TIFA Presents: GGBooks Finalists on Bringing French Fiction to English Readers

Bronwyn Haslam, Tracy Hurren, Aleshia Jensen, Susan Ouriou, Leigh Nash and Steven W. Beattie

2:00pm

Monday, November 14, 2022

Hear from the translators and editors of White Resin (House of Anansi) and This is How I Disappear (Drawn & Quarterly), two books nominated for the 2022 Governor General’s Literary Award in Translation. Bronwyn Haslam, Tracy Hurren, Aleshia Jensen, Susan Ouriou and Leigh Nash will join interviewer Steven Beattie for an informative panel discussion on the challenges of bringing French-language Canadian fiction to English readers. Audrée Wilhelmy’s White Resin, translated by Susan Ouriou, is an ethereal love story and an homage to feminine nature as it both stands against and remains entwined with the industrial world. Mirion Malle’s This Is How I Disappear, translated by Haslam and Jensen, opens a window into the lives of young people as they face a barrage of mental health hurdles. Learn what goes into the translation process and the important behind-the-scenes work publishing houses do to support the endeavor.

Interviewer: Steven Beattie

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.

Hear from the translators and editors of White Resin (House of Anansi) and This is How I Disappear (Drawn & Quarterly), two books nominated for the 2022 Governor General’s Literary Award in Translation. Bronwyn Haslam, Tracy Hurren, Aleshia Jensen, Susan Ouriou and Leigh Nash will join interviewer Steven Beattie for an informative panel discussion on the challenges of bringing French-language Canadian fiction to English readers. Audrée Wilhelmy’s White Resin, translated by Susan Ouriou, is an ethereal love story and an homage to feminine nature as it both stands against and remains entwined with the industrial world. Mirion Malle’s This Is How I Disappear, translated by Haslam and Jensen, opens a window into the lives of young people as they face a barrage of mental health hurdles. Learn what goes into the translation process and the important behind-the-scenes work publishing houses do to support the endeavor.

Interviewer: Steven Beattie

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

Bronwyn Haslam is a Montreal-based translator. Her translations have appeared in Avant Desire: A Nicole Brossard Reader, Asymptote, Aufgabe and The Capilano Review, among others. She holds a master’s degree in literature from the Université de Montréal and undergraduate degrees from the University of Calgary. With Aleshia Jensen, she co-translated Mirion Malle’s This Is How I Disappear.

Read more about Bronwyn Haslam

Tracy Hurren is a senior editor at Drawn & Quarterly and works with Adrian Tomine, Lynda Barry, Kate Beaton, and many more of the world's best cartoonists. She's worked for the Montreal house for over ten years. She has an MPub from Simon Fraser University.

Read more about Tracy Hurren

Aleshia Jensen is a French-to-English translator and former bookseller. Her literary translations include Explosions by Mathieu Poulin, a finalist for the 2018 Governor General’s Literary Award for translation; Prague by Maude Veilleux, co-translated with Aimee Wall; and graphic novels by Julie Delporte, Mirion Malle, Pascal Girard, and Camille Jourdy. Jensen’s own writing has appeared in This magazine and Weird Era literary journal.

Read more about Aleshia Jensen

Susan Ouriou is an award-winning fiction writer and literary translator from French and Spanish with over sixty translations and co-translations of fiction, non-fiction, children’s and young-adult literature to her credit. She has won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Translation and been short-listed for that same award on five other occasions. A number of her translations have also been placed on IBBY’s (International Board on Books for Youth) Honour List. She has also written two novels, Nathan and Damselfish, the latter of which was short-listed for two awards, as well as numerous short stories. Susan lives in Calgary, Alberta.

Read more about Susan Ouriou

Leigh Nash is the publisher at House of Anansi Press. Previously she was the publisher at Invisible Publishing, taught book publishing at York University, worked at Coach House Books, was a founding partner of editorial firm Re:word Communications and co-founder of chapbook press The Emergency Response Unit. She earned an MFA in creative writing from the University of Guelph and has published a poetry collection, Goodbye, Ukulele. (Photo credit: Johnny CY Lam)

Read more about Leigh Nash

Steven W. Beattie

Steven W. Beattie spent 12 and a half years as Review Editor at Quill & Quire, Canada's magazine of the publishing industry. His writing and criticism have appeared in The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, The Walrus, Canadian Notes & Queries and elsewhere. He maintains the literary website That Shakespearean Rag.

Read more about Steven W. Beattie