montréal: Triptyque. ISBN 289031510X.
- ^ a b c d Brosseau, Marie-Claude (1998). Trois écrivaines de l'entre-deux-guerres : Alice Lemieux, Éva Senécal et Simone Routier (in French). Québec: Éditions Nota bene (Coll. Études). Retrieved April 7, 2018.
- ^ Sénécal, Éva (1987). Le choix d'Éva Sénécal dans l'oeuvre d'Éva Sénécal. Charlesbourg, Que.: Les Presses Laurentiennes. ISBN 2890150550.
- ^ "Bibliothèque municipale Éva-Senécal". bibliotheques.sherbrooke.ca (in French). Retrieved April 7, 2018.