{"id":4263,"date":"2008-03-31T23:16:34","date_gmt":"2008-03-31T23:16:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/?p=4263"},"modified":"2018-07-05T23:18:23","modified_gmt":"2018-07-05T23:18:23","slug":"french-professor-writes-award-winning-novel-based-in-quebec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/news\/french-professor-writes-award-winning-novel-based-in-quebec\/","title":{"rendered":"French Professor Writes Award-Winning Novel Based In Qu\u00e9bec"},"content":{"rendered":"

Denyse Delcourt,\u00a0<\/em>Gabrielle and the Long Sleep into Mourning\u00a0(translated by Eugene Vance). Los Angeles: Green Integer, 2007<\/em><\/p>\n

by Denyse Delcourt, Associate Professor, French and Italian Studies<\/em><\/p>\n

Denyse Delcourt is an Associate Professor in the Division of French and Italian Studies. She has been teaching at the University of Washington since 1990. Other teaching experiences include Queens (Canada), Emory, Northwestern and Duke universities. Her teaching interests are Old French language and literature, contemporary Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois literature and French fairy tales.<\/em><\/p>\n

For someone who is trained to do literary analysis, writing a novel is like “crossing to the other side.” Creative fiction has often been compared to walking through a dark and unfamiliar road using a flashlight. With only a bit of the road illuminated ahead one has to walk slowly, hesitantly and sometimes fearfully. For a scholar, writing fiction can be a very humbling experience.<\/p>\n

In preparation for this novel I spent a month doing research at the Biblioth\u00e8que Nationale in Montr\u00e9al. Since my novel is set in Qu\u00e9bec during the fifties I needed to get a better sense of the period. What was happening in Qu\u00e9bec at the time? What did people listen to on the radio? What did they eat and drink? What did they wear at school, funerals, weddings, etc.? To find answers to these questions, I consulted numerous newspapers and magazines published in Montr\u00e9al between 1939 and 1955, books on etiquette, and text books used in French-Canadian elementary schools during the forties and fifties. The Biblioth\u00e8que Nationale in Montr\u00e9al has an impressive collection of such materials. It was a pleasure to spend time doing research in this venerable institution.<\/p>\n

Before I start writing fiction, I always do an outline. Even though I know by experience that the order I set for the chapters and even the role I am assigning to any given character may change along the way, I find it very useful to organize the materials beforehand.<\/p>\n

When I was working on Gabrielle I never told myself that I was writing a “novel.” That would have been too overwhelming. Instead, I followed Anne Lamott’s wonderful advice to fiction writers by taking it “bird by bird.” What I was writing every day was only a “bird;” that is, a small piece of a novel, a fragment or a scene. That kept me going until the accumulation of fragments was ready to be called a novel.<\/p>\n

