The eight Quebec titles selected for the 10e season of the Rendez-vous du premier roman awards were unveiled on Wednesday.
Posted at 11:07 a.m.
It is Plessisby Joël Bégin (VLB Publisher), Garden Radioby Charlotte Biron (Le Quartanier), In the arctic nightby Yann Fourny (Leméac), The turn of the questionby Adel B. Khelifa (Bush poets), morelby Maxime Raymond Bock (The August Horse), Three days with Jackby Evelyne Simard-Guay (Leméac), Those of whom we fear nothingby Mathieu Thomas (Quebec America), and Knottedby Catherine Voyer-Léger (Quebec America).
The four members of the 2022 selection committee — bookseller Patrick Bilodeau, writer Daniel Grenier, writer and journalist Marie-Andrée Lamontagne, as well as librarian Dolly Tawil — have read all the first Quebec and French-Canadian novels published in the last 12 months in order to choose the titles which will then be debated by the readers of the international network of Lectures Plurielles (Europe, Canada, Laos, Burkina Faso).
The selection criteria were as follows: construction of the novel, treatment of the subject, quality of the writing, innovative character, literary promise and reading pleasure.
A selection of eight titles by French-speaking authors outside Canada will be added to the Quebec selection in October.
The winners will be invited to the Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival and the Festival du premier roman de Chambéry, France, in addition to receiving a $1,000 scholarship.