Anna Girouard
Categories: Female Authors - Francophone Authors - Authors of Juvenile Fiction; - Novelists - Dramatists - Authors of Non-Fiction - Acadian Coast
Source: Author / auteure
Biography
Anna Girouard was born in Pictou, Nova Scotia, and moved to Sainte-Marie-de-Kent, New Brunswick a few weeks later. Her latest book, KIDnappée, retraces certain episodes from her childhood. She acknowledges that some ancestral Acadian education methods in her small village are a nice complement to Maria Montessori’s method. A student at the Rogersville and Rivière-du-Loup private schools, she returned to the École centrale de Sainte-Marie and was elected president of the student council. She was also later elected to the student council of her political science class and elected president of the girls’ residence, Résidence Lefebvre, at the Université de Moncton. Her psychology courses led her to conceive and write a voluminous report entitled Méthodes d’éducation dans la famille acadienne. During her teaching and library work, she took theatre and film workshops prior to completing her National Film Board film Abandounée. Her apprenticeship in journalism, overseen by her spouse, Éric Goguen, encouraged her to write about the news in a way that gets to the heart of the story. The workshops she gave in writing, drawing, and mime in several schools prompted her to start her own publishing company, Balises.
How has New Brunswick influenced your work?
The beautiful sunrises along riverfronts and the small, windy, rain and snow-swept valleys entice me to greet the daylight to provide some perspective on the value of my country’s ways and customs.
What is your favourite New Brunswick book, and why?
Pascal Poirier’s books Le Père Lefebvre et l’Acadie and Le Glossaire acadien are my favourites because of his comical descriptions, such as "époux raccommodés" [page 48] and "remplir le précepte de la Genèse" [page 6] and "ces grands peupliers canadiens, hauts comme le cèdre du Liban et solennels comme un prophète." [page 25] Fernand Arsenault corroborates excellent references of solidarity, listed in the saga La Vente d’honneur. Melvin Gallant describes the ongoing character of Michel very well in Le Métis de Beaubassin. Glen Blouin inspired certain elements of Vitamine « i », and Robert L. Dallison, in Turning Back the Fenians, developed certain principles of the Canadian union.
What do you consider to be the highlight of your career so far?
When I was filming Abandounée, the gathering together of about 100 volunteers led to writing the saga of La Vente d’honneur. Excerpts from this first book were read on the national Radio-Canada network (by Yvan Vaneck) and I was thrilled with them. The translation of these books by Fred Cogswell, a distant cousin, impressed me enormously. The exhibition of my paintings about this saga at the Acadian Museum in the Clément-Cormier building encouraged me to see the value of an academy of Acadian science, the first books of which are the following:
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Literary Prizes |
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| Shortlist, Prix France-Acadie - 2001 | In recognition of: La vente d'honneur III : Nova |
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Featured Publication |
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Saga : la vente d'honneur (2009) |
Excerpt: Quelqu’un toussa crûment. Je sortais de ma rêvasserie en me souvenant des paroles de mon grand-père: « Petit, faut trémousser la hardiesse au lieu de gémir » [devant une cinquantaine de pauvres, comme moi, destinés à être vendus devant l’église]. Une pulsion intérieure me forçait à braver cette maudite honte, pulsion plus forte que l’eau prisonnière des glaces. Les pulsions d’un jeune buck s’atténuaient. Je commençais à comprendre la désolation des autres. Ainsi, je me mis à la disposition de Nova. Je le talonnais partout. Il s'accroupit pour attacher un bandage sur la tête de l’Innocent; je mis mon doigt pour serrer le nœud. Il se leva. Je me levai. Il enleva la neige sur l’épaule d’Alfred. Je fis de même. Si d’une minute à l’autre, mon cœur passait de la tristesse à la joie, de la colère à l’hilarité, de l’ennui à l’amitié, de la haine à l’amour, j’avais un long chemin à parcourir. - J’avais hâte que Nova m’enseigne, un jour, le langage des êtres vivants. En passant, il m’interpella : « On découvre les perles de sagesse au berceau de la compréhension. » Sur le coup, je n’ai pas tout à fait compris, sauf que je réalisais que pour bien vivre, je devais tenter de me comprendre moi-même avant de comprendre les nations du monde. |
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Find this author in the New Brunswick public libraries catalogue.
Source(s): Author.
