Background
Charles Montpetit was born on January 3, 1958, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is a son of Yves Montpetit, an architect, and Ghislaine Jolicoeur.
1455 Boulevard de Maisonneuve O, Montréal, QC H3G 1M8, Canada
Sir George Williams University's Henry F. Hall Building of Concordia University where Charles Montpetit received his Bachelor of Arts degree in communications in 1979.
(This book describes the fight of the students to raise pu...)
This book describes the fight of the students to raise public awareness, gain public support, and then force not just one, but two gun-control bills through Parliament, against the workings of the million-dollar gun lobby after the 1989 massacre of fourteen women in Montreal’s polytechnic school.
https://www.amazon.com/December-6th-Montreal-Massacre-Control/dp/0771061250/?tag=2022091-20
1999
editor illustrator novelist scriptwriter
Charles Montpetit was born on January 3, 1958, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is a son of Yves Montpetit, an architect, and Ghislaine Jolicoeur.
Charles Montpetit received his first acclaim while still a teenager. He wrote his first book, ‘Moi ou la planète’ (Me or the planet), at the age of fifteen when had never seriously considered becoming a writer. Although, Charles submitted his application to enter a writing contest for teens sponsored by the publisher Actuelle-Jeunesse as a lark. The volume won the prize and a trip for two to Paris, with five hundred dollars spending money, that was pretty appealing.
Accompanied by his brother, Montpetit had a wonderful time in Europe, and the book went on to be published by Actuelle-Jeunesse.
Even after this early success, though, Montpetit still didn’t consider writing as a potential career. As a result, he enrolled in a computer science program in college. Soon, always fascinated by writing, he switched to communications.
In 1979, Montpetit graduated from Concordia University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications.
The start of Charles Montpetit’s career can be counted from 1983 when his debut award-winning volume for young adults, ‘Moi ou la planète’ (Me or the planet) was published in 1973.
After graduating from Concordia University, Montpetit took on a variety of freelance assignments that included illustrations and comic strips, something that enabled him to explore his life-long interest in drawing. To occupy himself between jobs, he worked on a new young adult novel and, in 1984, ‘Temps perdu’ saw the print. Immediately successful, it was a finalist for the Canada Council Prize for children’s literature. Later, the book appeared in English under the title ‘Lost Time’. Its sequel, ‘Temps mort’ followed four years later having the same success.
Bolstered by this unexpected recognition, Charles Montpetit’s next project was a bold departure from his previous work. He invited sixteen Quebec writers of children’s books to recount actual first sexual encounters. Reviews of ‘The First Time’, a book based on his investigations which first printing was sold out within three weeks of publication, were favorable.
Montpetit then turned his attention to the English-speaking market. Instead of translating the contributions of the French-language authors, he decided to create an entirely new version of the anthology, this time with established English-speaking children’s writers. The response to this appeal was less enthusiastic than it had been in Quebec. Nor were publishers as eager to participate: while three companies had competed for the rights to the original edition. Montpetit had to approach twenty-seven publishing companies before Orca Book Publishers Ltd., the twenty-eighth on his list, agreed to take on the project.
Looking farther afield, the author then decided to try the same thing in Australia. With the memory of his English-Canadian experience fresh in mind, however, he took a different tack and sent the proposal to six publishers at the same time. Fortunately, one showed immediate interest and, in 1996, the Australian edition of ‘The First Time’, featuring the stories of sixteen children’s writers was published.
This impulse fueled Montpetit’s interest in other projects while he was still editing the First Time series. Losing a friend to cancer prompted him to incorporate an attack on tobacco companies in his 1993 novel ‘Copie carbone’. Earlier, Montpetit’s involvement in the students’ movement initiated after the 1989 massacre of fourteen young women at Montreal’s polytechnic school by a deranged gunman resulted in another book for adolescents, ‘December 6’, which summarized the struggle to bring the law into effect.
In addition to books, Montpetit has authored much prize-winning radio, video, and audio-visual productions for a variety of clients, including CBC in Montreal and Toronto. He has also provided art direction and editorial assistance on a variety of French-language magazines and contributed short stories, articles, illustrations and comic strips to a variety of books and magazines.
(This book describes the fight of the students to raise pu...)
1999(A collection describing the initial sexual experiences an...)
1995(The English version of Montpetit's 'Temps perdu' initiall...)
1990(The second volume of The First Time series.)
1996The massacre of fourteen young women at Montreal’s polytechnic school in 1989 by a deranged gunman sparked calls for stricter gun controls all across Canada, a movement that would monopolize Charles Montpetit’s spare time for more than half a decade. Outraged by the lack of government action, the author contacted the students who demanded new laws and volunteered his services as a writer and translator for everything they needed to be done.
Quotations: "I’ve always been a humanist. To me, it’s just a matter of doing things that are truly worth doing. If you don’t contribute to the world while you’re living your life, you’re just wasting it."