It’s no exaggeration to say there has never been a better time to be a literary translator in Canada. French-language publishers are making the most of an aggressive translation market, knowing that quality books are virtually assured of finding a publishing house that’s willing to translate them, whether at home or much farther afield, into English or Korean. Publishers around the world are keeping a close eye on goings-on in Montréal and the surrounding regions, on the lookout for the next Christian Guay-Poliquin, Neil Smith, or Gaétan Soucy. And publishers like Alto, Boréal, Libre Expression, and Lux are happily acquiring big names like Noam Chomsky, Diana Gabaldon, Jonas Gardell, Naomi Klein, and John Saul to reach new audiences in Québec.
Success Stories
Part of this wave of enthusiasm can be put down to recent successes, as big sales in the Québec market have translated into noteworthy books in English and any number of other languages. La femme qui fuit (Marchand de feuilles, 2015), written by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette and translated by Rhonda Mullins, was published as Suzanne by Coach House in 2017 and shortlisted for this year’s Best Translated Book Award; it was the second novel from Québec to be named a finalist for the award in the past three years, selling 87,000 copies in French Canada and more than 54,000 copies in France, with rights deals secured in Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain.
Readopolis, Oana Avasilichioaei’s translation of Lectodôme (Bertrand Laverdure, Le Quartanier) for Book*hug, won the 2017 Governor General’s Literary Award for translation, and Catherine Leroux took home the John Glassco Prize for a first translation, organized by the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada, for her translation (published by Alto) of Us Conductors by Montreal’s Sean Michaels (Vintage Canada), the original English version of which won the Scotiabank Giller Prize—Canada’s most coveted literary award—in 2014. It’s now no surprise to see translations from Québec regularly grab the attention of international prizes. This year, for example, two books made the long list of the International Dublin Literary Award: The Island of Books (Dominique Fortier, translated by Rhonda Mullins, published in French by Alto and in English by Coach House) and Catherine Leroux’s The Party Wall (translated by Lazer Lederhendler for Biblioasis and first published in French by Alto).
Rights Fairs
The Translation Rights Fair, organized by the Canada Council since 2011, has undeniably helped put French-language books in the hands of English publishers, and vice versa. Part of the Salon du livre de Montréal since 2016, it helps grease the wheels of translation, giving Anglophone and Francophone publishers the opportunity to pitch their hottest new books to each other in one day of frenzied activity. The same publishers regularly attend similar rights fairs in locations from Bologna to Guadalajara, but the main event remains the one in Frankfurt, and never more so than with Canada set to be guest of honor in 2020. To mark the occasion, the Canada Council and the Department of Canadian Heritage have launched a special incentive for purchasing translation rights and for publishing in German, which will fund the translation into German of works by Canadian authors, even in genres not normally eligible.
Quality Books—In Both Languages
But, in theory, a book won’t be picked up in another language unless it’s a very good book. And the subsequent translation won’t sell if it reads as awkward and choppy. An undeniable part of today’s optimism around translation is the upturn in the quality of the writing and the subsequent translations. It’s hard to pin down, though it’s safe to say there’s a general feeling that current translations are less scholarly than in the past, with a greater focus on readability. This makes for a product that feels more like fun and less like homework. Witness the retranslations into colloquial Québécois of Mordecai Richler (Le monde selon Barney, translated by Lori Saint-Martin and Paul Gagné, Boréal) and Heather O’Neill (Hôtel Lonely Hearts, translated by Dominique Fortier, Alto), not to mention a whole wave of new translators, often wielding literary translation degrees.
“Not long ago it felt like a handful of people translated every new book from Québec,” says literary translator Pablo Strauss. “Now I could name ten people off the top of my head who recently published their first translation into English. New and established independent publishers are bringing out the work of excellent younger authors, and editors are willing to put in the painstaking work required to make a translation sing. Great translations happen when the right book finds the right publisher, translator, and editors. I’m seeing more and more of them every year.”
