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2007 Finalists - Translation (French to English)


:: 2007 Home page
:: GGLA Main page


:: Winners


:: Finalists
:: Fiction
:: Poetry
:: Drama
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:: Translation

:: Winners News Release

:: Finalists News Release (includes French-language finalists info)

:: Juries

My Sister’s Blue Eyes Sheila Fischman, Montreal, for My Sister's Blue Eyes (Cormorant Books; distributed by University of Toronto Press) (ISBN 978-1-89715-05-1)

English translation of Les Yeux bleus de Mistassini by Jacques Poulin (Leméac Éditeur / Actes Sud)

Sheila Fischman maintains the author’s playful style and skillfully renders the ordinariness and vulnerabilities of Poulin’s intensely human characters in their search for fulfillment. Her translation brings to life their obsession with the hidden voices of language and poetry.

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Notebook of Roses and CivilizationRobert Majzels, Calgary, and Erín Moure, Montreal, for Notebook of Roses and Civilization (Coach House Books; distributed by LitDistCo) (ISBN 978-1-55245-181-6)

English translation of Cahier de roses & de civilisation by Nicole Brossard (Éditions d’art Le Sabord)

The poets Robert Majzels and Erín Moure have recreated in English the delicacy and range of Nicole Brossard’s poetry. Their translation evokes the search for beauty and the anger at human folly that underlie the work, and resonates with the sound and rhythm of the original.

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The Decline of the Hollywood EmpireRhonda Mullins, Montreal, for The Decline of the Hollywood Empire
(Talonbooks; distributed by Publisher Group Canada) (ISBN 978-0-88922-545-9)

English translation of Le déclin de l’empire hollywoodien by Hervé Fischer (VLB éditeur, a division of Groupe Ville-Marie Littérature)

This engaging and creative translation by Rhonda Mullins offers the reader an irreverent and insightful overview of one of the central institutions of popular culture. She deftly balances the author’s humorous, distinctly readable style with a wealth of information about the Hollywood empire.

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Carole Fréchette: Two Plays: John and Beatrice; Helen’s Necklace John Murrell, Calgary, for Carole Fréchette: Two Plays: John and Beatrice; Helen’s Necklace (Playwrights Canada Press; distributed by the publisher) (ISBN 978-0-88754-501-6)

English translation of Jean et Béatrice ( Leméac Éditeur / Actes Sud) and Le collier d’Hélène (Lansman Éditeur) by Carole Fréchette

John Murrell’s translations, John and Beatrice and Helen’s Necklace, capture the emotional immediacy and theatrical impact of the plays with brilliant elegance. He succeeds in preserving the uniqueness of their imagination while highlighting their relevance to our time.

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Augustino and the Choir of DestructionNigel Spencer, Sherbrooke (QC), for Augustino and the Choir of Destruction
(House of Anansi Press; distributed by HarperCollins Canada) (ISBN 978-0-88784-752-3)

English translation of Augustino et le choeur de la destruction by Marie-Claire Blais (Les Éditions du Boréal)

Nigel Spencer conveys the compelling spirit of Marie-Claire Blais’ dizzying prose in this fictional microcosm of our disjointed times. His translation carries the reader along through the claustrophobic whirl and conflicting relations of a phantasmagoric world.

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