Writer Émile Ollivier died 24 years ago in Montreal

Twenty-four years ago, on November 10, 2002, Émile Ollivier died suddenly in Montreal. A novelist split between Quebec and Haiti, he left behind a quiet but important body of work.

From Port-au-Prince to Exile

Born in Port-au-Prince in 1940, he was raised by his mother. He studied philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure d'Haïti, then literature and psychology in France, before training in sociology. A member of the Union Nationale des Étudiants Haïtiens, he was forced into exile in 1964 under François Duvalier. With his wife Marie-José Glémaud, he settled in Amos, in Abitibi, in 1965, and then in Montreal in 1968.

Professor and Novelist

For twenty-five years he taught in the Faculty of Education at the Université de Montréal, while staying close to the immigrant Haitian community. He published essays starting in 1976, followed by short stories. His first novel, Mère-Solitude, came out in 1983 with Albin Michel and won him the Prix Jacques Roumain. It was followed by La Discorde aux cent voix, Passages, which won the Grand prix du livre de Montréal in 1991, then Les Urnes scellées, which won the Prix Carbet de la Caraïbe in 1996, and Mille Eaux in 1999.

A Failed Return

After the fall of the Duvaliers in 1986, he tried to move back to Haiti, but found a society torn apart and gave up. He was made a Knight of the Ordre national du Québec in 1993 and a Knight of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2000. His last novel, La Brûlerie, was published after his death, in 2004.