Major Verbs, The

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By (author): Pierre Nepveu

Translated by: Donald Winkler

Pierre Nepveu is unique among French Quebec poets for having forged a voice at once unadorned, sensuous and adventurous.His new collection, The Major Verbs,is a masterwork consisting of three sequences: one focussing on an immigrant night cleaner glimpsed on a subway, another, a riff on a group of stones on a table, and the third concerning the poet’s parents and their deaths.The book closes with a long meditative poem written in the American southwest. The Major Verbs (under its original title, Les Verbes Majeur) was nominated for a Governor-General’s Award for Poetry in 2010. Nepveu’s poetry collection, Mirabel won the 2003 Governor General Award for its original French-language edition and the 2004Governor General Award for Translation (Judith Cowan,translator, Signal Editions).

AUTHOR

Donald Winkler

Donald Winkler was born in Winnipeg, graduated from the University of Manitoba, and did graduate study at the Yale School of Drama. From 1967 to 1995 he was a film director and writer at the National Film Board of Canada in Montreal, and since the 1980s, a translator of Quebec literature. In 1994, 2011, and 2013 he won the Governor General Award for French to English translation, and has been a finalist for the prize on three other occasions. His translation of Samuel Archibald’s short story collection, “Arvida,” was a finalist for the 2015 Giller Prize. He lives in Montreal, Quebec.

AUTHOR

Pierre Nepveu

Pierre Nepveu has received the Governor General’s Award three times. His other awards include the Québec-Paris Prize, the Prix Victor-Barbeau de l’Académie des lettres du Québec, and the Canada-Swiss Prize. Nepveu was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2012. Under its original title, L’espace caressé par ta voix, The Four-Doored House was a finalist for The Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal in 2020.