Entre Rive and Shore by Dominique Bernier-Cormier

Entre Rive and Shore by Dominique Bernier-Cormier

Winner, Fred Cogswell Award For Excellence In Poetry
Finalist, Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize
Longlisted, Nelson Ball Poetry Prize

“I used to think this was a book about a disguise,
but now I know that it’s a book about translation.”

According to Cormier family lore, Pierrot Cormier escaped a British prison the night before the Acadian Deportation by disguising himself in a dress. In the invigorating, transliterative Entre Rive and Shore, Dominique Bernier-Cormier uses his ancestor’s escape to ponder what it means to live between two languages. Writing in a blend of English and French that evokes Chiac, “a living thing, growing gills, a voice from the future, prophetic and clear,” Bernier-Cormier probes the mutability of language and of translation.

A heady mix of English renderings of a single French poem, a Franco-fusion mélange of reflections on Acadian history and identity, and meditations on the evolution of language and the rapper Young Thug, Entre Rive and Shore exhibits “an eloquence we aren’t attuned to.” The result is protean, an exhilarating collection that reassesses what it means to live between two identities, two worlds, two languages.

“From poetry to essay to diary entry, and with lucidity and frankness, Bernier-Cormier addresses the ever-delicate issues of language and history that are so crucial to Acadian identityBlending legend with family history and a series of fantasist self-portraits, Entre Rive and Shore offers a mooring point between two cultures and two realities. Brilliant in its form and content, Entre Rive and Shore offers a refreshing and innovative view on our future as Acadians.” -- Herménégilde Chiasson, author of To Live and Die in Scoudouc
“With turns of language both striking and gentle, Entre Rive and Shore invites us into the tender and haunted space between English and French. Translation ‘weaves itself into a dress of wind’ as we are swept up in its violence and distorted offerings of home. Bernier-Cormier’s use of metaphor and imagery is ‘bone-bright’ and will fill you with awe.” -- Selina Boan, author of Undoing Hours
“The poems and texts of Entre Rive and Shore unravel family memory and history to create a book of the future, inhabiting the fissure between languages that in fact joins and nourishes them. Bernier-Cormier opens a world of possibilities to us, where poetry’s act of thinking crosses linguistic borders to give us a newly liveable world.” -- Erín Moure, author of The Elements
“Throughout this recueil of reflections, Dominique Bernier-Cormier redefines and brings a certain justice to the internal bilingual battles that torment Acadians and Cajuns alike. Bernier-Cormier’s stunning mix of history, outer space, and pop culture is seductive. His words are refreshing, vivid, and sometimes surreal — making it difficult to put Entre Rive and Shore down before finishing it in its entirety.” -- Vivianne Roy, Les Hay Babies

Dominique Bernier-Cormier is a Québécois/Acadian poet. His poems have won The Fiddlehead’s Ralph Gustafson Prize (2017) and Arc Magazine’s Poem of the Year Award (2023). They have also been selected as finalists for the National Magazine Award, CV2’s Young Buck Poetry Prize, and the Montreal International Poetry Prize. His first book, Correspondent, was longlisted for the Raymond Souster Award. His second book, Entre Rive and Shore, a multilingual collection of poems, essays and translations that explore bilingualism and Acadian identity, won the Fred Cogswell Awad for Poetry. Bernier-Cormier teaches high school English in Vancouver, on the traditional and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781773102870
ISBN 10	1773102877
Title	Entre Rive and Shore
Author	Dominique Bernier-Cormier
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Goose Lane Editions
Year published	2023-03-28
Number of pages	104
Prizes	Winner of Fred Cogswell Award For Excellence In Poetry 2024 (Canada), Short-listed for Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize 2024 (Canada), Long-listed for Nelson Ball Poetry Prize 2024 (Canada)
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.