Apr 27, 2021
What’s in a Poet Laureate’s name?
Poet.
Storyteller.
Literary Director.
Poetry Editor.
Linguist.
Dishwasher.
Poetic Rebel.
Teacher.
Literary Prize Finalist.
Humanitarian.
Local.
Franco-Ontarian.
Cornwall.
Ottawa.
Gilles Latour.
Meet Ottawa’s next Francophone Poet Laureate: Gilles Latour. Gilles was born in Cornwall and grew up in Ottawa, Montréal and Paris. He was a student of literature and linguistics at the Université de Montéal and at McGill University. His formative years behind him, Gilles spent most of his life working in humanitarian and international development in such places as Africa, Asia and Latin America. Gilles gained a wider life-lens through additional experiences like teaching, consulting, translating, dishwashing and taxiing. Les Éditions L’Interligne, an Ottawa-based publishing house for French authors of the Ontario and Outaouais regions, was Gilles’ home for a few years as Poetry Editor but is also the venue for all his published works. His poetry has earned him numerous nominations over the years including the Trillium Poetry Prize, the City of Ottawa Literary Award and the Prix Le Droit. A selection of his poems has also been published in several magazines and anthologies. Ottawa’s poetry community (and beyond) is sure to benefit from this man’s literary-forward mind during his two-year tenure.
Check out Gilles Latour’s poems on the shelves at OPL: Mon univers est un lapsus (2014), Mots qu’elle a faits terre (2015), À la merci de l’étoile (2018). Currently on order: Débris du sillage (2020)
To read more about Ottawa’s French Poet Laureate and his new publication, check out the links under “Further Reading” (Links lead to French articles, except the first, as little of this news has been published in English).