Words that Walk in the Night

Author: Pierre Morency | ISBN: 1550651536 : 9781550651539 | Format: Paperback | Size: 140x215mm | Pages: 155 | Weight: .221 Kg. | Published: IPG (Véhicule Press) – May 2001 | Availability: In Print | Subjects: Poetry texts & anthologies. Translated from the French by Lissa Cowan and René Brisebois.

These poems give a heightened sense of the everyday.

By focusing on the reality of familiar things, they reveal how we are constantly being reborn in different ways.

Morency’s subtlety of language gives us a heightened sense of the everyday that tells us something about our humanity. By focussing on the reality of familiar things, he reveals how we are constantly being reborn in different ways. In every word and every phrase nature is present in Words that Walk in the Night – even in the city. But Morency’s poetry is never a restricted view of “city” or “nature.” He shows us that just as we can inhabit a landscape, we can also inhabit poetry.

Pierre Morency

Writer, poet and playwright Pierre Morency was born in Lauzon, Quebec (Lévis County) in 1942. He obtained his B.A. at the Collège de Lévis in 1963 and his teaching diploma from the Université Laval in 1966. From 1963 to 1968, he taught in Lévis, where he founded and directed the Théâtre étudiant de Lévis (1961-1964). As a storyteller and author of a number of plays and short comedies for Radio-Canada radio, he created more than 200 literary and comedy programs, including Le Repos du guerrier and Bestiaire de l’été.

He published a collection of his poetry, Poèmes de la froide merveille de vivre, which won the Du Maurier Award in 1968. Morency founded a poetry journal Inédits, for which he acted as director (1969-71), and he helped found the poetry journal Estuaire in 1976. A sparkling host, he ran numerous poetry evenings, les Soirées poétiques du Chantauteuil, in Quebec City (1969-1970) and elsewhere in the province. His awards include the 1975 Prix Claude-Sernet (Rodez, France) for the body of his work, the Prix de l’Institut canadien de Québec for the body of his work in 1979, the Prix Québec-Paris in 1988, the Prix Ludger-Duvernay in 1991, and the Prix France-Québec in 1992. In 1993, Morency was made a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la République française.

Words that Walk in the Night is a translation of Les Paroles qui marchent dans la nuit, published by Éditions du Boréale (1994). Poet and dramaturge Pierre Morency is one of Quebec’s most honoured writers. He is the recipient of the Prix Ludger-Duvernay (1991), Prix France-Québec (1992), and the prestigious Prix Athanase-David (2000). In 1993 France made him a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Lissa Cowan has worked as a translator and writer in Montreal and Vancouver. She recently received a writing fellowship at the Banff Centre for the Arts to complete a novel. She works as a publication co-ordinator and non-fiction writer in Vancouver, British Columbia.

René Brisebois recently participated in the Canadian Encyclopedia of Writing project (University of Toronto Press) as a researcher and writer. He teaches French and is a research assistant at the University of British Columbia.

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