Nights

Majestic, enchanting, seductive, disturbing by turns—or all at once—the night takes a variety of forms. To shed some light on this fascinating subject, the Stewart Museum invites you to discover the exhibition Nights, a unique experience, oscillating between fiction and reality.

With the help of a booklet and listening stations, visitors dive into four nocturnal worlds through the original stories of renowned Quebec authors. They explore the starry night with Eric Dupont, face the fear of the dark in the night of imagination with Dominique Demers, stride through the city night with Heather O’Neill and slip into the night of passion with Simon Boulerice. These stories are brought to life in theatrical sets by Pierre-Étienne Locas alongside a variety of remarkable artefacts from the collections of the Stewart and McCord museums.

Authors

Dominique Demers

A writer and lecturer with a PhD in children’s literature, Dominique Demers is well known for her award-winning children’s books. In 2009-2010 alone, she won four prestigious awards. She received the Prix jeunesse des univers parallèles, the Prix Québec/Wallonie-Bruxelles and the Prix des lecteurs 15-18 ans Radio-Canada/Centre FORA for Jacob Jobin Tome 1 – L’Élu.  She also won the Prix Raymond-Plante for her outstanding commitment to the world of children’s literature.

Her first novels for adults, the best-selling Le Pari and Marie-Tempête, won her thousands of readers. Some of her works have been adapted for film, and her Charlotte series sold nearly half a million copies in Quebec and France, not to mention the translations! An eighth title, Une infirmière du tonnerre, was added to the popular series in 2018.

Eric Dupont

Eric Dupont was born in 1970 in Amqui, Quebec. At the age of 16, he left his native Gaspésie for a year of study in Austria. Drawn to the big city, he then lived in Ottawa, Salzburg, Berlin, Toronto and Montreal. Author of Voleurs de sucre (Sugar Thieves), La logeuse and Bestiaire (Life in the Court of Matane), he has received several literary awards, including the Prix des libraires and the Prix littéraire des collégiens in 2013 for his novel La fiancée américaine (Songs for the Cold of Heart). The book was also a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2018. In his latest novel, La route du lilas, published in 2018, he invites readers to join him on a horticultural road trip through Austria, Brazil and North America.

His work is known for sudden interventions by the supernatural in the real world. It combines depth with a light tone and sometimes biting humour.

Heather O’Neill

Heather O’Neill is a novelist, short story writer and essayist. Her work, which includes Lullabies for Little Criminals, The Girl Who Was Saturday Night and Daydreams of Angels, has been shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award for fiction, the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Scotiabank Giller Prize in two consecutive years. She has won CBC Canada Reads, The Paragraphe MacLennan Prize for Fiction and the Danuta Gleed Award. Her latest novel is The Lonely Hearts Hotel. O’Neill lives in Montreal, where she was born and raised.

Simon Boulerice

Trained in writing, dance and theatre, Simon Boulerice is an all-round talent. A radio (Plus on est de fous, plus on lit!) and TV columnist (Formule Diaz and now Cette année-là), he also navigates between acting, directing and writing.

He writes plays, poetry and novels for both adults and children. Among his forty titles, Simon Boulerice is the author of the celebrated Simon a toujours aimé danser (Simon always liked to dance), Martine à la plage, Javotte, Edgar Paillettes, PIG, Les Garçons courent plus vite, Florence et Léon (Florence & Leon) and L’Enfant mascara (The Mascara Kid).

His works have been translated into seven languages and have been nominated for the Governor General’s Award, the Prix des libraires and the Prix de la critique. At 37, Simon Boulerice still does the splits at least once a day. So far, his bones and muscles are holding up.