Origin Of The Future [TRADE PAPER ]

The not-often seen together combination of poetic writing interspersed with historical events and modern-day occurrences with a view to the future marks Francis Catalanos work as noteworthy. Qu?becs past is vividly imagined, and The Origin of the Future reveals the authors background as a poet as he creates a kind of road trip partway between an essay and a novel. The narrator looks for what has come before him, what has shaped him. There is authenticity in this eclectic mixture of the present day and history, and courage in forging new territory to create an unusually original work.

The central figure ofThe Origin of the Futureis North America. It talks about the origins of the continent: geological (before human beings), human origins (migration of people from Asia), colonial origins (the arrival of Europeans) and the origin of the author's own presence in North America. Catalano lends his voice to his ancestors, to his Italian grandfather, to his son & who speak through him to tell their little story in America while History is told using a more enigmatic or poetic text, between each chapter. Then come the great outdoors of America, migrations, road trips, family.

Poet, novelist, short story writer and essayist born in Montreal, Francis Catalano won the Quebecor Prize of the Trois-Rivi?res International Poetry Festival forQuune lueur des lieux(2010) and the La M?tropole Prize of Excellence forClimax(2022). As a translator of Italian poetry, he won the John Glassco Prize in 2006 forInstructions pour la lecture dun journal de Valerio Magrelli.

Jonathan Kaplansky is a literary translator of French in Montreal and won a French Voices Award to translate Nobel Prize winner Annie ErnauxsThings Seenand was shortlisted for the David Booth Award for Jonathan B?cottesLike a Hurricane. He has also translated worksH?l?ne Dorion,Lise Gauvin,Louis- Philippe H?bert,H?l?ne Rioux