First published in 1974, Mourir a Scoudouc emerged out of a period of cultural awakening. Chiasson's poems denounced the narrow limitations of the past and traced the lines of a fresh collective vision. The poems were lyrical, referentially modern, and steeped in the rhythms and forms that had emerged from the Americas, Europe, and India. Now, more than 40 years later, Hermenegilde Chiasson is considered to be the father of Acadian modernism, and Mourir a Scoudouc is widely regarded as one of the foundational works of modern Acadian literature. Several of the poems, including the oft-anthologized long poem, "Eugenie Melanson," have now achieved iconic status, appearing frequently in books, magazines, and films in French and in English. To Live and Die in Scoudouc is the first English edition of this seminal collection. It replicates Chiasson's design of the 2017 edition and features his own photographs as well as his new introductory essay. Although several of the poems have been previously translated, To Live and Die in Scoudouc features fresh renditions by Jo-Anne Elder, who worked closely with Chiasson on the translations.

For Hermenegilde 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 Hermenegilde 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.

Winner, Governor General's Award for PoetryShortlisted, Governor General's Award for TranslationAn elegant testimony to the beautiful and the good, Serge Patrice Thibodeau's One pays homage to the vibrancy and vigor of life, backdropped against the precarious immediacy of the everyday. From the tiny trunk of opening lines taken from Paul Valery, Thibodeau unpacks a vision of human consciousness that exists in a state of singular wonder, creating a universe that is at once faithful and ever-changing like the tidal bore -- the landscape of mascaret. Thibodeau boldly blends anecdotes, pop-ups, leitmotifs, ecological awareness, and the inner world in variations on the theme of wholeness.

"Conversations," a collection of poetry that won the 1999 Governor General's Award (French Language), is a sequence of 999 numbered fragments that record the essence of verbal interactions between two people. Over a period of a year, Hermenegilde Chiasson captured snatches of conversations overheard, conversations he had with other people, even reported conversations. Then he distilled what was said and his observations into a series of single sentences, each attributed to a strangely impersonal He or She. Chiasson has likened his concept to the visual experience of driving: a succession of flashes zooming by, the connections only intuited. The blank spot for entry number 1000 underlines a Zen-like philosophy that suggests that nothing is ever fully completed. In subject matter and technique, "Conversations" fuses tradition and modernity. Chiasson continues his exploration of the often uncomfortable zone where the mechanical or artificial meets human emotion and spirit. The format participates in the strong and lively Acadian oral tradition, yet the sentences themselves are polished literary jewels, almost epigrammatic in their compactness.

"Conversations" is at the same time as public as a news broadcast and as private as a lover's unspoken thoughts. With ten personal collections of poetry, Hermenegilde Chiasson's body of work is among the most prolific in Acadian poetry. "Mourir a Scoudouc" was published in 1974 to critical acclaim in Acadie and Quebec. In 1976, he made a radical departure in style with his collection of anti-poetry "Rapport sur l'etat de mes illusions." Busy with filmmaking, the visual arts, and playwrighting, it was a decade before Chiasson published "Propheties" in 1986. The 1990s were a prolific time for Chiasson's poetry. His 1991 collections "Vous" and "Existences," broke new ground in the field of experimental poetry and Vous was nominated for a Governor General's Award. "Vermeer" and "Miniatures" continued Chiasson's quest to blend the visual with the oral in a unique poetic style. In 1996, Chiasson produced "Climats." It was hailed as one of modern Acadie's strongest poetic works and was the first of his books to be translated into English. "Climates" brought Chiasson his second Governor General's Award nomination. In 1999, Chiasson won the Governor General's Award for his landmark poetic work "Conversations," now available in English from Goose Lane Editions.

"Climates" is suffused with the single-minded desire to fully inhabit, and be inhabited by, a place: Acadie. The political push-and-pull of being Acadian is a constant, even when the mutability of personal life is in the foreground. The four sections of "Climates" each correspond to a season, and each is marked by unity of tone, atmosphere, and form.