Cécile Cloutier (June 13, 1930 - September 30, 2017) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

writer and educator. The daughter of Adrien Cloutier and Maria Lantagne, she was born in

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Communauté métrop ...

and studied at the Collège Jésus-Marie de Sillery, at

Laval University Laval means ''The Valley'' in old French and is the name of: People * House of Laval, a French noble family originating from the town of Laval, Mayenne * Laval (surname) Places Belgium * Laval, a village in the municipality of Sainte-Ode, Lux ...

and at the

Université de Paris The University of Paris (french: link=no, Université de Paris), metonymically known as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, active from 1150 to 1970, with the exception between 1793 and 1806 under the French Revolutio ...

, going on to earn a doctorate from the Sorbonne and a

Master of Philosophy The Master of Philosophy (MPhil; Latin ' or ') is a postgraduate degree. In the United States, an MPhil typically includes a taught portion and a significant research portion, during which a thesis project is conducted under supervision. An MPhil m ...

from

McMaster University McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood and Westdale, adjacent to the Royal Botanical ...

. She studied a variety of languages including

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominalization, nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cul ...

and

Inuktitut Inuktitut (; , syllabics ; from , "person" + , "like", "in the manner of"), also Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, is one of the principal Inuit languages of Canada. It is spoken in all areas north of the tree line, including parts of the provinces o ...

. From 1955 to 1958, she taught French literature, Latin, Greek and Spanish at the Collège des Ursulines and at Marymount College in Quebec City. She was a professor in the French department at the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottaw ...

from 1958 to 1964. She then taught aesthetics and French and Quebec literature at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institu ...

. Cloutier founded the Canadian Society for Aesthetics (Société canadienne d'esthétique). She was a member of the

Société des gens de lettres Lactalis is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier SA. Lactalis is the largest dairy products group in the world, and is the sec ...

of France and of the

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of Paris. Her collection of poems ''L'Écouté'' received the

Governor General's Award for French-language poetry This is a list of recipients of the Governor General's Award for French-language poetry. The award was created in 1981 when the Governor General's Award for French language poetry or drama was divided. Winners and nominees 1980s 1990s 2000s ...

in 1986. Cloutier also received the silver medal of the Société des écrivains français. Her poetry has been translated into a number of languages, including English, Spanish, Danish, Polish and Ukrainian.

Selected works

* ''Cuivre et soies'', poetry (1964) * ''anthologie de poésie québécoise contemporaine'', poetry anthology (1968), editor * ''Cannelles et craies'', poetry (1969) * ''Paupières'', poetry (1970) * ''Chaleuils'', poetry (1978) * ''Springtime of spoken words'', selected poems (1979), translated by Alexandre Amprimoz

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cloutier, Cecile 1930 births 2017 deaths Canadian poets in French Governor General's Award-winning poets Franco-Ontarian people Canadian women poets 20th-century Canadian poets 20th-century Canadian women writers Writers from Quebec City Université Laval alumni University of Paris alumni McMaster University alumni Academic staff of the University of Ottawa Academic staff of the University of Toronto Canadian expatriates in France French Quebecers