| The 2000 AGM will take place at Toronto Trek 2000/CANVENTION 2000, July 14-16 in Toronto at the Regal Constellation Hotel, 900 Dixon Rd. (For more information about the convention, write Suite 0116, Box 187, 65 Front St W, Toronto, ON, M5J 1E6 or phone 416-410-8266 or email tcon@icomm.ca or visit their web site www.tcon.icomm.ca.) The exact date and time of the meeting have yet to be confirmed. The SF Canada executive will distribute an agenda and other information to members soon. If you are unable to attend the AGM but would like your voice to be heard, please send a proxy to secretary Ursula Pflug, P.O.Box 122, Norwood, ON K0L 2V0 OR appoint a proxyholder to represent you.
Also, annual fees are due 1 July 2000. The amount this year is $50 per person, as decided at the December 1999 AGM. If you haven't already paid your one time levy of $10 to cover Jean-Louis Trudel's expenses, please submit that as well. Please send renewals to secretary Ursula Pflug, P.O.Box 122, Norwood, ON K0L 2V0. |
On April 14, 2000, The Grand Prix of Quebecois science fiction and fantasy was awarded to SF Canada member Esther Rochon for her novel, Or, published by Alire. The honouree received a prize of $2500, provided by the "Quebec City Federation of Caisses populaires", during an official ceremony which took place at the Québec International Book Fair. Esther Rochon won this prize for the fourth time in her career, her science fiction works (novels and short stories) having already earned her this distinction in 1986, 1987 and 1991.
Or is the fifth volume of the series Les Chroniques infernales, begun in 1995. The jury admired the novel's paradoxical combination of depth and humour, horror and redemption, guilt and forgiveness, a combination whose coexistence seems unlikely and unstable, but is not. In this decidedly un-Christian hell, tormented ants rebel, monstrous damned larvae working for their salvation become symbolic family houses. With memory's eyes, one also visits the forgotten countries where one lived in exile, prepared to kill oneself...
The jury also emphasized the great symbolic richness of the narrative, which transcends suffering and the need to redefine existence and whose eerie familiarity resonates long after one has finished the book. Montréal, a real place, is the point of contact with this hell, and is the source of sociological and political reflections of wrenching clarity. And Vrénalik, an imaginary place conjured up however just as precisely, is at the same time its shadow and its reflection. Imagination and reality dance together in equilibrium upon a wire, carried by a prose of flawless simplicity which weaves together subtle parallel plots.
The jury, which made its choice from more than seventy writers who published a book of science fiction or fantasy in 1999, was composed of five people: Réginald Hamel, professor emeritus from the University of Montréal, Francine Pelletier, writer and winner of the Grand Prix in 1999, Élisabeth Vonarbur, novelist, poet and critic, Michel Lamontagne, young-adult writer, and Andrée Laurier, translator and novelist.
On April 26 of this year, the Atwater Library, the oldest public library in Montreal, held a very special launch of Esther Rochon's new novel, Sorbier.
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Last volume of the "Chroniques infernales", after Lame with Québec/Amérique, then Aboli, Ouverture, Secrets and Or, all with Alire, Sorbier is the conclusion of the adventures of Lame and her people. But this is also the conclusion of the Vrénalik cycle, from the author's earliest work, representing years of work and consisting also of En hommage aux araignées, Le Rêveur dans la citadelle and L'Archipel noir.
As well, this launch was a unique occasion to celebrae a major work. It included a public reading by Esther Rochon, many historical reminescences and several testimonials. The author's books were available for sale and refreshments were served.
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