Biography: writers Books

Book SynopsisVanessa Guignery is Professor of Contemporary English Literature and Postcolonial Literature at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, France. She is the author of seven academic books, including Julian Barnes from the Margins: Exploring the Writer's Archives (Bloomsbury, 2020), and co-editor of over 20 monographs and special issues of academic journals. Wojciech Drag is Associate Professor at the University of Wroclaw, Poland. He is the author of two books, including Collage in Twenty-First-Century Literature: Art of Crisis (2020). He has co-edited (with Vanessa Guignery) The Poetics of Fragmentation in Contemporary British and American Fiction (2019) and three other volumes.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Finely crafted...Irving moves seamlessly between the wide-eyed perspective of the child and the critical gaze of the adult, creating a tale as beautiful as it is discomfiting." * The New Yorker *"Apricot Irving’s honest memoir highlights the good, the bad and the ugly of missionary life, challenging traditional “white savior” narratives." * Paste Magazine *“Lush, emotional debut...A beautiful memoir that shows how a family altered by its own ambitious philanthropy might ultimately find hope in their faith and love for each other, and for Haiti.” * Publisher’s Weekly (starred review) *“With insight and admirable even-handedness, Irving shows the complex forces at play in both the story of Haiti’s cycle of poverty and the more personal dynamics at play in her family as they struggle mightily to do God’s work.” * Booklist *"Provide[s] a useful view of the inherent ethical and moral ambiguities of well-meaning but sometimes ineffective charitable interventions in Haiti." * Library Journal *"A timely and often insightful perspective on modern-day Haiti." * Kirkus Reviews *“Saving souls and saving Haiti, one tree at a time: this is the charge of the Anderson family when it arrives in Haiti in 1981. They are "the sent ones," Baptist missionaries led by a workaholic agronomist father who walks the hills declaiming Bible verses about trees in Haitian Kreyol. If a memoir's worth lies in the truths it's willing to tell, then The Gospel of Trees is the most worthwhile of memoirs, an unflinching and gorgeously written account of a young girl's coming of age in a difficult family, in one of the world's most difficult places. How do we survive our own lives? "Such endeavors only look easy from a distance," writes Apricot Irving, née Anderson, apropos of planting trees, though of course it's about so much more than those trees. Her story hits hard, and sticks, as only the very best stories do.” -- Ben Fountain, New York Times bestselling author of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk“An engaging, detailed, nuanced and penetrating look at the seldom-studied effects of the do-gooders on the countries, communities, families they seek to improve. Neither sugar-coated, nor cynical, Apricot Irving has mastered the most difficult aspect of this kind of memoir: the just-right tone of compassion and hard-earned hope. Hers is a valuable lived experience which she reports in lucid and lively writing. We learn not just about Haiti, but about families, about the human heart. A family memoir, a coming of age story, an exploration of a country greatly loved and little understood. A cautionary tale for all those setting out to do good, may this gospel be read as the good news it is—a moral compass and a must read for all of us who struggle with how to create a better world.” -- Julia Alvarez, author of numerous novels, including How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, In the Time of the Butterflies, and Saving the World, as well as the memoir, A Wedding in Haiti“A beautiful exploration of hope and hubris. Irving shows us the many entanglements among our relationships with the land, other cultures, and the mysteries of our own families.” -- David George Haskell, author of The Songs of Trees and Pulitzer Prize finalist The Forest Unseen“The Gospel of Trees is rich with such passionate insights; also, it’s a rare thing to find an insider account of missionary life not blunted by conventional piety. Very particularly sensitive to Haiti, this book is an object lesson for anyone wanting to do good in the world: forget about moving that mountain of sand with your tweezers; you will (as the old Vodou song has it) be carrying water with a spoon.” -- Madison Smartt Bell, award-winning author of All Soul’s Rising

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Book SynopsisBlack Surrealist. Poet. Collage artist. Jazz trumpeter. Painter. Member of the Beat Generation. Life-long wanderer. Pan-Africanist. Black Power agitator. Author of his own poem-life. Ted Joans (1928-2003) was all of these things, and yet none of these labels adequately capture the beauty and complexity of his life and work. The proportions of Ted Joans's life are legendary. Born in Cairo, Illinois in 1928, as a young man he distinguished himself as a Surrealist painter. In the early 1950s, he moved to New York's Greenwich Village, where he opened the first Black-owned art gallery in the city, developed new styles of painting, and began reading his poetry in coffeehouses just as the Beat Generation was coalescing. A well-known raconteur and bon vivant on the Village scene, he threw elaborate parties (art events that prefigured the Happenings of the later 1950s), exhibited his jazz action paintings, and published poetry and collage books to acclaim. But at the height of his success, Joans left the States for Europe and Africa, and set up bases of operation in places such as Paris, Copenhagen, Tangier, and Timbuktu. He would spend the subsequent decades in constant movement around the globe, an itinerant poet, interdisciplinary artist, and self-styled Surrealist griot who was especially attuned to the magnetic power of chance encounters. He published some 40 books and booklets, and wrote much more that is still unpublished, including novels, autobiographies, and a comprehensive guide to Africaall the while cultivating what he thought of as his greatest artwork, his own poem-life.Drawing on interviews and deep archival research, including discussions of Joans's vast body of unpublishedand previously-unseenwork, Black Surrealist explores how he swam in streams of literary and artistic thought seldom discussed together: Surrealism, the Beats, Négritude, and Black Power, among them, while always remaining a true original. Ted Joans's poem-life and body of work are unlike any other in the 20th Century, and Black Surrealist, illustrated with over 70 images, many never before published, is the first book to reckon with this singularly important poet-artist, and to show how and why his creative spirit lives on.

