Guy Arsenault was only 17 when he wrote Acadie Rocka work published in its entirety in 1973 and which has had great importance in Acadian culture.
Her collection of poetry celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. It was reissued in 1994 and in 2013, as part of the work’s 40th anniversary.
This book also served as inspiration for a poetry and music festival that bears his name, founded in 2012.
His collection launched a pivotal period in Acadian poetry in the 1970s, with Herménégilde Chiasson, Ronald Després, Calixte Duguay and Léonard Forest, among others.
Acadie Rock was the first book of poems in Chiac. He was shunned by the Acadian elite who mistakenly believed that the author wanted to ridicule this way of speaking.
In an interview with the show Rush Hour in Acadie at the beginning of the year, Serge-Patrice Thibodeau, poet and literary director of Éditions Perce-Neige, spoke of Guy Arsenault as a pioneer who stood out for his long lists of enumerations, his insolence, his audacity and his right to say everything in his literature.
Guy Arsenault has published seven books in his career. He was also a recognized naïve painter in Acadia.
More details to come
