Her radiant smile warmed every place she was, and her lively and inspired words, carried by her love for literature, her respect for the living and her fierce struggle for a more just world, will echo for a long time in the ears of those who were lucky to cross his path. Writer and sociologist Caroline Dawson laid down her arms Sunday, at the age of 44, after a long and difficult battle with cancer.
In August 2021, the author announced that she had an aggressive tumor – a 25 cm osteosarcoma – that no treatment could eradicate.
“Last night I lost my biggest accomplice, my confidant, my best friend, my older sister who taught me everything, the one who inspired me with words, melodies, gestures, something like style and tenacity full of tenderness,” said his brother, he wrote on Monday on Facebook by Nicholas Dawson. He added that before leaving he could have thanked her for everything that was done to “her lover”.
“Caroline had this magic of being able to really, very spontaneously enter into relationships with people,” says Nancy B. Pilon, who claims that she had a true friendship “at first sight” with M.me Dawson. “She saw the light in everyone she met. She automatically encouraged us to want to be better people. »
Born in Chile in 1979, and then immigrated to Quebec with her family at the age of seven, Caroline Dawson conquered the province with the publication of her first novel, Where am I hiding? (Éditions du stir-ménage), 2020. This story, which draws heavily on her personal journey as a young refugee, is about a seven-year-old girl who flees the Pinochet dictatorship to Canada. A story about learning, cultural shocks, shame, rejection, self-denial, silences and gaps, which is presented as a mosaic of everything that exile and integration entail, and the choices that those who live them must make.
Winner of the student literary prize, finalist, among others, for the Prix des libraires du Québec and the Combat national des livres de Radio-Canada, this first novel that allowed thousands of immigrants to recognize themselves and finally know how to read and understand, was at the top the bookstore sales charts for almost three years, selling tens of thousands of copies – a feat in Quebec. It was also the subject of a stage adaptation 2023 at the La Bordée theater.
“It was about time a pen like his came to Quebec,” says Natalie-Ann Roy, who was one of his collaborators and a friend. In her opinion, the writer’s texts helped open the horizons of Quebecers. “They gave us access to much more, a shared history, more precisely, with first or second generation immigrant communities. »
“She was a weaver of words, love and community,” he adds in an interview for Dutyemphasizing the unifying side of the author.
On all the way
As soon as her diagnosis was announced in 2021, Caroline Dawson asked her friends, media and people from the literary world to keep sending her invitations, wanting to remain actively involved in all spheres of her life. The one who worked as a professor of sociology at the Cégep Édouard-Montpetit and as a co-organizer of the Festival of Literature for Young People in Montreal, continued to write, speak publicly, sit on literary juries and highlight the works of his colleagues.
Among other things, in 2022 she kept a diary in which she recounted her experience with cancer, in the morning program Penelopeon the waves of Radio-Canada, as well as a literary column on the microphoneThere will always be cultureson the same antenna.
Despite her success, the novelist often said that writing was a difficult exercise for her, which she especially compared to “physical class in high school”. However, few things could stop this dazzling beat. In February 2023, she announced What are you (Triptych), the first collection of poetry that tells about everything that the writer “could keep silent: exile, racism, shame”, in order to offer it as an inheritance to her son. An album for young people will follow in February 2024 Going far away (La Bagnole), which depicts a young girl newly arrived in the country who has to relearn everything, from winter to language.
A dedicated writer and sociologist, Caroline Dawson has never hesitated to speak out in defense of the most needy, the voiceless and all those operating on the margins. 2023 in a magazine interview Booksellers, she said: “Resentment is one of the driving forces of my existence. (…) I have the impression that sometimes people think that indignation is rooted in rudeness, in raw anger when it comes from a place full of love, kindness and freedom that we want to extend to others, to those who are deprived of it. Resentment therefore serves me to connect with those who do not have the same fate as me, who do not have the same social coordinates as me, who are sometimes forgotten. Investing yourself, intervening for a fairer world, as well as resisting the conservative forces that would like to keep it the way it is. »
“The Lover”, Mme Dawson also had this ability to listen to others without judgment, recalls Nancy B. Pilon. “She managed to put you in your place without seeming like it, with a kind of tenderness. »
She was also an “incredible mother” for whom her two children were “her whole life”, he added with emotion. “What has hurt her the most lately is that she won’t see them grow up. »
Educate others
In honor of her talent, her legacy and her courage, Radio-Canada’s Directorate General for Equality, Diversity and Mobilization announced on May 14 the establishment of a literary award in honor of the author. This award will honor a novel or essay published in French by an emerging writer of diverse origins. “This award bearing my name is music to my ears. I am very proud and filled with gratitude. It’s a really great idea to give this legacy,” commented a major stakeholder during the announcement.
At the writer’s request, her family has invited those wishing to send flowers to instead make a donation to the Fondation du Cégep Édouard-Montpetit to create the Caroline Dawson Scholarship. The aim of this award will be “financial assistance to young migrant women of the first generation, an initiative of her friend and colleague Valérie Blanc”, we can read in a post on social networks.
“The fact that she is responsible for nurturing emerging and migrant authors through her legacy, to me, that completely represents Caroline,” says Geneviève Morand, a fan and collaborator of M.me Dawson.
In her texts, she lucidly approached her migration journey, allowing herself to be vulnerable, says M.me Morand. “I believe this is also the reason why so many people found it challenging when they read it,” the 40-year-old woman points out, moved.
A great communicator, Caroline Dawson has truly left a great legacy: owning one book, one sentence and one share at a time, has made thousands of people want to discover Quebec literature and its authors, reminding that beyond time, disease and death, the living always win through the longevity of your words.