The Arts
Canadian women have a long tradition of contributing to the arts in Canada as writers, visual artists and musicians. Frances Brooke's novel The History of Emily Montague, set in Quebec and published in 1769, is widely regarded as the first Canadian novel. By the 20th century careers in many fields were opening up to more women, and artists such as Gabrielle Roy and Portia White are part of an important tradition in Canadian life.

Gabrielle Roy 1909-1983
Gabrielle Roy's early determination to become a writer led to great success and a very long list of books to her credit. Among her many prizes and awards, Roy won the Governor General's Awards for literature in 1947, 1957, and again in 1977. Gabrielle Roy was born in Saint-Boniface, Manitoba, March 22, 1909, the youngest of 11 children. Her father, who had worked for the federal government for many years helping new immigrants settle in the West, lost his job in 1913 because of political patronage. This plunged the family into economic hardship, and her thrifty, resourceful mother took in sewing and boarders to keep the family afloat. Her childhood as a poor Francophone Manitoban imprinted Gabrielle with the sense of being an outsider which was later reflected in her writing. Gabrielle worked hard at school, winning prizes for work in French and English. The money she won for her final examination results paid for her first year at the Winnipeg Normal Institute. In 1929, the year her father died, she began to teach school and continued to teach and to contribute her wages to her family until 1937. But now she was determined to see more of the world and to experience greater independence and left Saint-Boniface to spend two years in Europe.

While living in Paris and London, Gabrielle Roy began her career as a writer. When she returned to Canada in 1939 she settled in Montreal, against the wishes of her mother. Until 1945 she supported herself through the publication of articles and short stories in Canadian magazines. In 1943 she wrote a series of articles on the poor in Montreal which formed the basis for her first novel, Bonheur d'occasion (The Tin Flute), published in 1945. The novel told the story of the impact of World War II on the lives of a poor family living in the Saint-Henri district in Montreal, and it was an instant hit. The Tin Flute was eventually translated into 15 languages and won the Prix Femina in Paris and the Literary Guild of America Award in New York. In 1947 she was the first woman admitted to the Royal Society of Canada and won her first Governor General's Award for the English translation.

The publication of The Tin Flute established Roy's reputation as a novelist and provided her with greater financial security than she had ever known. On a trip home to Manitoba in 1947 she met Marcel Carbotte, a young physician, and married him after a brief courtship. For the next three years the couple lived in Paris where Carbotte was pursuing further training and Roy continued to write. In 1950 she published a second novel, La Petite Poule d'Eau (Where Nests the Water Hen), which in sharp contrast to The Tin Flute, described a large, loving family living on a beautiful island in the middle of a river.

In the same year, Roy and her husband settled in Quebec and for the rest of her life Roy divided her time between Quebec City and a cottage in the country, largely retiring from public life to pursue her writing career. Over the next twenty years she published one book after another. She won another Governor General's Award in 1955 for Rue Deschambault (Street of Riches). In 1967 she was made a Companion of the Order of Canada. Three more books followed in the early 1970s. Roy also wrote two volumes of stories for children, Ma vache Bossie published in 1976, and Courts Queue in 1979. Between these years, she published her last novel Ces enfants de ma vie (Children of My Heart) which spoke of her love of children and teaching and which won another Governor General's Award, and also produced a collection of essays and articles.

Before she died in 1983 Gabrielle wrote an autobiography, La Détresse et l'enchantement (Enchantment and Sorrow), which was published in 1984. Her memory and reputation are kept alive by prizes awarded in her honour every year by the Association for Canadian and Quebec Literature for the best works of literary criticism on Canadian or Quebec literature in French and English. Although she wrote in French, her work was frequently translated into English (and many other languages as well), ensuring that it would leave an enduring mark on the cultural life of her country.