{{Short description|Canadian arts critic and novelist}} {{Infobox writer | name = Carole Corbeil | image = | birth_date = 1952 | birth_place = Montreal, Quebec | death_date = 2000 | death_place = Toronto, Ontario | occupation = writer, arts critic | period = 1979–2000 | nationality = Canadian | notableworks = ''Voice-Over'', ''In the Wings'' | spouse = Layne Coleman | children = Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman | awards = Toronto Book Award (1993) | website = }}
'''Carole Corbeil''' (1952–2000) was a Canadian arts critic and novelist.<ref name=smash>John Levesque, "Voice-Over a smash success". ''Hamilton Spectator'', May 9, 1992.</ref> She was born in Montreal to Québécois parents. Her writing was often informed by the cultural displacement, and the subsequent sense of dual belonging, that she experienced when her parents divorced and her mother remarried to an anglophone man.<ref>Beverly Slopen, "Bridging two solitudes". ''Toronto Star'', February 1, 1992.</ref>
==Biography== Corbeil was raised and educated exclusively in French in childhood, and later transferred to a private English school, Miss Edgar's and Miss Cramp's School,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ecsarchives.ca/files/original/1afc87856ca74c805d7a449787eccb843a49e937.pdf|format=PDF|title=Miss Edgar's and Miss Cramp's School : 1968-69|website=Ecsarchives.ca|access-date=March 7, 2022}}</ref> after her mother's remarriage.<ref name=scored/> She spent some time as a teenager studying in Wales under the International Baccalaureate program, before undertaking university studies at York University in Toronto.<ref name=scored/>
First known as an arts reporter for ''The Globe and Mail'' in the 1980s,<ref>Lynne Van Luven, "Clever `bilingual' novel updates the two solitudes". ''Edmonton Journal'', March 29, 1992.</ref> she published her debut novel ''Voice-Over'' in 1992.<ref name=smash/> The novel centred on a documentary filmmaker from Quebec from her childhood through to her adult relationship with an English Canadian poet;<ref>T. F. Rigelhof, "Novelist found her voice in Toronto; Carole Corbeil's book is already called a classic". ''Montreal Gazette'', May 2, 1992.</ref> although it included passages in both English and French, critics praised its code switching as "done in such a clever way that the French is understandable to a person with only the basic vocabulary."<ref name=scored>"Journalist scored a hit with first novel: Voice-over a best-seller". ''National Post'', October 16, 2000.</ref> ''Voice-Over'' was a shortlisted nominee for the Books in Canada First Novel Award<ref>"Corbeil among five on first-novel list". ''Montreal Gazette'', March 6, 1993.</ref> and the Trillium Book Award,<ref>"Trillium finalists announced". ''The Globe and Mail'', February 24, 1993.</ref> and was a co-winner with David Donnell's ''China Blues'' of the Toronto Book Award,<ref>Michael Smith, "Word on the Street festival celebrates 4th successful year". ''Toronto Star'', September 27, 1993.</ref> in 1993.
In the 1990s, she wrote a weekly arts column for the ''Toronto Star''.<ref name=death>"Columnist, novelist Carole Corbeil dies of cancer". ''Cornwall Standard-Freeholder'', October 9, 2000.</ref> She was also a contributor to ''This Magazine'', ''Canadian Art'' and ''Saturday Night'', and won two National Magazine Awards for her writing.<ref name=death/>
She published her second novel, ''In the Wings'', in 1997.<ref>Elizabeth Renzetti, "A former critic lays it on the line: After years of writing about others, Carole Corbeil now faces being written about herself". ''The Globe and Mail'', September 20, 1997.</ref> The novel centred on the relationship between Allan O'Brien and Alice Riverton, actors playing Hamlet and Gertrude in a stage production of ''Hamlet''.<ref>Phillip Marchand, "Elsinore's family values". ''Toronto Star'', September 20, 1997.</ref> A stage adaptation of ''In the Wings'' by Nicky Guadagni was staged by Toronto's Theatre Passe Muraille in 2002.<ref>Robert Cushman, "Actors are people too". ''National Post'', November 13, 2002.</ref>
Corbeil was married to actor Layne Coleman.<ref name=scratch>[https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/Theatre/article/510749 "A very personal family drama"]. ''Toronto Star'', October 4, 2008.</ref> Their daughter, Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman, became an actor and playwright.<ref name=scratch />
Corbeil died in Toronto in 2000 of cancer.<ref name=death/>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Corbeil, Carole}} Category:1952 births Category:2000 deaths Category:Canadian art critics Category:Canadian women art critics Category:20th-century Canadian novelists Category:Journalists from Montreal Category:20th-century Canadian women journalists Category:20th-century Canadian journalists Category:20th-century Canadian women novelists Category:Canadian literary critics Category:Canadian women literary critics Category:Canadian theatre critics Category:People educated at Atlantic College Category:Canadian women non-fiction writers Category:York University alumni Category:Novelists from Montreal