Francine Ouellette

Career

Francine Ouellette (born 11 March 1947 in Montréal, Québec). Ouellette studied at Montréal’s École des Beaux-Arts to become a teacher of plastic arts. Subsequently, while practicing this profession in the city of Mont-Laurier, Québec, she made a parachute jump on a dare from her students and thus discovered her passion for flying.

While living in Schefferville, Québec in the 1970s, Ouellette enrolled in flight-training courses. She also began her career as a writer, producing the novel Les ailes du destin, which would not be published until some 20 years later.

Ouellette then moved to a home not far from Mont-Laurier, on the shores of Lac des Îles in Québec’s Upper Laurentian region, where she devoted herself to her three passions: writing, flying and sculpting. In 1984, after extensive research on the history of the region, Ouellette published her novel Au nom du père et du fils, which soon became a best seller. One year later, she offered eager readers the sequel, Le Sorcier. Both books dealt with what were then daring themes—not only an impossible love between a white person and an Aboriginal person, but also the history of Amerindian civilization in the area known to the French as the Pays d'en haut and of its colonization by the French. In these novels Ouellette depicts the clash between the White and “savage” cultures and in particular the omnipotence of the clergy and their battle against Aboriginal spirituality and “sin”. When Au nom du Père et du fils was made into a television series, some viewers were shocked by the subjects that it dealt with, seeing them as an attack on the Catholic religion.

In 1992, Ouellette’s novel Les ailes du destin, written in the 1970s, was finally published. Its sequel, Le Grand Blanc, came out in 1993. Together, these novels returned Ouellette to the pinnacle of her profession. In them, she shares her passion for flying while also addressing a thornier subject: Québec’s prison system in the 1960s and 1970s.

In 1995, Ouellette offered readers a new take on human beings and the world through the imaginary title character of her new book, Bip, which garnered little attention. In 1999, she made a foray into children’s literature, publishing Bécassine, l'oiseau invisible.

In 2004, Ouellette published La Rivière profanée, the first book of a multi-volume saga entitled Feu, a voyage through time from 1600 to 1960, told from the perspective of Québec’s Aboriginal people. (The next volume, L'Étranger, came out in 2005, followed by Fleur de Lys in 2007, and En 1837, j'avais 17 ans in 2012.) In this series, Ouellette returned to her passion for history with the avowed goals of “upsetting received wisdom, destroying myths, and breaking taboos” about the story of Aboriginal people in North America. She revisited many of her favourite themes: the Aboriginal way of life, customs, and traditions; the arrival of Europeans in what was to become New France; the clash of cultures; and the role of the Jesuits—the “Black Robes”.

Literary Honours

Francine Ouellette has received many literary honours for the novels in which she so artfully reconstructs the past and shares it with her readers. She received the Prix France-Québec Jean-Hamelin in 1986 for Le Sorcier, and the Prix Citoyenne de la nature in 1990 for Sir Gaby du Lac. In 1993, she was awarded the Grand prix du public for Au nom du père et du fils and the Signet d'or for Novel of the Year. In 1994, Le Grand Blanc was honoured with the Grand prix des lectrices et lecteurs du Journal de Montréal.

One of Francine Ouellette’s guiding purposes has always been to give pleasure to her readers. She offers them the chance to immerse themselves in an entire world through highly endearing characters who reflect various aspects of life in Québec from the 17^th century to the present day.