A word about the English translation \u2013 Eugene Vance did a remarkable job translating my novel. It is very close to the original, and beautifully done. For those who cannot read French I highly recommend it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Denyse Delcourt,\u00a0Gabrielle and the Long Sleep into Mourning\u00a0(translated by Eugene Vance). Los Angeles: Green Integer, 2007 by Denyse Delcourt, Associate Professor, French and Italian Studies Denyse Delcourt is an Associate Professor in the Division of French and Italian Studies. She has been teaching at the University of Washington since 1990. Other teaching experiences include Queens<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":556,"featured_media":4264,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-4263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-faculty-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFrench Professor Writes Award-Winning Novel Based In Qu\u00e9bec - Canadian Studies Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/news\/french-professor-writes-award-winning-novel-based-in-quebec\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"French Professor Writes Award-Winning Novel Based In Qu\u00e9bec - Canadian Studies Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Denyse Delcourt,\u00a0Gabrielle and the Long Sleep into Mourning\u00a0(translated by Eugene Vance). Los Angeles: Green Integer, 2007 by Denyse Delcourt, Associate Professor, French and Italian Studies Denyse Delcourt is an Associate Professor in the Division of French and Italian Studies. She has been teaching at the University of Washington since 1990. Other teaching experiences include Queens\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/news\/french-professor-writes-award-winning-novel-based-in-quebec\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Canadian Studies Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-03-31T23:16:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-07-05T23:18:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/07\/delcourt_sleep.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"292\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"hetm\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"hetm\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/news\/french-professor-writes-award-winning-novel-based-in-quebec\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/news\/french-professor-writes-award-winning-novel-based-in-quebec\/\",\"name\":\"French Professor Writes Award-Winning Novel Based In Qu\u00e9bec - Canadian Studies Center\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/news\/french-professor-writes-award-winning-novel-based-in-quebec\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/news\/french-professor-writes-award-winning-novel-based-in-quebec\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/07\/delcourt_sleep.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-03-31T23:16:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-07-05T23:18:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/#\/schema\/person\/ecdc0a59bad30f9ad1a3a624d2158a7c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/news\/french-professor-writes-award-winning-novel-based-in-quebec\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/news\/french-professor-writes-award-winning-novel-based-in-quebec\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/news\/french-professor-writes-award-winning-novel-based-in-quebec\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/07\/delcourt_sleep.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/07\/delcourt_sleep.jpg\",\"width\":200,\"height\":292},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/news\/french-professor-writes-award-winning-novel-based-in-quebec\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"French Professor Writes Award-Winning Novel Based In Qu\u00e9bec\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/\",\"name\":\"Canadian Studies Center\",\"description\":\"Resource Center within the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/#\/schema\/person\/ecdc0a59bad30f9ad1a3a624d2158a7c\",\"name\":\"hetm\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5d8d7f7f0655aa99c7829f408fbef390?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5d8d7f7f0655aa99c7829f408fbef390?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"hetm\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/news\/author\/hetm\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"French Professor Writes Award-Winning Novel Based In Qu\u00e9bec - Canadian Studies Center","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/news\/french-professor-writes-award-winning-novel-based-in-quebec\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"French Professor Writes Award-Winning Novel Based In Qu\u00e9bec - Canadian Studies Center","og_description":"Denyse Delcourt,\u00a0Gabrielle and the Long Sleep into Mourning\u00a0(translated by Eugene Vance). Los Angeles: Green Integer, 2007 by Denyse Delcourt, Associate Professor, French and Italian Studies Denyse Delcourt is an Associate Professor in the Division of French and Italian Studies. She has been teaching at the University of Washington since 1990. Other teaching experiences include Queens","og_url":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/news\/french-professor-writes-award-winning-novel-based-in-quebec\/","og_site_name":"Canadian Studies Center","article_published_time":"2008-03-31T23:16:34+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-07-05T23:18:23+00:00","og_image":[{"width":200,"height":292,"url":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/07\/delcourt_sleep.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"hetm","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"hetm","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/news\/french-professor-writes-award-winning-novel-based-in-quebec\/","url":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/news\/french-professor-writes-award-winning-novel-based-in-quebec\/","name":"French Professor Writes Award-Winning Novel Based In Qu\u00e9bec - Canadian Studies Center","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/news\/french-professor-writes-award-winning-novel-based-in-quebec\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/news\/french-professor-writes-award-winning-novel-based-in-quebec\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/07\/delcourt_sleep.jpg","datePublished":"2008-03-31T23:16:34+00:00","dateModified":"2018-07-05T23:18:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/#\/schema\/person\/ecdc0a59bad30f9ad1a3a624d2158a7c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/news\/french-professor-writes-award-winning-novel-based-in-quebec\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/news\/french-professor-writes-award-winning-novel-based-in-quebec\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/news\/french-professor-writes-award-winning-novel-based-in-quebec\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/07\/delcourt_sleep.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/07\/delcourt_sleep.jpg","width":200,"height":292},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/news\/french-professor-writes-award-winning-novel-based-in-quebec\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"French Professor Writes Award-Winning Novel Based In Qu\u00e9bec"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/","name":"Canadian Studies Center","description":"Resource Center within the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/#\/schema\/person\/ecdc0a59bad30f9ad1a3a624d2158a7c","name":"hetm","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5d8d7f7f0655aa99c7829f408fbef390?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5d8d7f7f0655aa99c7829f408fbef390?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"hetm"},"url":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/news\/author\/hetm\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/556"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4265,"href":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4263\/revisions\/4265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}