Joseph Boyden. A Critical Interview

This interview was conceived and ran by Anne Garrait-Bourrier, Professor in Cultural Studies at Clermont-Auvergne University and Elisabeth Bouzonviller, Professor of American Literature at Jean Monnet University. This article contains an original interview of the Canadian writer Joseph Boyden, recorded on December 12, 2014, at the University Blaise-Pascal, in Clermont-Ferrand. Joseph Boyden was on an 18 month-European tour for the promotion of his latest novel, The Orenda. The French part of this long tour was organized by his French editor, Albin Michel and more specifically by Francis Geffard, the publishing director of the Terre d’Amérique collection, who was the person who discovered Boyden and imposed him in France, as stipulated in Boyden’s very grateful acknowledgements at the end of the Penguin edition of his first novel. The questions asked mainly deal with Boyden’s The Orenda, hence the necessity to introduce the author and his work and replace this novel in a broader literary context.