Poetry is experiencing an unprecedented craze in Quebec. In 2021, 67,992 collections found buyers in bookstores: a jump of 43% compared to 2020, according to figures from the Bilan Gaspard du marché du livre. For the past five years, each year the poetry department has systematically done better than the previous year.
Although the growth seems impressive, you don’t go into poetry hoping to make a fortune. Sales of collections represent only 0.6% of the general book market share, and 3% if we restrict ourselves to the literature sector.
That doesn’t mean there’s nothing to be happy about. The enthusiasm is palpable, and is directed mainly towards today’s poets here. In 2011 and 2012, when poetry occupied only 0.3% of the sales market, the two best-selling collections were reissues by Gaston Miron and Charles Baudelaire. Although these authors still make a good figure, they are today dethroned by the prose of contemporary writers such as Benoit Pinette (Memory is a rope ignition boxLa Peuplade), Josephine Bacon (Uiesh. SomewhereMemory of inkwell) and Camille Readman Prud’homme (When I say nothing I still thinkCravan’s Goose).
Difficult to identify the exact source of this new breath. However, for several stakeholders met for this file, the impetus and audacity of Éditions de l’Écrou, which ceased their activities in 2021, cannot be ruled out.
With its commitment to poetry that is uninhibited, hard-hitting and resolutely rooted in its time, the house has launched the careers of authors of the caliber of Maude Veilleux, Frédéric Dumont and Marie Darsigny, in addition to giving thousands of people want to read and write poetry. Above all, she managed to reach a more recalcitrant audience in the middle: young people.
“L’Écrou has certainly not been incidental to this current craze for Quebec poetry,” says Nicholas Giguère, poet and lecturer at the University of Sherbrooke. His raw, visceral and very oral works had the courage to talk about concrete and current issues that affect young people. She took poetry out of its obscure form and its fixed decorum. She showed others the way. »
A space to occupy
In March, Éditions Boréal launched the new Brise-glace collection, which offers authentic and direct poetry intended for teenagers and young adults. “Teenagers constantly feel this intensity which is naturally found in poetry, underlines Catherine Ostiguy, literary director for youth of the house. They are a designated audience, basically. I wanted to show them that poetry can speak to them and speak their language. »
The first two titles kaleidoscope my heart by Kristina Gauthier-Landry and Stand up straight by Lucile de Pesloüan, are already receiving excellent feedback. “Teachers, librarians and booksellers are there. We feel that it is in tune with the times, that we were not mistaken. »
In April, La Bagnole youth editions followed suit with the new fuwa fuwa collection – a Japanese term meaning “airy” – with two publications: Drawing in the Margins and Other Ghost Activitiesby Carolanne Foucher and Besties by Alexandra Campeau; texts punched and inhabited by great freedom.
At La courte scale, the poetry section for teenagers has existed since 2002. After a few years of latency, it has recently risen from its ashes, with collections by established authors such as Simon Boulerice, Jean-Christophe Réhel, Virginie Beauregard D. and Daphne B.
“The collection had been dormant for some time when I met Pierre Labrie, author of the book Poetry is just too yucky! (Soulières, 2017), which tries to interest children in the genre, says publisher and literary director Carole Tremblay. He said that there were a lot of requests for workshops around poetry, because the teachers know little – if at all – the subject. It awakened in me the desire to breathe new life into this collection. »
Raw, visceral and very oral works [des Éditions de l’Écrou] had the courage to talk about concrete and current issues that affect young people
Once again, The short scale offers short, colorful, almost narrative texts, which allow young people to recognize their reality or their feelings in a few lines. “The reception frankly surprised us. We thought we were helping to expand the supply of poetry for young people, but we didn’t think schools, children and critics would respond with such enthusiasm. The teachers are happy to be able to teach texts that talk about what their students are going through today. Young people feel that they are capable of understanding them and creating them. That’s nice to look at. »
Investing in the streets and the Web
Beyond traditional publications, both the literary community and aspiring poets are scrambling to ensure that poetry is seen, heard, shared and created in as many places as possible.
Social networks, for example, are ideal for reaching a less traditional audience. Canadian poet Rupi Kaur’s poetic fragments went viral on Instagram before being published in two collections that sold more than seven million copies worldwide.
Distribution on social networks does not always translate into sales, but it does provide visibility, a space for exploration, and a gateway for several up-and-coming authors. “At the beginning of my career, I published poems almost every day on Facebook, remembers the writer Daphné B. It was an unfinished work, drafts. But people commented, liked my publications, and that gave me a certain confidence in my approach. I had developed a readership and an audience before I even published. »
In the physical world, stages, places of diffusion, open microphones and other literary evenings are multiplying. The genre is breaking out of its straitjacket to take over the streets, parks, bars, classrooms, podcasts and performance halls.
“In the past, young people’s relationship with poetry was very much through music,” says the co-director general and artistic director of the Montreal Poetry Festival, Catherine Cormier-Larose. Today, comedians, rappers and singers are reclaiming it and giving it back its letters of nobility. Poetry is as much rap as it is prose, slam, spoken word… It’s a performance. »