Funeral for Antonine Maillet to be held in Moncton on Saturday

A public funeral for renowned Acadian writer Antonine Maillet will be held in Moncton on Saturday. 

It will be held at 11:00 a.m. at the Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption Cathedral on St. George Street. Flags will also be flown at half-mast across all three campuses of the Université de Moncton in her memory. 

Maillet was born in Bouctouche in 1929 and died at her home in Montreal on Feb. 17 at the age of 95.

She received many literary awards in her career, including the Governor General's Award for Don l'Orignal, published in 1968, and the Prix Goncourt in 1979 for her novel Pélagie-la-Charrette, the first Canadian writer to receive the prestigious French literary award.

She wrote 12 plays and 20 novels and was called "the greatest voice of Acadia" by New Brunswick Tourism Minister Isabelle Thériault.

 "In everything — in her books, in her plays, in the music — she wanted Acadie to shine and that's actually what she accomplished … she allowed Acadie to shine throughout Canada and the world," said Thériault, when news of Maillet's death was announced.

On the day Maillet's death was announced, Monique Poirier, executive and artistic director of Le Pays de la Sagouine, the theatrical village in Bouctouche, said, "It's a very sad day, but we are so grateful for everything that she has done."

The village brings to life the characters Maillet created, including her famous La Sagouine. That play was first staged in 1971 with Viola Leger in the title role

Moncton's annual literary festival, the Frye Festival, will honour the late novelist and playwright with a special literary show on May 4, to showcase the depth of her writing.

Ariane Savoie, the festival's executive director, previously said Maillet helped inspire the idea to create the festival in 1999. 

At the time, Maillet was co-organizing a bilingual conference in Moncton with author John Ralston Saul, Savoie said.

"That idea of the Frye Festival kind of generated from that event specifically," she said. "Having a bilingual literary conference here in Moncton brought up the fact that Moncton needed these activities."

In 2006, the first Maillet-Frye Lecture took place at the Frye and has since become a staple of the festival.