LEBLANC, Gérald 1945-

PERSONAL: Born 1945, in Bouctouche, New Brunswick, Canada.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Guernica Editions, 2250 Military Dr., Tonawanda, NY 14150.

CAREER: Writer.

AWARDS, HONORS: Prix Littéraire de la Ville Moncton, 1988, for L'extrême frontiére: poèmes 1972–1988; Prix Estuaire des Terrasses Saint-Sulpice, 1994, for Complaintes du continent: poèmes 1988–1992; Prix Pascal-Poirier, Province of New Brunswick, for body of work; New Brunswick arts-by-invitation grant, 1999–2000.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Marguerite Maillet and Bernard Emont) Anthologie de textes littéraires acadiens, Éditions d'Acadie (Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada), 1979.

Comme un otage du quotidien, Éditions Perce-Neige (Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada), 1981.

Géographie de la nuit rouge, Éditions d'Acadie (Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada), 1984.

Lieux transitoires: poèmes et textes (poems and prose), M. Henry (Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada), 1986.

(Selector, with Claude Beausoleil) La poésie acadienne: 1948–1988 (poems), Ecrits des Forges (Three Rivers, Quebec, Canada), 1988.

L'extrême frontière: poèmes 1972–1988, Éditions d'Acadie (Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada), 1988.

(Editor, with others) L'evénement Rimbaud, Éditions Perce-Neige (Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada), 1991.

Les matins habitables: poèmes, illustrated by Tristan Wolski, Éditions Perce-Neige (Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada), 1991.

(Translator) Yolande Villemaire, Amazon Angel, Guernica (New York, NY), 1993.

Complaintes du continent: poèmes 1988–1992, Éditions Perce-Neige (Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada), 1993.

Eloge du chiac: poésie, Éditions Perce-Neige, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada), 1995.

Moncton Mantra (novel), Éditions Perce-Neige (Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada), 1997, translated by Jo-Anne Elder, Guernica (Buffalo, NY), 2001.

Je n'en connais pas la fin (poems), Éditions Perce-Neige (Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada), 1999.

La poésie acadienne, Éditions Perce-Neige (Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada), 1999.

Le plus clair du temps (poems), Éditions Perce-Neige (Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada), 2001.

Géomancie: poésie, L'Interligne (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada), 2003.

Techgnose (poems), Éditions Perce-Neige (Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada), 2004.

Also contributor to anthologies.

SIDELIGHTS: Gérald LeBlanc is a Canadian poet who was born in New Brunswick, and Alain Gautreau, the protagonist of LeBlanc's semiautobiographical novel, Moncton Mantra, shares his creator's Acadian heritage. Alain enters the University of New Brunswick in 1971, where he finds like-minded people, including Xavier, with whom Alain spends the summer in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This experience leads him to his decision not to return to his studies, but instead to pursue a life of sex, drugs, rock and roll, and writing.

Alain falls in love with Gilles, a heroin user, and becomes a pot user and alcohol abuser. He is distracted by his pursuit of partners and eventually goes on welfare so that he can concentrate on his writing. After overcoming his fear of sharing his work, he publishes his first volume of poetry and also begins to understand his feelings about being Acadian and its influence on his life and poetry. Globe & Mail contributor Jim Bartley called the debut "forthright and unmannered."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Books in Canada, winter, 2002, Janet French, review of Moncton Mantra, p. 32.

Globe & Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), August 25, 2001, Jim Bartley, review of Moncton Mantra.