Photo Credit:
Photo credit
Sandra Emonica DeVries
Andre Narbonne
BIO
Biography

André Narbonne is the father of four children and the author of three books. His critical and creative writing has seen publication in nearly one hundred North American journals, been anthologized in Best Canadian Stories, and won the Atlantic Writing Competition, the FreeFall Prose Contest, and the David Adams Richards Prize. A short story collection, Twelve Miles to Midnight (Black Moss Press), was a finalist for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award. A poetry collection, You Were Here (Flat Singles Press), was published in 2016. His first novel, Lucien & Olivia (Black Moss Press), was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Praise for Lucien & Olivia:

“André Narbonne has created a true emotional roller-coaster of a story. It’s like Jack Kerouac, Russell Banks and Raymond Carver came together to write a quintessentially Canadian love story —dark, angst-ridden and haunting, but so eloquent that Lucien and Olivia stay with me as my troubled but hopeful friends long after I finished the novel.” – Lesley Choyce, author of Saltwater Chronicles

“The explorations of intimacy are human and frank. The search for love, meaning and trust and yes, even romance, is all the more compelling set against the backdrop of engine rooms and the modest rooming houses and temporary first homes of the young characters.” – Natalie Meisner, author of Speed Dating for Sperm Donors

“Narbonne demonstrates a short story writer's gift for creating a system of experiences that propel us deep into his characters' obsessions, fears and desires. His two protagonists are at times their own worst enemies, consistently saying and doing the wrong thing at the worst possible time, as if they are working at cross-purposes, even as they aim for such noble goals as love and self-improvement. The result is an intense mosaic, an almost synesthetic involvement with these idiosyncratic people as they try against their own misdirections to live ordinary lives together. In other words, it is the most realistic--and beautiful--of love stories.” – Chris Benjamin, author of Boy With A Problem

Praise for Twelve Miles to Midnight:

"Twelve Miles to Midnight feels like so much more than the sum of its parts, never straying from the small particulars of ordinary lives yet somehow achieving the breadth and depth of an epic. Narbonne writes with a rare humanity and insight, giving all his characters their due and uniquely attuned to the ties that bind them.” – Nino Ricci, author of The Origin of Species

“Though Twelve Miles to Midnight covers lots of cold, hard territory – from Northern Ontario, to Cape Breton, to an ice-bound tanker trapped off the coast of Newfoundland – there is no denying the intimate warmth of Narbonne’s writing, the careful craftsmanship of his stories, and the tenderness of his characterization. This is one beautiful, tough book, full of complex relationships and sometimes angry compassion. I bet David Adams Richards and Herman Melville could appreciate what’s happening in here. I hope you will, too.” – Alexander MacLeod, author of Light Lifting

“These are stories of loss--lost jobs, lost loved ones, lost lives. People lost to cancer, accident, their own hand. Lost childhood and lost relationships. Their consolation is to tell the stories, the old hope that to set down the right words in the right order has the power not to make sense of loss but simply to remember it. Twelve Miles to Midnight is a superbly crafted gift: honest, compelling, and deeply moving.” – Nick Mount, University of Toronto

Praise for You Were Here:

André Narbonne deploys an austere precision of imagery that depicts in the sharpest possible focus his poems’ scenes, incidents and characters....A sense of home grounds and sustains the poet; in contrast, he is aware that “no stranger / can draw anything but a self-portrait.” And thanks to Narbonne’s amazing eye and command of his art we are shown the familiar in unexpected places in our world, like those birds the poet notices that roost in the letters of large advertising signs, that “nest in the alphabet of commerce.” – Tom Wayman

ADDRESS
City: Windsor, Province/Territory: Ontario
EMAIL
PUBLICATIONS
Publications
Title
Twelve Miles to Midnight
Publisher
Black Moss Press
Year
2016
Title
You Were Here
Publisher
Flat Singles Press
Year
2016
Title
Lucien and Olivia
Publisher
Black Moss Press
Year
Forthcoming 2022
AWARDS
Awards
Name
Andre Narbonne
Publication
"Darren
Year
2011
Name
Almost in Love"
Name
David Adams Richards Prize (Writers' Federation of New Brunswick)
Publication
Separatists
Year
2008
Name
Atlantic Writing Competitions (Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia)
Publication
"The Advancements"
Year
1998
PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS AND WORKSHOPS
Programs & Interests
Interested in participating Union’s Ontario Writers-in-the-Schools program:
All members are eligible for the Union’s Ontario Writers-in-the-Schools program. Are you interested in participating in this pro
Yes
Interested in participating in the Northern Ontario WITS program:
The Union’s Northern Ontario Writers-in-the-Schools program funds in-person visits to northern Ontario schools when possible. Ar
Yes