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Enlarge Cover
list price: $17.95
edition:Paperback
category: Drama
published: Jan 1983
ISBN:9780889222137
publisher:
Talonbooks
Description
One night in the Promised Land of the North of the Americas, at the centre of a fabulous vortex, four women—Laure Conan, Germaine Guèvremont, Gabrielle Roy and Anne Hèbert—meet, and perform six tableaux. Onstage, the women talk and gallop, they sit and rock; they descend from the heavens like angels, they menstruate, they sing; they bake bread, they eat, they say Mass; they trade secrets, recite poetry, share their hopes and fears, their dreams and private terrors; they look into history, decide to collaborate, they write; they become hens, they support and give birth to each other—and to all women everywhere. Saga of the Wet Hens is Jovette Marchessault’s first full-length play and a major poetic dramatic literary work.
Contributor Notes
Born in Montreal, Quebec, Jovette Marchessault is a novelist, a playwright and a sculptor. She is the winner of the Prix France-Québec, the Grand Prix Littéraire Journal de Montréal, the Grand Prix Littéraire de la ville de Sherbrooke and the Governor General’s Award. Like a Child of the Earth (1988), The Magnificent Voyage of Emily Carr (1992), Mother of the Grass (1989), Saga of the Wet Hens (1983) and White Pebbles in the Dark Forests (1990) are available in English translation from Talonbooks.
Linda Gaboriau is an award-winning literary translator based in Montreal. Her translations of plays by Quebec’s most prominent playwrights have been published and produced across Canada and abroad. In her work as a literary manager and dramaturge, she has directed numerous translation residencies and international exchange projects. She was the founding director of the Banff International Literary Translation Centre. Most recently she won the 2010 Governor General’s Award for Forests, her translation of the play by Wajdi Mouawad.
Editorial Reviews
“[Marchessault’s] fiction is lyrical and heartfelt, her drama literary, allusive and absolutely original.”
—Books in Canada
“Potent feminist literature.”
—Quill & Quire
