Remembering Mavis Gallant with Fondness and Reverence

February 24, 2014

Photo: courtesy of the Doris Giller Rabinovitch Foundation

“Beyond the acute personal loss, Mavis was beloved by generations of readers. She had a piercing eye and an unflinchingly honest voice in her fiction. She will be missed, and remembered always.” — Jack Rabinovitch

As we mourn the loss to Canada and to the literature of short story artist extraordinaire Mavis Gallant, we can rejoice at the wealth of acclaimed and award-winning work – not just short stories, but novels, plays and essays – and the innumerable vivid reading experiences with which she has left readers, Canadian and worldwide. From The Other Paris to Governor General Award winner Home Truths to The Moslem Wife, Montreal Stories and the unforgettable Paris Notebooks, Mavis Gallant set standards for storytelling and writing craft that leave an enduring and inspiring legacy.

Mavis Gallant served as a Giller Prize juror in 1997. Working with fellow jurors Bonnie Burnard and Peter Gzowski, they chose Mordecai Richler’s Barney’s Version as the winner that year. She is shown here congratulating him.

We’ve gathered here some fine and moving selections from the outpouring of affection, reverence and awe for Mavis Gallant and her work:

Writer Mavis Gallant dies at 91 (Globe and Mail)

My Too Little Time With Mavis Gallant, by Bert Archer (Hazlitt)

Celebrated short story writer Mavis Gallant dies at 91 (CBC Radio Q) – includes audio of Jian Ghomeshi’s 2009 interview with Mavis Gallant

In Paris with Mavis Gallant, Writer, by Randy Boyagoda (Walrus Magazine)

Mavis Gallant, The Art of Fiction No. 160 (The Paris Review)

Talking with a master storyteller: Eleanor Wachtel on interviewing Mavis Gallant (CBC Radio Writers & Company)