Colette
Langlois
Colette Langlois was raised in the Northwest Territories, and has lived most of her life there when not otherwise wandering the blue-green planet. “The Emigrants,” imagined on the Isle of Iona, written in the Colorado Rockies, and edited in the Algarve, was her first fiction publication. She currently resides in Edmonton, where she is working on a short story collection, a novella, a novel, and a Masters of Science.
Award History
Jury Citation
“‘The Emigrants’ by Colette Langlois interweaves two times and places, one a historic past, the other a possible future, to explore loneliness and home. The story takes the form of letters: technological communication from the last survivor of an experimental colony on Mars, addressing a world that may no longer be able to, or care to, hear her, and letters from a man who has come to Saskatchewan from England in the late-nineteenth century, and writes home to his sister, knowing he will never see her again. Both writers address themselves to the future with hope, humility, and bravery. Both have reason to despair, and resist. The story blends a coolness of tone with great depth of feeling, and richly imagines what has come before and what is to be.” — 2016 Journey Prize jury (Kate Cayley, Brian Francis, and Madeleine Thien)
