On March 4th, author Juliana Léveillé-Trudel presented her book Nirliit and held a question and answer session with the students of French/JSIS 441: Quebecois Literature. The event was held in the Smith Room at Suzzallo, and it was sponsored by the Center for Canadian Studies, the Department of French and Italian studies, the Centre de la Francophonie des Amériques, the Association Internationale des Études Québécoises and the Delegation of the Quebec Government Office in Seattle.
The activity was held within the framework of the Rendez-Vous littéraire sponsored by the Bibliothèque des Amériques. For most students, it was their first in-person direct interaction with an author. They had studied her book and prepared questions for Ms. Léveillé-Trudel. The conversation represented a challenge linguistically, but also a very exciting experience for these FR/JSIS 441 students. They inquired about her writing process, the contrasting styles she uses in this book, the characters in the novel, various social problems that are evoked in the text, as well as about her personal experience in Nunavik. Ms. Léveillé-Trudel took the time to answer each question in great detail and students very much enjoyed this unique opportunity. Here are a few of their comments: “I felt that meeting the author pushed us to engage more with the novel”, Ï really appreciated the author taking the time to provide detailed answers to our questions. This helped me understand the book and the Inuit culture”, “I loved meeting the author and it was a very special event.”