Gabriel Osson Explained

Gabriel Osson
Birth Place:Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Occupation:novelist, poet
Period:2000s-present
Nationality:Haitian-Canadian
Notableworks:Le jour se lèvera

Gabriel Osson is a Haitian-Canadian writer and broadcaster, whose novel Le jour se lèvera won the Prix Alain-Thomas from the Salon du livre de Toronto in 2021.[1]

Originally from Port-au-Prince,[1] he is currently based in Toronto, Ontario, where he hosts the weekly world music show Franco découvertes on CHOQ-FM,[2] and serves as president of the Association des auteurs.res de l’Ontario français and founding president of the Association Haïti Futur-Canada.[3]

Osson has published three poetry collections, Efflorescences (2001), Envolées (2009)[4] and D'ici et d'ailleurs (2021),[5] and the travel memoir J’ai marché sur les étoiles: sept leçons apprises sur le chemin de Compostelle (2015).[6] Concurrently with the release D'ici et d'ailleurs, he also released an album of spoken word recitations of the book's poems with musical accompaniment by Dieufaite Charles and Fred Osson.[5]

His debut novel, Hubert le restavèk, was published in 2017,[7] and was followed by Le jour se lèvera in 2020 and Les Voix du chemin in 2021.[5]

In 2019, he was one of 37 Franco-Ontarian writers anthologized in Poèmes de la résistance, a collection of poetry about the controversial cuts to Franco-Ontarian cultural institutions by the government of Doug Ford.[8] In the same year, he was named by Ici Radio-Canada as one of the 25 most significant Black Canadian figures in Franco-Ontarian culture.[2]

Notes and References

  1. https://l-express.ca/salon-du-livre-de-toronto-gabriel-osson-remporte-le-prix-alain-thomas/ "Salon du livre de Toronto: Gabriel Osson remporte le prix Alain-Thomas"
  2. https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1155331/gabriel-osson-auteur-animateur-radio "Gabriel Osson, auteur et animateur radio à Toronto"
  3. Annik Chalifour, "7e Salon du livre haïtien: sortir de l’ombre!". L'Express, December 9, 2020.
  4. Paul-François Sylvestre, "Chaque livre de Gabriel Osson est un contrat social". L'Express, October 18, 2019.
  5. Annik Chalifour, "Gabriel Osson en tournée: un CD de poèmes et deux nouveaux livres". L'Express, November 23, 2021.
  6. Constance Longobardi, "Gabriel Osson raconte son Chemin de Compostelle". L'Express, December 15, 2015.
  7. Raymond Desmarteau, "Hubert le restavèk : un roman coup de coeur de Gabriel Osson". Radio Canada International, March 18, 2017.
  8. Bienvenu Senga, "Poèmes de la résistance : 37 auteurs franco-ontariens dénoncent les compressions de Doug Ford". Ici Radio-Canada, May 8, 2019.