By designating Quebec as guest of honor for the first time since 1999, the Paris Book Festival, which opens Thursday, highlights how far we have come over the past 25 years and underlines the resounding success that our literature across the Atlantic. Not only do Dominique Fortier, Kevin Lambert and Éric Chacour accumulate prizes in France, but local publishers are also increasingly marketing their own books.
This success is not the result of chance. In this first text on the Paris Book Festival, we wanted to give a voice to booksellers as well as other “transmitters” of Quebec literature to understand how strategies for getting published in France have changed since 1999.
Naturally, we start in the 5e district of Paris. This is where the Librairie du Québec is located, a stone’s throw from the Luxembourg Gardens. Yan Rioux has worked there since 1999, in fact, and has managed the establishment since 2022. “This nomination of Quebec as guest of honor at the festival is not a surprise, but is very appropriate, with everything that has happened since a few years. As Rodney Saint-Éloi, founder of Mémoire d’encrier, once told me, we should not see this as an accomplishment, but as a beginning. »
In all, more than 40 Quebec authors and illustrators participate in the festival, as well as around sixty publishing houses. A sign of the wind of renewal blowing through local literature: only Dany Laferrière, Hélène Dorion and Denise Desautels will have taken part in the events of 1999 and 2024. Several young authors are therefore participating in panels and meetings with the public, from Éric Chacour to Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay, via Audrée Wilhelmy.
“Success in France is essential”
The Librairie du Québec, which also hosts festival activities, is the only establishment outside Quebec to devote itself exclusively to Quebec literature, and has done so since 1995. It also distributes Quebec books elsewhere in France.
“Our houses are starting to be well established here and are enjoying good success,” maintains Yan Rioux. Two strategies have been developed for Quebec authors: sell your rights to a French publisher, or try to break into Europe with all the printing and distribution costs that entails. » For some, this second option becomes just as advantageous, in a context where the French public is starting to know them. “For publishers of more specialized subjects, like Lux, which publishes Alain Denault, success in France is essential. »
In poetry and fiction too, young houses have been able to do well in France, notably La Peuplade, Mémoire d’encrier and Le Quartanier. Aurélie Garreau, co-director of the Le Monte-en-l’air bookstore, in Ménilmontant, was one of the first to highlight them. After discovering the novel Mailloux (2014), by Hervé Bouchard, a few years ago, she wanted to focus on these publishers under-represented in France, who make her stand out from other Parisian booksellers. She even founded Rapailler, a “festival of Quebec literature”, in 2022.
“I wanted to present a multiple vision of what is being done in Quebec,” explains M.me Garreau. There are indeed Quebec literatures, in the plural, in the sense that the language of Hervé Bouchard is not at all the same as that of David Turgeon, or of indigenous authors, for example. Today, French readers understand this well and ask to read Quebec books. I am far from being the only one to offer books from Quebec to Paris today. »
“A wonderful time”
Despite the recent success of new Quebec houses, most authors still opt for publishers who sell their rights in France. This was the case of Éric Chacour, who won numerous prizes, including the Femina des lycéens and the Prix des cinq continents, in addition to having been in the running for the Renaudot, for his first novel, What I know about you (Alto).
“I am lucky to have been able to choose a French publisher, Philippe Rey, who carried the text well and who did not publish too many books last year, in the sense that I did not drown among too many releases, what can happen, says the author. And the success of my book reflects so many other recent cases in Quebec, because our literature is increasingly qualitative and the distribution circuits are more mature. »
In addition to booksellers, a public institution has become essential in the transmission of Quebec literature in France, that is to say the Gaston-Miron library, founded in 1964 by the General Delegation of Quebec in Paris. Today based at Sorbonne Nouvelle University, it contains the largest collection of Quebec books outside Quebec and also hosts events as part of the festival. Éric Chacour notably presented his book there in front of the public last winter.
Anne-Isabelle Tremblay, librarian, says she is “extremely fortunate to promote Quebec literature abroad” at a time when “the enthusiasm is very strong”. “Quebec publishers who are trying to break into France contact me to organize promotional events here. » While in 1999 and the early 2000s, Quebec publishing was considered “bold”, she says, today it is described as “mature”, even in France.
“We are defended either by leading French houses who agree to bet on us, or by Quebec houses which are finally taken seriously,” summarizes Éric Chacour. We are experiencing a wonderful moment, with authors like Kevin Lambert, Michel Jean and Dominique Fortier, whose French public is awaiting the release of their new books. »