Other awards she received include the Matt Cohen Prize in 2000, the Rea Award for the Short Story in 2002, and a Lannan Literary Fellowship in 2004.

Gallant is among a few Canadian writers whose works appear regularly in The New Yorker. Several of her stories were printed in the magazine first before they were published in a collection.

While living in Paris, she reads newspapers daily in Italian, German, English and French. She has been reluctant in granting interviews; however, she appeared in two television documentaries in 2006. The first one was for Bravo! television entitled ‘Paris Stories: The Writing of Mavis Gallant’, and the other one was part of the television series ‘CONTACT, l’encyclopédie de la création’, whose host was Canadian broadcaster Stéphan Bureau.

On 1 November 2006, a tribute was given for Gallant during an event for Selected Shorts at the Symphony Space in New York City. Fellow authors Jhumpa Lahiri, Michael Ondaatje, and Russell Banks honoured her by reading excerpts from her works. Gallant also made a personal appearance, which she rarely does, and read a short story she wrote.

The Prix Athanase-David was awarded to her by the government of Quebec on 8 November 2006. She is the first author who is writing in English to be given such award.

Name: Mavis Leslie Gallant

Date of Birth: 11 August 1922

Place of Birth: Montreal, Quebec

Mavis Leslie Gallant is a Canadian writer who was born on 11 August 1922 in Montreal, Quebec. She has lived in Paris, France, since the 1950s and short stays in Canada, but keeps her Canadian citizenship. She spends her life in Paris by writing stories and attending occasional gala and gallery opening exhibits.

Gallant’s father died when she was still young, and her mother married again. She was educated in 17 different convent, public and French-language schools. While in her 20s, she became a reporter for the Montreal Standard. In 1942, she married a musician from Winnipeg named John Gallant. They divorced in 1947, and in 1950, she left journalism to practise fiction writing.

Gallant has been frank about her preference for privacy and autonomy. In 1978, she said in an interview with Geoff Hancock for the Canadian Fiction magazine that her move to France was deliberate in order for her to write freely.

In 1981, her contribution to literature was recognised by her country, making her an Officer of the Order of Canada. She was also given the Governor General’s Award for literature that year for her book ‘Home Truths’, a collection of stories. She went back to Canada in 1983-1984 to be the University of Toronto’s writer-in-residence. Gallant was appointed as a Foreign Honorary Member by the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1989. In 1993, she was promoted as a Companion of the Order of Canada.