Antonine Maillet was born in Bouctouche, New Brunswick, on May 10, 1929. Early on in her life, she experienced a profound sense of her own particular destiny as a writer and spokesperson for her people, the Acadians, a small French-speaking community that re-established in Canada’s Maritime Provinces in the mid to late 1760s after its expulsion from Nova Scotia to the American colonies by the British during the Seven Years War (1755-1763). Maillet’s writing is deeply based in Acadian oral tradition and history. In 1979, she received the prestigious Prix Goncourt in Paris for her novel Pélagie-la-Charrette. She remains the only Canadian author to have been thus honoured.
Two unpublished plays, written for her students, …
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Citation: Bourque, Denis Joseph. "Antonine Maillet". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 March 2015 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5250, accessed 22 November 2024.]
