This map offers a snapshot of fiction and creative nonfiction set in l’Estrie and the Eastern Townships in south-eastern Québec. It is part of a larger project on twenty-first century ‘regional’ fiction, which includes an audio-walk, dance, and creative and critical publications. Heartlands/Pays du cœur considers literary geographies in published fiction, reflecting on how these a) help shape everyday interactions with l’Estrie and the Townships, and b) impact on how we think about the region. The project also generates new creative responses via artistic collaborations and participatory practices, such as artwalks and story-sharing with community members. After being sidelined in favour of Montreal during the second half of the twentieth century, Québec’s regions have been embraced by writers since 2000. This is especially true of French-language authors, as suggested by the outpouring of novels, short stories and creative nonfiction set in regions like Saguenay, Gaspésie, Abitibi, Charlevoix, and the North Shore. Unlike some of the other regions celebrated in twenty-first century Québec literature, however, the Eastern Townships have been associated with creative writing in both of the province’s majority languages for over 60 years. A primarily English-language Townships poetry scene reached its peak in the 1960s, and included well- known writers F.R. Scott, Louis Dudek, and Ralph Gustafson. Since the turn of the millennium, prose has become the main form associated with l’Estrie (the administrative region established in 1981) and the Townships, with French-language literary, genre fiction, and creative nonfiction thriving. Genre fiction and creative nonfiction in English are flourishing, too, as indicated by the region’s association with star author, Louise Penny. Indeed, it is possible to write of the Eastern Townships novel or prose-book or roman estrien, given the number of publications of this form over the last 20 years. Whilst any map is only ever partial and leaves out at least as much as it includes, Heartlands/Pays du cœur offers a visual and auditory glimpse of the wide range of creative prose written in and on the region.

The map is a collaboration between Ceri Morgan, Professor of Place-writing and Geohumanities (Keele University, UK), creative technologist Kelcey Swain, and sound and media artist, Yannick Guéguen. Morgan conceived the map and provided the research content, Swain built the map, made the sound ecologies, and created the map’s look and feel, and Swain and Guéguen produced the author readings. Built around audio recordings of authors reading from their works and sound ecologies of l’Estrie and the Eastern Townships, the map offers a tour of examples of fiction and creative nonfiction in both French and English. Listeners-readers can explore a region which has long been important within the literature and culture of Québec.

This work was supported by an Arts and Humanities Research Council Leadership Fellowship, grant number [AH/T006250/1]. Ethics approval number: 0341. Author readings were recorded at Planet Studios, Montreal, Studio C, Sherbrooke, and CelloVision Studio, Ayer’s Cliff.