A novelist and short-story writer born in Montreal, Madeleine Monette lives in New York City where she wrote her first novel, le Double suspect (1980, Robert-Cliche Award). Four other novels followed: Petites Violences (1982), Amandes et melon (1991), la Femme furieuse (1997) and les Rouleurs (2007). Her first novel came out in Toronto (Guernica Editions) in English translation under the title Doubly Suspect in 2000.
Short-listed for literary awards such as the Marguerite Yourcenar Award in the US, the Prix France-Québec Philippe-Rossillon in France, the Prix de l’Académie des Lettres du Québec and the Prix Elle Québec in Canada, Madeleine Monette was writer in residence at the Université du Québec à Montréal in 1993-1994. She was awarded the first grant from the Fonds Gabrielle-Roy in 1994, which allowed her to live in Roy's summer house on the St. Lawrence River. In 2007, thanks to a grant from the Ledig-Rowohlt Foundation, she was a writer in residence at the Château de Lavigny in Switzerland.
Over the years many of her fictions were broadcasted on CBC Radio; others were published in collections of short stories and literary magazines such as Arcade, Trois, Ecrits, Ecrits du Canada français, Liberté, Moebius, Nuit blanche, Possibles, Québec français, Le Sabord, Tessera, Virages and XYZ (in Canada); Americas’ Society Review, Beacons, Romance Languages Annual (in the U.S.); Europe and Sud (in France). Since 1983 she has given lectures and readings in Canada, France, Switzerland, the West Indies, New-Caledonia, and throughout the United States.
Many studies on Madeleine Monette’s work have been published in Québec and elsewhere, including a collective entitled Relectures de Madeleine Monette (Summa Publications, Alabama, USA, 2000).
In 2008-2009, Madeleine Monette was a book reviewer and commentator for American literature on the national radio program “Vous m’en lirez tant” of Société Radio-Canada.
She is a member of the Académie des lettres du Québec.
The NeMLA Women's Caucus welcomes members interested in feminist scholarship, women's studies, and the status of women in the profession. The Caucus organizes panels, promotes publication, and fosters the establishment of networks linking senior and junior faculty. CONCERNS, the quarterly journal of WCML, contains scholarly articles, personal essays, news of conferences, research in progress, and jobs.
The following panels for the 2010 convention are listed under Women's Studies. (See more convention information.)
Being and Thinking as an Academic Mother: Theory and Narrative 7.05
Classic and Contemporary American Girl Lit: Girls’ Worlds 2.03
Classic and Contemporary American Girl Lit: Place & Space 5.09
Literary Hostesses 9.03
Literary Motherhood in the New World 4.02
National Identities in Twentieth Century Women’s Writing 12.02
Recasting the Role: Older Women in Memoir and Drama 1.03
Traveling Alone: Women Migrating Across Cultures 17.02
Where Are We Now? The Evolution of Women’s, Gender and Feminist Studies 8.08
Women’s Caucus Event 15.01
The Adoption Memoir 3.08
‘Ah Got De Law in My Mouth’: Black Women Writing Justice 5.20
The Articulate Silence of Women Authors/Literary Subjects in Early Modern Spain 16.11
Beauvoir Reloaded: Possibilities and Dangers of The Second Sex 3.15
Communal Modernisms 4.08
Elles réécrivent leur H/histoire(s) entre le particulier et le collectif 8.17
Female Absence and Expressions of Black Masculinity 8.25
Female Authors and Images of Femininity: From the Weimar to the Berlin Republic 10.15
The Future of Women’s Literature in Modernist Studies 3.18
Ghostly Women & Apparitional Lesbians 11.09
Her Story: Telling Stories of French and Francophone Women’s Lives 11.13
Illness, Wellness and Medicine in Nineteenth-Century American Women’s Writing 13.25
Latin American Women’s Writing and the Fantastic 13.11
Madness in Women’s French and Francophone Fiction 5.14
‘Making Her Meaning Known’: New Scholarship about Audre Lorde 6.24
Mujeres afro-descendientes en Latino América 1.05
(Re)Writing Anaïs Nin and Her Diaries 12.24
Religious Argumentation in Women’s Writing of the Long Eighteenth Century 10.21
Rethinking Home: Representations of Male Domesticity 10.04
Russian Women Writers: New Views 8.13
Shakespeare’s Cougars 7.20
‘This world only my body remembered’: Women Writing Nature, Nation and Self 2.18
Uncovering the Irish Woman in Early 20th Century Fiction 7.19
Women Writing Spanish American Revolution(s) 5.08
Women and the Politics of the Vernacular 3.07
Women, Utopia and the Fantastic in 20th and 21st-century narratives 9.19
At its annual meeting held at the NeMLA Convention hotel site, the Women's Caucus conducts elections for new officers and invites suggestions for speakers and topics for future NeMLA Conferences. For the Women's Caucus 2010 meeting, please sign up on conference registration.
We will be planning additional Women's Caucus events for the 2010 conference. They will be posted on the webpage and in the program.
Recent Caucus-sponsored speakers:
Boston 2009: Scholar Carole Boyce Davies (Cornell University), “Caribbean Women and the Black Radical Intellectual Tradition”
Buffalo 2008: Poet NourbeSe Philip, selections from and commentary on her remarkable poem Zong! (Wesleyan U Press, 2008). (Jointly sponsored with the CAITY Caucus)
Baltimore 2007: Novelist Elizabeth Nuñez, “The Women in Shakespeare’s The Tempest: The Perspective of a Woman Novelist”
Women's Caucus Best Essay in Women's Language and Literature Award
The award is given for a 20-25 page essay based on a paper presented at the 2009 NeMLA Convention in Boston using women-centered approaches (concentrating on women characters or women authors, using feminist analysis). This essay may not be submitted to another journal for the duration of the award's deliberation. The winning paper will be considered for publication in Modern Language Studies.
Please send submissions to Elaine Savory: savorye@newschool.edu
Deadline: January 9, 2010
The author's name, address, and academic affiliation should appear only on a separate cover sheet.
Criteria for all Caucus Essay Awards:
Submitted essays should be between 7,000 and 9,000 words (there is a 10,000 word limit, notes and works cited included). Unrevised paper presentations are not accepted and will be returned. The author's name, address, and academic affiliation should appear only on a separate cover sheet.
Each caucus prize offers a $100 cash award. Prize-winning essays will automatically be considered for publication by Modern Language Studies; all essays are subject to MLS's double-blind review.
The winner of the Women's Caucus essay prize was Zach Hutchins, of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The title of his essay is "Eschewing Eve and Emulating Elizabeth: The Wisdom of Anne Bradstreet."
The winner of the Women's Caucus essay prize was Catherine Keyser, an Assistant Professor of English at the University of South Carolina. The title of her essay is “Keeping Ironic Company: Mary McCarthy and the Smart Woman in Politics.”
You can join the NeMLA Women's Caucus, and the Women's Caucus of the MLA, by indicating your interest on the registration form when you join NeMLA or renew NeMLA membership.
Joint memberships are also available (includes one subscription to Concerns). Add $5.00 to a higher paying members' dues. Membership in NeMLA Women's Caucus comes with a membership in WCML.