Jacques Folch-Ribas (born November 4, 1928, in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

) is a

Canadian Canadians () 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 their being ''C ...

novelist and art critic from

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

."Jacques Folch-Ribas"
at

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; ) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with financial support by the federal Department of Canadian Heritage and Society of Com ...

. Born in

to Catalan parents, he grew up in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

after his parents fled

Francoist Spain Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death i ...

in 1939."Les zones de l'enfance de Jacques Folch-Ribas"
''

Le Devoir (, ) is a French-language newspaper published in Montreal and distributed in Quebec and throughout Canada. It was founded by journalist and politician Henri Bourassa in 1910. is one of few independent large-circulation newspapers in Quebec ...

'', February 5, 2011. He studied mathematics, philosophy,

urban planning Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...

and architecture at university, and worked for

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...

, before moving to

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, where he became a Canadian citizen in 1961. In Montreal, he was a longtime art and literary critic for ''

La Presse is a French-language online newspaper published daily in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1884, it is now owned by an independent nonprofit trust. ' was formerly a broadsheet daily, considered a newspaper of record in Canada. Its Sunday edi ...

'' alongside his work as a novelist. He won the

Prix Québec-Paris Prix was an American power pop band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1975 by Tommy Hoehn and Jon Tiven. The group ended up primarily as a studio project. Its recordings were produced by Tiven along with former Big Star member Chris Bell, who ...

in 1974 for ''Une aurore boréale'', the Prix Molson in 1983 for ''Le Valet de plume'', and the

Governor General's Award for French-language fiction The Governor General's Award for French-language fiction is a Canadian literary award that annually recognizes one Canadian writer for a fiction book written in French. It is one of fourteen Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit, seven each ...

in 1988 for ''Le silence, ou Le parfait bonheur''. He is a member of the

Académie des lettres du Québec The Académie des lettres du Québec is a national academy for Quebec writers. It was founded as the Académie canadienne-française in 1944 by Victor Barbeau and a group of writers. In 1992 it changed its name to the Académie des lettres du Québ ...

Works

*''La horde des Zamé (Le démolisseur)'' (1970) *''Le greffon'' (1971) *''Une aurore boréale'' (1974) *''Le Valet de plume'' (1983) *''La chair de pierre'' (1984) *''Dehors, les chiens'' (1986) *''Première nocturne'' (1991) *''Marie Blanc'' (1993) *''Homme de plaisir'' (1999) *''Le silence, ou Le parfait bonheur'' (1999) *''Des années, des mois, des jours'' (2001) *''Les pélicans de Géorgie'' (2009) *''Paco'' (2011)

References

1928 births 20th-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian novelists Canadian male novelists Canadian male short story writers Canadian novelists in French Canadian art critics Canadian literary critics Writers from Barcelona Spanish emigrants to Canada Living people Canadian male non-fiction writers Spanish expatriates in France Governor General's Award–winning fiction writers 20th-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian male writers Novelists from Quebec {{Quebec-writer-stub