Sheila Fischman | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1937-12-01)1 December 1937 (age 87) Moose Jaw,Saskatchewan, Canada |
| Occupation | Translator |
Sheila Leah FischmanCM CQ[1] (born 1 December 1937) is a Canadiantranslator who specializes in the translation of works of contemporaryQuebec literature from French to English.[2]
Born inMoose Jaw,Saskatchewan,[3] she was brought up in Ontario. She holds an M.A. from theUniversity of Toronto. Fischman is a former editor of theMontreal Star's book section, as well as a columnist forThe Globe and Mail and theMontreal Gazette and a broadcaster forCBC Radio.[4] She is a founding member of theLiterary Translators' Association of Canada and founding co-editor ofEllipse: Œuvres en traduction/Writers in Translation. She lives in Montreal.
Fischman has translated nearly 150Quebecnovels into English, including works by such noted Quebec authors asMichel Tremblay,Hubert Aquin,Jacques Poulin,Suzanne Jacob,Anne Hébert,Marie-Claire Blais,Roch Carrier,Yves Beauchemin,Kim Thúy,Dominique Fortier andFrançois Gravel.
Since 1987, Fischman has received 14 nominations for theGovernor General's Award for Translation, receiving the prize in 1998 forBambi and Me, her translation ofMichel Tremblay'sLes vues animés. She has twice won theCanada Council Prize for Translation (in 1974 and 1984) and theFélix-Antoine Savard Award offered by the Translation Center,Columbia University, forHeartbreaks Along the Road by Roch Carrier (1989) andThe First Garden by Anne Hébert (1990).[2] Her translation ofPascale Quiviger'sThe Perfect Circle was a finalist for the 2006Scotiabank Giller Prize and her translation ofAm I Disturbing You byAnne Hébert was a finalist for the same prize in 2000. Four of Fischman's translations have been selected forCanada Reads:Next Episode byHubert Aquin in 2003;Volkswagen Blues byJacques Poulin in 2005;The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant byMichel Tremblay in 2009; andRu byKim Thúy in 2015. Her translations won the competition in 2003 and 2015.
In recognition of her work, Fischman has received honorary doctorates from theUniversity of Ottawa and theUniversity of Waterloo. In 2000, she was invested into theOrder of Canada and, in 2008, made a Knight of theNational Order of Quebec.[1][5] She won the 2008Molson Prize for the Arts.[6]
