.Born Marie Atala Léonise Valois, at Vaudreuil, Quebec, she represented the Montreal newspaper La Presse in 1904 at the St. Louis World Fair, participating in the historic establishment of the Canadian Women’s Press Club. She published her first poem in 1889. From 1900-1902 she worked for Le Monde illustré using the pen name Atala. Steady journalism work eluded her after 1904 so she took a job at the post office in Montreal where she worked until retiring in 1939. She continued to write for Quebec newspapers and magazines until her death, though producing over 200 columns on feminine discourses during her lifetime under the pseudonym Atala. In 1910 she became the first Quebec woman to publish a column of poetry, Fleurs Savages: poésies. In 1931 Valois was forced to retire as the women’s page editor of the agricultural paper La Terre de chez nous. Shortly before her death she won the annual photo competition of the Société Poètes Canadiens-Français for her second book of poetry, Feuilles tombées.