Sheila Fischman

Sheila Fischman was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada. When she was two years old, the family moved to the small town of Elgin, Ontario, to run the general store there, and were the only Jews around until they later moved to Toronto. There she began studying French in school. At the University of Toronto, she majored in chemistry and anthropology and earned a master's degree in anthropology. She worked at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the University of Toronto Press, then as a columnist and reviewer for the Globe & Mail and the Montreal Gazette. She later served as literary editor for the Montreal Star. In 1969, she married poet D.G. Jones and settled with him in North Hatley, in Québec's eastern townships. There she read French literature by day and hosted French and English writers and poets in her home by night. As an exercise to hone her literary French, she translated a short story called "L'Oiseau" from the 1964 collection Jolis Deuils, by her neighbor Roch Carrier. He approved it, and suggested she translate his latest novel, La Guerre, Yes Sir!. In 1970, the publishers accepted Fischman's translation and her career as a translator was launched. With her husband, she founded the literary review ellipse, translating French and English poetry and prose by contemporary Québec writers. Following a divorce, Fischman moved to Montreal and in 1972 started the Literary Translators' Association of Canada to raise the profile of translators as artists. She has translated more than 125 books, and won several awards for her work, including the Governor General's Literary Award for Translation in 1998; the Canada Council Translation Prize (twice); and the Félix-Antoine Savard Award from Columbia University in New York. She was named to the Order of Canada in 2000 and the National Order of Québec in 2008. She received the prestigious Molson Prize for her contributions to Canadian culture in 2008.