Beatitudes »

Herménégilde Chiasson is one of Canada's most accomplished cultural icons. He is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry, over 30 plays, and several collections of essays. A filmmaker, visual artist, curator, and widely published author, he has received numerous awards for his work, including the Governor-General's Award for poetry, le prix France-Acadie, the prestigious Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and the Prix quinquennal Antonine-Maillet-Acadie Vie. In 2003, he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick./Jo-Anne Elder is the editor of Ellipse. She has translated a dozen novels and poetry collections including Herménégilde Chiasson's Climates and Conversations, both of which were shortlisted for the Atlantic Poetry Prize.

For Herménégilde Chiasson, every work of art is both a cry and a prayer. Beatitudes reflects this perspective by connecting everyday events — people losing their keys or their cellphone signals — to the universal. Sighs, silences, and human utterances all become part of an ongoing incantation that ranges from the personal to the textual, from the local to the cosmopolitan. In this postmodern "sermon on the mount," Chiasson has created a tour de force at once compassionate and complex, thoughtful and illuminating. A meditation on what it means to be human, Chiasson writes from a deep sense of melancholy. Exploring the common bonds of humanity, he creates a tonal montage that probes our notions of who we are and who we might become. Beginning in mid-sentence and ending not with a period but a comma, Beatitudes is Herménégilde Chiasson's most important work to date, with beautiful lines that continue to echo long after they have been read. It will be released simultaneoulsy in French by Editions Prise de Parole.