After a 100% Covid edition last year, the 19th Middle School Literary Prize has regained some semblance of normality. Thursday evening, at the Château Laurier, the 62 college students elected to form the national jury among the 839 students from participating colleges and CEGEPs met for the final deliberation. The winning title was announced Friday afternoon, during a ceremony hosted by Valérie Chevalier at the Salon international du livre de Québec. Accompanied by the Bourgie-Lemieux scholarship worth $5,000, the Literary Prize for college students, presented by Quebecor, was awarded to Where I landby Caroline Dawson (bustle).
“This prize is a magnificent one, since it presupposes that hundreds of young adults from all over Quebec come together, find each other and agree. In the dark moments of living together it is always towards them and them that I turned: we know how to discuss and ask the most intelligent questions but in a sensitive way. They did what we should always force ourselves to do with the same enthusiasm: read, listen, think, analyze, debate. I am sincerely moved and grateful that at the end of all this wonderful process, they have chosen a book written by a refugee who tells her story,” said the author in a press release from RIASQ (Intercollegiate Network of Sociocultural Activities of Quebec ).
Remember that the four other novels selected were Validby Chris Bergeron (XYZ), Mukbangby Fanie Demeule (Head first), A thousand secrets, a thousand dangersby Alain Farah (Le Quartanier) and Everything is oriby Paul Serge Forest (VLB Publisher).
Literary awakening
Reached by telephone before the ceremony, Mégane Jacques and Xavier Douville, two 18-year-old literature enthusiasts participating for the first time in the Literary Prize for College Students, were kind enough to share their impressions with the To have to.
“What came back in our exchanges, reveals the student in health sciences at Laflèche college, is that Where I landthat [Caroline Dawson]had written a little for his mother, is probably the most universal and accessible book. It was easy for us to discuss this work with our families, regardless of the level of education, the history that we lived in a group, in society. It was really nice to be able to find a common ground, but to see it in another way, from her point of view. »
“It’s a book that has raised awareness, reveals the student in arts, letters and communications, multimedia option at the Cégep régional de Lanaudière à l’Assomption. There are people who have been marked by it, who have changed their attitude towards immigrant communities. I also notice that in the five novels, there is a desire to raise awareness on different subjects. For example, in Where I landit’s about immigration and the status of women, in Mukbang, it’s about cyberaddiction. »
Having savored, despite the health constraints, the excitement and the conviviality of the exchanges between the students of their class and other CEGEPs, both conclude that the experience was for them a literary awakening.
“I was exposed to works that turned me upside down, which made me see new realities and which opened up horizons for me on very broad swaths of literature,” says Xavier Douville.
“Before the literary prize, I was a reader who stopped at every detail, who appreciated long descriptions to capture all the little subtleties. The works have taught me that beyond these details, the research and the work, there is also a coherent whole that you have to be able to see in order to internalize this experience,” says Mégane. Jacques.