Professor, writer and translator Lori Saint-Martin, who marked Quebec literature with her committed writings and her love of the French language, died suddenly in Paris on Saturday at the age of 63.
“It is with dismay and immense sorrow that we learned this morning that Lori Saint-Martin died suddenly in Paris in the last few hours. The sad news is confirmed, but we do not have further information at the moment, ”wrote its publisher, Éditions du Boréal, in a press release released on Saturday morning.
Born in 1959 in Kitchener, Ontario, Lori Saint-Martin, who first grew up in an English-speaking family, quickly developed a passion for the French language at the dawn of her adolescence. “I felt like I wasn’t where I needed to be,” she told the To have to in 2020. This is how she decided to go into exile in Quebec in 1980.
She then became a professor in the Department of Literary Studies at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM). She was also a member and research coordinator at the Institute for Research and Feminist Studies at UQAM. Lori Saint-Martin, who has multiplied academic articles on feminist issues over the years, was also a specialist in the novelist Gabrielle Roy.
During her brilliant career, Lori Saint-Martin has also signed several collections of short stories and novels The closed doors (2013) and who i think i am (2020), in which she reveals parts of her personal story in a metaphorical way, in a vibrant tribute to the French language. She also published a few months ago an essay called A necessary goodin which she emphasizes the important role of translation in the literary world.
“I learn with dismay, with sadness, with despair, of the death of my great friend Lori Saint-Martin. Lori, darling, I love you, I always will. I want to tell the whole world the exceptional being that you were, ”wrote on social networks the author and translator Flavia Garcia, who was a very good friend of Mme Saint-Martin. She thus praised the intelligence, sensitivity and generosity of the writer who died at the dawn of her sixties. “I just hope you’re okay where you are now.” I am speechless, impossible to find any consolation, ”adds Mme Garcia. “My grief is endless. »
A passion for translation
Mme Saint-Martin has also signed, with her husband, Paul Gagné, more than 110 translations of novels and essays, from English into French. Four of their translations have also been awarded the Governor General’s Literary Awards.
Lori Saint-Martin, whose circumstances of death remain unknown, was to take part next Tuesday in a meeting entitled “Quebec writers: American fictions” organized at the Gaston-Miron Library in Paris by the Interuniversity Research Center on Quebec literature and culture. A tribute will also be paid next Monday to the French National Commission for UNESCO, where the writer had been invited to speak, French writer and diplomat Claudine Monteil announced on Twitter on Saturday.
“I just learned of the death of Lori Saint-Martin: I am in shock. Like all of you, no doubt, ”wrote author Catherine Voyer-Léger on Facebook, arousing many reactions of surprise and sadness. Lori Saint-Martin had also recently been admitted to the Academy of Letters of Quebec.
The poet Anne-Marie Desmeules also said she was “appalled” to learn of the death of the author whom she describes as “great intellectual” at the origin of “a major critical and literary work”.
This death occurs a week after that of the Quebec writer Simon Roy and a few days after that of the poet Jacques Brault, two authors whose works were also published by Éditions du Boréal.