The Pontiac Conference Centre was filled on Saturday for the second Salon du Livre, a celebration of French-language arts and culture. This is the second year that the event has been put on by Sand Bay author Sandra Lemire Wolf, who explained that after attending book fairs in Montreal and Quebec, she wanted to bring a similar celebration of French arts and culture to the local area.
“We have 40 authors that came, [including] from New Brunswick, two from France, Montreal and five from the Pontiac area,” she said.
She said that new this year, the fair highlighted books which had been made into movies, which she said was an attempt to attract some younger readers.
“It’s to help bring kids to read, you know, if you like the movie maybe you might like to read the book,” she explained. “We also have some interviews with authors whose books have been transferred into a movie.”
She added that children also had the opportunity to win a book by completing a scavenger hunt, looking for little animals on books throughout the hall.
Pontiac author Christian Voillemont was one of the local authors present, and had a widely varied bibliography, featuring a book on how to survive in the Amazon jungle, as well as a more recent publication on caring for donkeys in Quebec. His son Arnaud shared their booth with his two trilogies of fantasy novels.
The elder Voillemont said that his book on donkeys originated from when he set up a donkey refuge and found there to be a lack of material written about raising those kinds of animals in the Quebec environment. Originally from France, his jungle survival guide comes from his younger years, after a stint in the army’s jungle training school. He took a 10-year sojourn to the Amazon after completing his service and wrote the book based on his experiences travelling and living self-sufficiently in the rainforest.
Gatineau children’s author Michel Bélisle was also at the fair, representing himself and Éditions Lo-Ély, a publishing house for emerging and independent Quebec authors. The organization offers assistance to new authors and illustrators, helping them market their work.
He explained that one of his books, “Droit au but” is about a Fort-Coulonge hockey player who traverses the Pontiac during March Break in search of his biological mother.
Aside from the book fair’s regular programming, Lemire Wolf said that they also had a display from the Société de généalogie de l’Outaouais, which offered information for attendees about their heritage and the history of the area.
“We have everything for all tastes, it’s a big celebration,” she said. “It’s not only about books, it’s about culture.”
