Roxanne Bouchard (born 1972) is a Canadian writer and educator 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, ...

. She is best known for her series of maritime

crime fiction Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, crime novel, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives or fiction that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professiona ...

novels centred on the investigations of detective Joaquin Moralès in Quebec's

Gaspé Peninsula The Gaspé Peninsula, also known as Gaspesia (, ; ), is a peninsula along the south shore of the St. Lawrence River that extends from the Matapedia Valley in Quebec, Canada, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is separated from New Brunswick on it ...

Early life and education

Born in Saint-Jérôme, Quebec in 1972, Roxanne Bouchard studied at the

University of Montreal A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

and then obtained a master's degree from

Université du Québec à Montréal The (UQAM; ), is a French language, French-language public university, public research university based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest constituent element of the system. UQAM was founded on April 9, 1969, by the government o ...

(UQAM). She has taught literature at the

Joliette Joliette () is a city in southwest Quebec, Canada. It is approximately northeast of Montreal, on the L'Assomption River and is the seat of the Regional County Municipality of Joliette. It is considered to be a part of the North Shore of G ...

campus of the

Cégep régional de Lanaudière The Cégep régional de Lanaudière is a Cégep, made up of three constituent colleges in Joliette, L'Assomption and Terrebonne, located in Quebec, Canada. As of early 2014, there are over 2,500 students at the Joliette constituent college an ...

starting in 1994, when she was completing her master's degree at UQAM.

Literary career

Bouchard's first novel, ''Whisky et paraboles'', was published in 2005. The novel won that year's

Prix Robert-Cliche The Prix Robert-Cliche is a literary prize created in 1979 to honour Robert Cliche, a Quebec lawyer, judge and politician. The prize is awarded annually for an original French language work by a Canadian author who has not previously published a no ...

, awarded for a French-language novel of a Canadian author who had not published a novel before, as well as the 2007 , and it was a finalist for the

Prix Anne-Hébert The Prix Anne-Hébert is a Canadian literary award, presented annually to the best first work of fiction in French by a writer from Quebec. The award was created by Robert Desbiens in 2000 to honour writer Anne Hébert following her death. The aw ...

, an award for the first French-language novel by a Quebecoise writer. In 2013, Bouchard published ''En terrain miné'', which covers her five-year exchange of letters with a soldier in Afghanistan,

corporal Corporal is a military rank in use by the armed forces of many countries. It is also a police rank in some police services. The rank is usually the lowest ranking non-commissioned officer. In some militaries, the rank of corporal nominally corr ...

Patrick Kègle. ''5 balles dans la tête'', published in 2017, contains the recollections of wartime experiences of 25 active or retired members of the

Canadian Armed Forces The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; , FAC) are the unified Military, military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air commands referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force. Under the ''National Defenc ...

, mostly those who participated in the

War in Afghanistan War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to: *Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC), the conquest of Afghanistan by the Macedonian Empire * Muslim conquests of Afghanistan, a series of campaigns in ...

. In writing ''5 balles dans la tête'', she met with soldiers at

CFB Valcartier 2nd Canadian Division Support Base Valcartier (2 CDSB Valcartier), formerly known as and commonly referred to as Canadian Forces Base Valcartier (CFB Valcartier), is a Canadian Forces base located in the municipality of Saint-Gabriel-de-Valc ...

and had them talk about their experiences, rather than ask them questions. At one point in the research process, in 2013, the memories became so overwhelming that bad dreams prevented her from sleeping and led her to pause her work until January 2014.

Detective Moralès series

Bouchard is best known for her series of maritime

crime novel Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, crime novel, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives or fiction that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a profession ...

s following the investigations of detective Joaquin Moralès in the

of Quebec. In the first novel of the series, titled ''Nous étions le sel de la mer'' (2014), Moralès investigates a body washed up from the sea. The novel was a 2015

Prix France-Québec The Prix France-Québec is a Canadian literary award, presented to a Canadian French language writer who has published work in either Canada or France. Administered by Quebec's General Delegation in Paris and the Fédération France-Quebec, the aw ...

finalist. Its sequel, ''La Mariée de corail'', was published by in 2020; in the novel, Moralès investigates the disappearance of a lobster boat captain. The novel won the 2021 Best French Crime Book award from the

Crime Writers of Canada {{primary sources, date=January 2015 Founded in 1982 by mystery reviewers Derrick Murdock and Doug Marshall, editor John Pierce and mystery and thriller authors Tony Aspler, Howard Engel, Tim Heald, and Larry Morse, Crime Writers of Canada (CWC) i ...

and topped the online sales chart 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 ...

in August 2020. The third novel of the series, ''Le murmure des hakapiks'', was published in 2021. Two parallel and converging storylines make up the novel, one in which Moralès is investigating the assault of a teenager, while her friend Simone Lord, a Fisheries Officer introduced in the previous novel, monitors a seal hunt aboard a trawler. The novel was nominated for the Crime Writers of Canada award for Best French Crime Book in 2022. English versions of the original French-language novels''We Were the Salt of the Sea'' (2018), ''The Coral Bride'' (2020), and ''Whisper of the Seals'' (2022)were translated by David Warriner and published by British publisher Orenda Books. In 2020, Swiss publisher obtained rights for a German-language version of the first two novels. ''The Coral Bride'' was longlisted for the 2021 CWA Dagger for Crime Fiction in Translation from the United Kingdom-based

Crime Writers' Association The Crime Writers' Association (CWA) is a specialist authors' organisation in the United Kingdom, most notable for its "Dagger" awards for the best crime writing of the year, and the Diamond Dagger awarded to an author for lifetime achievement. ...

. ''Nous étions le sel de la mer'' was selected as the Quebec representative for the 2023 edition of the book debate show ''

Le Combat des livres ''Le Combat des livres'' is an annual "battle of the books" competition organized and broadcast by Ici Radio-Canada Première in Canada. A French edition of the ''Canada Reads'' competition, the program was launched in 2004. It aired annually from ...

'', where it was defended by actor

Gilles Renaud Gilles Renaud (born 25 September 1944) is a Canadian actor who has starred in cinema and television in Quebec. In 1983, he received a Genie Award nomination for Best Actor for the film '' A Day in a Taxi (Une journée en taxi)''. He is also a t ...

Bibliography

Novels

* Reissued in 2008. * * * * *

Detective Moralès series

* ** English edition: Warriner, David. ''We Were the Salt of the Sea'', Orenda Books, 2018. * ** English edition: Warriner, David. ''The Coral Bride'', Orenda Books, 2020. * ** English edition: Warriner, David. ''Whisper of the Seals'', Orenda Books, 2022.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bouchard, Roxanne 21st-century Canadian women writers 21st-century Canadian novelists Canadian women novelists 1972 births Living people Université du Québec à Montréal alumni Canadian crime fiction writers Detective fiction writers People from Saint-Jérôme Novelists from Quebec