Congrès Boréal (The Boréal SF Convention) is Quebec’s (francophone province of Canada) first and foremost convention on speculative fiction in literature. Publishers, readers, professional and aspiring authors alike meet up at the convention, where they can attend many activities – panels, lectures, seminars, screenings, reading sessions of all sorts and autograph sessions – in which will participate known personalities and experts in the speculative fiction and/or the literary fields. If you like to cosplay as one of your favourite characters, the Boréal Convention is also an event for everybody.
Many distinctions are given over the course of the Boréal Convention, like the Aurora-Boréal Award, the Jacques-Brossard Award and the Tribute to a Visionary Award, to name but a few.
Its 33rd edition, which had a Great Masquerade and many international guests, was held from May 20th to May 22nd 2016 at l’Espace Théâtre in Mont-Laurier, one of the best scenes in Quebec equipped with cutting edge technology.
Les Prix Aurora-Boréal (The Aurora-Boréal Awards) are the only awards of the francophone Canada to be voted by the public in the genres of science fiction and fantasy at the annually held Boréal Convention.
The first Boréal Prize, created by Elizabeth Vonarburg , was presented at the 1979 Boréal Convention held in Chicoutimi (Quebec, Canada) which was also the first of its kind. The first winner was Norbert Spehner for the foundation (in 1974) and the direction of the “Requiem” magazine (now “Solaris”) and for the management of the collection Chronicles of the Future, published the Preamble first major collection devoted to French-Canadian science fiction.
The Boréal Awards took their current form through Rene Beaulieu initiative, a writer, critic and translator of Quebecois SF, during the second Boréal Convention, held in Quebec in 1980, and in collaboration within the International Exhibition of the Quebec Books . The formula for these awards had subsequently suffered minor modifications, yet still remaining very similar to what it was when it was founded.
The Prix Aurora Boréal was created through an agreement between SFSF Boreál Inc. and the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (CSFFA) in November of 2010.
The two parties agreed to combining the French-language Prix Boréal and the English-language Aurora Awards into a single Award, named the Prix Aurora-Boréal.
The Guests were the renowned British writer Christopher Priest, the french born quebecois writer Élisabeth Vonarburg, Jean-Louis Trudel (francophone canadian SF writer, Michèle Laframboise, Yves Meynard, Natasha Beaulieu, Priska Poirier, Simon-Pierre Pouliot (alias Vic Verdier), Pierre-Luc Lafrance, Charles Premont, André Marois, Bruno Massé, Caroline Plouffe, Rébecca Mathieu – francophone canadian writers.
The winners of the 2016 Aurora-Boréal Awards are:
Prix Aurora-Boréal • Best Novel : Philippe-Aubert Côté – Le Jeu du Démiurge (The Game of the Demiurge) (Alire)
Nominees :
Philippe-Aubert Côté: Le Jeu du Démiurge (Alire)
Frédérick Durand: Au rendez-vous des courtisans glacés (version intégrale) (Les Six Brumes)
Frédérick Durand: Quand s’éteindra la dernière chandelle (Black Coat Press)
Éric Gauthier: La grande mort de mononc’ Morbide (Alire)
Yves Meynard: Les Marches de la lune morte (Alire)
Prix Aurora-Boréal • Best Short Story : Jean-Louis Trudel – Garder un phénix en cage/To Keep a Phenix in a Cage (Revue Solaris/Magazine 195)
Nominees :
Geneviève Blouin: « L’Enchanteresse portait des Lévi’s » (Solaris 195)
Élise Lucie Henripin: « Baptême » (Clair/Obscur 13)
Pierre-Luc Lafrance: « Dans ses pas » (L’arracheur de rêves, Les Six Brumes)
Jean-Louis Trudel: « Garder un phénix en cage » (Solaris 195)
Guillaume Voisine: « Le contraste de l’éternité » (Bizarro, La Maison des viscères)
Prix Aurora-Boréal • Best Related Work : Solaris : Revue (Magazine), ed. Joël Champetier
Nominees :
Pierre-Alexandre Bonin : Article « Je me souviens : modalités de la mémoire artificielle chez Isaac Asimov et Philippe K. Dick » (Solaris 196)
Brins d’éternité : Revue, ed. Ariane Gélinas, Alamo St-Jean et Guillaume Voisine
Pierre-Luc Lafrance : Recueil L’arracheur de rêves (Les Six Brumes)
Solaris : Revue, ed. Joël Champetier
Mario Tessier : Chronique « Les Carnets du Futurible » (Solaris 193-196)
Prix Boréal • Visual Work : Grégory Fromenteau : cover illustrations of “Le Jeu du Démiurge”, “Les Marches de la Lune morte”
Nominees :
Grégory Fromenteau : Couvertures, Le Jeu du Démiurge, Les Marches de la Lune morte
Marie-Claude Landry [Mary Khaos] : Couvertures, Quand s’éteindra la dernière chandelle, Écorché, Bizarro, etc.
Érick Lefebvre : Couverture, Clair/Obscur 13, illustrations, Brins d’éternité 40-41, etc.
Émilie Léger : Couvertures, Brins d’éternité 40, Solaris 195; illustrations, Solaris 196, etc.
Laurine Spehner : Couverture, La Grande Mort de mononc’ Morbide, illustrations, Solaris 193-194, 196, etc.
Prix Boréal • Fan Work : République du Centaure (Republic of Centaur) webzine
Nominees :
Clair/Obscur (fanzine) – revueclairobscur.ca
Isabelle Lauzon (blog) – laplumevolage.blogspot.ca *
Jonathan Reynolds (blog) – aveugle.wordpress.com
La Horde Geek (webzine) – lahordegeek.com
République du Centaure (webzine) – republique.sixbrumes.com
Michèle Laframboise (blog) – savantefolle.wordpress.com
