Caroline Dawson (Justine Latour)

Quebec author Caroline Dawson has died.

Dawson, who was born in Chile in 1979 and immigrated with her family to Quebec when she was seven, is the author of As the Andes Disappeared, an autobiographical coming-of-age novel that begins when the protagonist is seven and flees Chile and the regime of Pinochet with her family.

The book, translated by Anita Anand, was recently shortlisted for the Amazon First Novel Award.

It was published in Quebec in 2020 as Là où je me terre (les éditions du remue-ménage), where it won the Prix littéraire des Collégiens and the Prix AIEQ and was shortlisted for several other awards. She also wrote a children’s book, Partir de loin, that was illustrated by Maurèen Poignonec and published in February by éditions de la Bagnole.

The Prix Caroline Dawson, a new literary prize established for emerging immigrant writers living in Canada and writing in French, established in Dawson’s honour, was announced last week by Radio-Canada.

In addition to her writing, Dawson was a teacher at Cégep Édouard-Montpetit, where she started teaching sociology in 2006.

Dawson’s friend and colleague Valérie Blanc has established the Caroline Dawson Memorial Fund at the school. The annual scholarship will be offered to a first-generation immigrant student.

Dawson leaves her parents, her brothers Nicholas and Jim, her partner, and their children. She had been suffering from bone cancer for several years before her death on May 19. Her family announced her death on Facebook.