Marie-Claire Blais is a Canadian author. She was born 1939 in Quebec, Canada. Her early education consisted of courses at Laval University. She then won two Guggenheim Fellowships. She published her first novel, La Belle bête in 1959 when she turned 20. She has since written over 20 novels, 5 plays, collections of poetry and fiction, as well newspaper articles. Her works have been translated into multiple languages, including English and Chinese.

Much of Blais' writing has been in the form of social commentary, with intermixed elements of good and evil in settings part real, and part fantasy. Her works lean toward the tragic, within a hostile society of vice and violence. The strength of Blais' writing ability is rewarding to the reader in spite of the darker aspects of her themes.

In 1963, Blais moved to the United States, initially living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Later she relocated to Wellfleet on Cape Cod. By 1975, after staying in Brittany for two years, she moved back to Quebec. For about twenty years she then spent her time in Quebec and Key West, Florida.

In 1972 she became a Companion of the Order of Canada.

Her works Le Sourd dans la ville and Une saison dans la vie d'Emmanuel have been adapted for the cinema.

Works

• La Belle Bête (Mad Shadows) - 1959
• Une saison dans la vie d'Emmanuel (A Season in the Life of Emmanuel) - 1965
• Les Manuscrits de Pauline Archange (The Manuscripts of Pauline Archange) 1970
• Un Joualonais, sa joualonie (St. Lawrence Blues) - 1973
• Une liaison parisienne (A Literary Affair) - 1975
• Dürer's Angel - 1976
• Les Nuits de l'Underground - 1978
• Le Sourd dans la ville (Deaf to the City) - 1979
• Visions d'Anna - 1979
• Pierre ou La Guerre du printemps - 1984
• L'Île - 1988
• L'Ange de la solitude - 1989
• Parcours d'un écrivain: Notes américaines (American Notebooks: A Writer's Journey) - 1993
• Soifs - 1996
• Dans la foudre et la lumière - 2001

Awards

• Prix France-Canada - 1965
• Prix Médicis - 1966
• Prix Athanase-David - 1982
• Prix Ludger-Duvernay - 1988
• Prix d'Italie - 1999
• W. O. Mitchell Literary Prize - 2000
• Prix Prince Pierre de Monaco - 2002