Réjean Ducharme

Novelist and playwright Réjean Ducharme was born in Saint-Félix-de-Valois, Quebec, in 1941. His first novel, L’Avalée des avalés The Swallower Swallowed (1966), won the Governor General’s Literary Award in 1967 and the CBC’s Canada Reads francophone competition in 2005. This work also garnered him a nomination for France’s prestigious Prix Goncourt. His second novel, Le Nez qui voque (1967), was awarded the Prix littéraire de la province de Québec. These two, plus a third novel, L’Océantume (1968), were published during the years of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec and made a significant impact.

Ducharme wrote the plays, Le Cid maghané and Ines Pérée et Inat Tendu in 1968, and Ha ha! which won the Governor General’s Literary Award in 1982 has also been translated into English. He received the Prix Belgique-Canada in 1973 for L’Hiver de force and the Prix France-Canada in 1976 for Les Enfantômes. In addition, he wrote the lyrics of several songs for Robert Charlebois (1976). Ducharme also wrote the screenplay for two very successful films: Les Bons Débarras (1979) and Les Beaux Souvenirs (1981) produced by Francis Mankiewicz. After a fourteen-year silence, Ducharme surprised the world with two novels, Dévadé (1990) and Va savoir (1994).

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