Roch Carrier

The Hockey Sweater bill courtesy of Speak Up

The Hockey Sweater is a quintessentially Canadian story. Just take a close look at a five dollar bill. This unique author's words are inscribed on the national currency, complete with illustrations.

Sheldon Cohen's NFB animated film, The Sweater, is also a classic now available online.

Roch Carrier is without doubt one of Canada's most beloved story tellers. Though his most famous tales portray uniquely Quebec settings and sensibilities, they have a universality, depth and simplicity that causes them to be not only read, but re-read, loved and even revered.

Carrier was born in 1937 in the small Quebec town of Sainte Justine. He studied in the US as a boy, got his BA from a French-speaking university in New Brunswick, his Master's at the Universite de Montreal, and his PhD from the Universite de Paris.

He published a very successful novel, La Guerre Yes sir! at the age of thirty-one and has gone on to produce plays, poetry, and especially, short stories. His classic works have been used in schools and universities in many countries and widely translated.

Carrier has taught literature, French and Canadian Studies, and has managed the Theatre du Nouveau Monde in Montreal. In the 1990s he was Director of the Canada Council for the Arts.

In 1999, Roch Carrier became the national librarian for Canada, where he devoted his efforts to preserving our national literary treasures. One result has been the Digital Library of Canada, designed to give Canadians access to more of our literary heritage.

The town of Sainte Justine now has a library named, not surprisingly, after Roch Carrier.