Gail Scott

Gail Scott (born 1945) is a Canadian novelist, short story writer, essayist and translator, best known for her work in experimental forms such as prose poetry She was a major contributor to 1980s Québécoise feminist language theory, known as écriture au féminin, which explores the relationship between language, bodies, and feminist politics. Many of her novels and stories deal with fragmentation in time, in subjects, and in narrative structures.

Biography Born in Ottawa, Ontario in 1945, Scott was raised in a bilingual community in rural Eastern Ontario She has also published translations of Delisle's Helen avec un secret, Lise Tremblay's La danse juive and France Théoret's Laurence. and for Main Brides in 1993. With Mary Burger, Robert Glück and Camille Roy, she was a coeditor of Biting the Error: Writers Explore Narrative, which was a Lambda Literary Award nominee for Non-Fiction Anthologies at the 17th Lambda Literary Awards in 2005.

Her novel The Obituary was a shortlisted nominee for the 2011 Grand Prix du livre de Montreal. Her 2023 book Furniture Music won 2024 Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction from the Quebec Writers' Federation.

She is an out lesbian, and many of her works challenge heteronormative language structures and/or depict lesbian relationships.

Works

Novels

Heroine (Talonbooks, 1987; ) Main Brides (Coach House, 1993; ) My Paris (The Mercury Press, 1999; Dalkey Archive, 2003; ) The Obituary (Coach House, 2010; )

Short stories, memoir and essays

"Elisabeth Rides Again." Journal of Canadian Fiction 30 (1980): 89–105. "Petit Larcin." Trans. Roger Des Roches. La Nouvelle barre du jour 107 (Nov. 1981): 53–60. Spare Parts (1981). Expanded as Spare Parts Plus Two (2002, ) La théorie, un dimanche (with Louky Bersianik, Nicole Brossard, Louise Cotnoir, Louise Dupré and France Théoret) (1988, ) Spaces Like Stairs (1989, ) "'The Kiss' by Edvard Munch, Revisited." The Massachusetts Review 31 (Spring-Summer 1990): 125–31. "There's No Such Thing as Repetition." Books in Canada 23.5 (Summer 1994): cover, 8–11. Editor of Biting the Error: Writers Explore Narrative (with Bob Gluck, Camille Roy, and Mary Burger) (2004, ) Permanent Revolution: Essays (2021) Furniture Music (Wave Books, 2023; )

Translations

Laurence by France Théoret (1998) The Sailor’s Disquiet by Michael Delisle (2002) Helen with a Secret by Michael Delisle (2002) Mile End by Lise Tremblay (2002)