This text is part of the special Culture Montérégie notebook
Andréane Frenette-Vallières received the CALQ – Artist of the Year in Montérégie 2024 prize on May 14. The author draws inspiration from the elements that transform women and make them stronger in the face of the multiple forms of violence they suffer.
Since the publication, in 2019, of her first collection of poems, Andréane Frenette-Vallières has accumulated recognition from the literary world. Winner of the Félix-Leclerc Prize, twice finalist for the Booksellers Prize and the Émile-Nelligan Prize, winner of the Grand Prix du livre de Montréal and the Spirale Eva-Le-Grand Prize, the author says she is touched to receive the Prize of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ), which highlights the work of artists with unique achievements and backgrounds.
“Montérégie is my favorite land. She inhabits my work in a discreet way and it is to her that I turn when I wonder where I live,” confides the winner. It was also an artist from this region, Tania Lebedeff, who was the first mentor of the poet, who, as a child, took art classes with her every Saturday. “She instilled in me a way of seeing the world and gave me the courage to take risks as an artist. »
Even if nature continues to inhabit the author’s work, You will choose the mountains, his latest work, closes a cycle. “I have focused, in my two collections published to date and my poetic essay, on the way in which the elements of the North Shore, where I lived when I was writing, transformed me as a woman. » When she first retreated to Natashquan, “a perfect place to disappear,” it was because she was “exhausted and unhappy.” Over time, this need to disappear linked to the demands imposed on women became liberating. “If, in July, the Northit is the wonder in front of this nature which gives a boost of life, in You will choose the mountains, nature becomes what gives strength to women in the face of the violence done to them. »
Anorexic writing
This poetic essay interweaves two voices, one poetic and the other theoretical. A reflection on creation itself, the work also questions a form of anorexic writing. “The anorexic turns the violence against her, which says a lot about the impossibility of women being heard. While they are asked to step aside, the anorexic herself chooses to disappear. She reclaims her body and the discourse against women. » The work also looks at domestic violence. “Among all the forms of violence against women, I chose this one. »
Today, for the poet, disappearing is no longer synonymous with self-destruction, but with a privilege which allows one to extricate oneself from the demands of the world “to appear better elsewhere”. The author therefore sees the scholarship matched with the CALQ prize as a possibility of freeing up time and space to pursue her current project. “I write about horses. Riding horses and working in a stable like I did last summer inspires me a lot. I come out of my body and my head, what is necessary for me to create. » The relationship with nature remains present, moreover, since the artist needs its silence to create. “I’m a slow person, I need slow time to think. » In this project, the author questions the influence that the intelligence of horses has on human intelligence and on her writing.
Shortly, the poet will leave for Sweden, in Stockholm, to present her work in the form of a discussion on Nordicity, a dream that she cherished. “I love what I do and I never expected to be where I am today,” she confides.
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