Trent University prof Sylvie Berard wins Trillium Book Award for poetry

Sylvie Bérard, a writer and professor at Trent University, has won the Trillium Book Award for poetry written in French.

Bérard is the chairwoman of the French and francophone studies program at Trent.

She received the provincial award at a gala at the Toronto Reference Library on Thursday evening.

The Trillium Prize was established by the Ontario government in 1987 to honour the best writing across the province. It recognizes books written in both English and French, fiction and non-fiction.

The category for French poetry was added in 2006; this prize is handed out every two years.

Bérard won on Thursday for her book of poetry titled Oubliez.

She wins $10,000, and her publisher, Prise de parole in Sudbury, will receive $2,000 to further market the book.

In an interview on campus earlier this week, Bérard said she was pleased to have been shortlisted.

“I’m really happy – it means people read the book and liked it,” she said in French.

Bérard, 53, has taught at Trent since 2002, and has been the head of French and francophone studies since 2009.

Born in Montreal, she is also a writer of science fiction: she has

two novels in that genre.

She completed her PhD at Université de Québec à Montréal; her doctoral research focused on women writers of sci fi.

Bérard has also published several short stories and released a novel in 2017 that isn’t science fiction but includes a character obsessed with the genre.

Last year she also released Oubliez, a collection of poems about love and loss.

That was a departure for her: although she’d written poetry in her youth, she’d never published any of it.

But she wanted to write specifically for the Prise de parole, which publishes work from minority communities.

When she sat down to write with that publishing house in mind, she said, what came out was poetry.

Bérard is just finishing a sabbatical, at the end of June. In September she resumes teaching.

At Trent she teaches courses in First Nation literature written in French, Franco-Ontarian literature and Montreal literature.

She also designed a course on North American literature written in French, which includes poetry of beat writer Jack Kerouac.

Kerouac was born in Lowell, Mass. to French Canadian parents, and he only spoke French until age six (when he learned English); some of his poetry was written in French.

Bérard tells her students that Kerouac started writing his seminal novel, On the Road, in French – but then switched to English when he found his French was too rusty to continue.

“It’s sad,” Bérard said in French. “That really speaks to students.”

Meanwhile, one other local writer was short-listed for a Trillium Prize.

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, a member of Alderville First Nation, was short-listed for best book written in English for This Accident of Being Lost.

In May, Simpson won Outstanding Achievement by an Indigenous Artist at the inaugural Peterborough Arts Awards.

The Trillium Prize for best book in English (which awards $20,000 to the writer) was won on Thursday evening by Kyo Maclear for her book Birds Art Life.

Maclear is scheduled to appear as part of the Lakefield Literary Festival in July.