TIFA Presents: GGBooks Finalists on Quebec’s Powerful Histories

Pierre Anctil, Judith Weisz Woodsworth, Dominique Rankin, Marie-Josée Tardif and Roland Gulliver

TIFA Presents: GGBooks Finalists on Quebec’s Powerful Histories

Pierre Anctil, Judith Weisz Woodsworth, Dominique Rankin, Marie-Josée Tardif and Roland Gulliver

2:00pm

Monday, November 14

Governor General’s Literary Award finalists Pierre Anctil and Judith Weisz Woodsworth, as well as Dominique Rankin and Marie-Josée Tardiff come together for a fascinating talk about their new books, both nominated in the Translation category. Written by Anctil and translated by Woodsworth, History of the Jews in Quebec explores four centuries of history, how the Jewish community has evolved over time in the region and the cultural context that encouraged the emergence of a unique Jewish community in Montreal in particular. They Called Us Savages, co-authored by Rankin and Tardiff and translated by Ben Vrignon, follows Rankin’s own powerful life story. Having been torn from his rightful place as the next Algonquin Hereditary Chief and Medicine Man and forced into the residential school system, Rankin interweaves his own journey of healing and self-discovery, into the book’s wider contemplation of changing relationships with the environment, leadership, racism, reconciliation and spirituality.

Interviewer: Roland Gulliver

Please return to this page on November 14 at 2pm ET to watch the event. The video will be available to view until November 21 at 11:59pm ET.

This free, virtual event is organized in collaboration with the Canada Council for the Arts to celebrate the finalists and winners of the Governor General’s Literary Awards (GGBooks). This year, TIFA is pleased to host finalists from the French-to-English Translation category. The winners will be announced on November 16.

TIFA Logo        GG Books & Canada Council for the Arts logo

Governor General’s Literary Award finalists Pierre Anctil and Judith Weisz Woodsworth, as well as Dominique Rankin and Marie-Josée Tardiff come together for a fascinating talk about their new books, both nominated in the Translation category. Written by Anctil and translated by Woodsworth, History of the Jews in Quebec explores four centuries of history, how the Jewish community has evolved over time in the region and the cultural context that encouraged the emergence of a unique Jewish community in Montreal in particular. They Called Us Savages, co-authored by Rankin and Tardiff and translated by Ben Vrignon, follows Rankin’s own powerful life story. Having been torn from his rightful place as the next Algonquin Hereditary Chief and Medicine Man and forced into the residential school system, Rankin interweaves his own journey of healing and self-discovery, into the book’s wider contemplation of changing relationships with the environment, leadership, racism, reconciliation and spirituality.

Interviewer: Roland Gulliver

Please return to this page on November 14 at 2pm ET to watch the event. The video will be available to view until November 21 at 11:59pm ET.

This free, virtual event is organized in collaboration with the Canada Council for the Arts to celebrate the finalists and winners of the Governor General’s Literary Awards (GGBooks). This year, TIFA is pleased to host finalists from the French-to-English Translation category. The winners will be announced on November 16.

TIFA Logo        GG Books & Canada Council for the Arts logo

Featured Authors

Pierre Anctil
Pierre Anctil is an award-winning author, a member of the Royal Society of Canada since 2012 and a professor emeritus at the University of Ottawa, where he taught contemporary Canadian history and Canadian Jewish history. He has written at length on the history of Montreal’s Jewish community and on the current debates on cultural pluralism in Canada. His most recent English-language titles are History of the Jews in Quebec (2021), Jacob Isaac Segal: A Montreal Yiddish Poet and His Milieu (2017) and A Reluctant Welcome for Jewish People: Voices in Le Devoir’s Editorials, 1910–1947 (2019), all at the University of Ottawa Press.

Read more about Pierre Anctil

Judith Weisz Woodsworth
Judith Weisz Woodsworth is a translator and former university professor. She has published widely on translation history and theory, including Translators through History, with Jean Delisle. Her recent publications include the monograph Telling the Story of Translation: Writers Who Translate (2017), the edited volumes The Fictions of Translation (2018) and Translation and the Global City: Bridges and Gateways (2021), and Hutchison Street (2018), a translation of Abla Farhoud’s novel Le sourire de la petite juive. She was founding president of the Canadian Association for Translation Studies and has served as a senior administrator at universities in Halifax, Sudbury and Montréal. Judith Weisz Woodsworth lives in Montréal, Quebec.

Read more about Judith Weisz Woodsworth

Dominique Rankin
After a successful career in politics and serving as Grand Chief of the Algonquin Nation, Chief Dominique Rankin turned his focus to his role as a spiritual leader, devoting his efforts to teaching, healing, and promoting the cultural legacies of Indigenous Peoples. He is the recipient of many prestigious honours, but to many, he is simply Grandfather Dominique, a man known for his boundless energy, his irrepressible sense of humour, and the wide-reaching message of peace he shares around the world.

Read more about Dominique Rankin

Marie-Josée Tardif
In 2007, Elders of the Algonquin Nation invited former journalist and news anchor Marie-Josée Tardif to become a Sacred Pipe Carrier, an honour that would entail a lifelong commitment to the study of Anishinaabe Traditional Medicine and culture. In addition to sitting on several international committees, Grandmother Marie-Josée is the co-founder of the Dominique Rankin Foundation and Kina8at, two organizations dedicated to the preservation of Indigenous traditions.

Read more about Marie-Josée Tardif

Roland Gulliver
Roland Gulliver is the Director of the Toronto International Festival of Authors, and a leading international figure in the literature sector with over 12 years’ experience at the Edinburgh International Book Festival as Associate Director. His programming explores the potential of live performance, alongside commissions for new multimedia storytelling. Gulliver champions communities by facilitating access and empowerment, and creating spaces for authors and audiences to engage in discussion. He is on the Board of Directors for the Toronto Arts Council and Chair of their Literary Advisory Committee, and is a Member of the Academy for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.

Read more about Roland Gulliver

2:00pm

Monday, November 14

What to read

History of the Jews in Quebec by , They Called Us Savages by ,
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