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Book SynopsisVOLTAIRE: A REFERENCE GUIDE TO HIS LIFE AND WORKS offers an accessible introduction to this key 18th-century French author. This Guide offers 21st-century readers a glimpse into the multifaceted Voltaire: the thinker, rebel, writer, exile, and campaigner who became a transnational celebrity in his day. A wide-ranging Introduction situates the prolific author from the perspective of 21st-century readers and critics, both for those new to Voltaire and for those already familiar with his life and works. A Chronology gives a detailed sense of how incredibly active and well-networked the writer was throughout his remarkable 84-year-long life. A Bibliography provides further insight into the sheer enormity and versatility of his writings, whether published, private, literary, philosophical, or personal, with emphasis on the most recent critical works in a long tradition of Voltairean reception and criticism. The extensive main A-Z Encyclopedia section includes hundreds of entries relating to Voltaire's life, friends, lovers, enemies, exiles, critics, works, theater, poetry, finances, polemics, history, travels, ideas, campaigns, disputes, legacy, posterity and more. As a writer with a towering personality, this Guide shows how the indefatigable Voltaire exercised his quill to put his unique stamp on the vast, flawed 18th-century world around him.

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Book Synopsis The essays in Writing between the Lines explore the lives of twelve of Canada's most eminent anglophone literary translators, and delve into how these individuals have contributed to the valuable process of literary exchange between francophone and anglophone literatures in Canada. Through individual portraits, this book traces the events and life experiences that have led W.H. Blake, John Glassco, Philip Stratford, Joyce Marshall, Patricia Claxton, Doug Jones, Sheila Fischman, Ray Ellenwood, Barbara Godard, Susanne de Lotbinire-Harwood, John Van Burek, and Linda Gaboriau into the complex world of literary translation. Each essay-portrait examines why they chose to translate and what linguistic and cultural challenges they have faced in the practice of their art. Following their relationships with authors and publishers, the translators also reveal how they have defined the goals and the process of literary translation. Containing original, detailed biographical and bibliographical material, Writing between the Lines offers many new insights into the literary translation process, and the diverse roles of the translator as social agent. The first text on Canadian translators, it makes a major contribution in the areas of literary translation, comparative literature, Canadian literature, and cultural studies. Trade Review``Since the time of the inaugural funding of literary translations by the Canada Council in the early 1970s ... many important assessments of the theory and practice of Canadian literary translation have been published.... To that distinguished list of scholarly studies must now be added this recent work edited by Agnew Whitfield.... Writing between the Lines is and will remain a useful and very informative collection of insights into the labours and achievements of some of Canada's most distinguished anglophone translators.'' -- John J. O'Connor -- University of Toronto Quarterly, Letters in Canada 2006, Volume 77, Number 1, Winter 2008`` Writing between the Lines will find a useful place on the shelves of students, researhers, and general readers interested in translation in Canada.... The essays have been very consistently edited and are without exception interesting and detailed...[and] reveal the rich diversity in translation approaches.'' -- Glen Nichols -- Canadian Literature, 192, Spring 2007``This well-edited volume reveals the hidden humanity that enables cross-cultural communication. In the detail of lives, in the variety of backgrounds and goals, these biographies upset countless facile generalizations about translation and translators. They show why translation is so important to Canada, and why Canada is now important for translation.'' -- Anthony Pym, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain. Author of``This book is a tribute to those who smuggle culture across the anglophone and francophone divide into Canada--the literary translators.'' -- Antoine Sirois, professor emeritus, Université de Sherbrooke. Author ofTable of Contents Writing between the Lines: Portraits of Canadian Anglophone Translators, edited by Agnes Whitfield Introduction Agnes Whitfield William Hume Blake, or the Translator as Amateur Ethnologist Sherry Simon Glassco Virtuoso Patricia Godbout Joyce Marshall, or the Accidental Translator Jane Everett Philip Stratford: The Comparatist as Smuggler Gillian Lane-Mercier On D.G. Jones and Translating Outside Stephanie Nutting Patricia Claxton: A Civil Translator Agnes Whitfield Sheila Fischman: The Consummate Professional Pamela Grant Transformations of Barbara Godard Kathy Mezei Ray Ellenwood: The Translator as Activist Barbara Kerslake Susanne de Lotbinière-Harwood: Totally Between Agnès Conacher John Van Burek: Bringing Tremblay to Toronto Jane Koustas Linda Gaboriau: Playing with Performance Robert Wallace List of Contributors Contributors' Bios Agnès Conacher is an assistant professor in the French Department at Queen's University. She has published studies on Agrippa d'Aubigné, her area of specialization, and the nouveau roman (Claude Simon, Butor). She has also translated Mireille Calle Gruber's article for The Hélène Cixous Reader and essays by Derrida for the journal Trois. Her current research focusses on mysticism, seventeenth-century women philosophers, and Cyrano de Bergerac. Jane Everett is an associate professor in the Department of French Language and Literature at McGill University, where she teaches Québec francophone literature and translation. Her edition of the Gabrielle Roy-Joyce Marshall correspondence was published by the University of Toronto Press in 2005. Recent publications include ""Réécrire,"" in Jane Everett and François Ricard, ed., Gabrielle Roy réécrite and ""Le devenir-anglais du texte et le rapport à l'écriture: Gabrielle Roy et Jacques Ferron,"" in Brigitte Faivre-Duboz and Patrick Poirier, eds., Jacques Ferron: Le palimpseste infini. Patricia Godbout is an associate professor of translation at the Université de Sherbrooke and a member of the Literary Translators' Association of Canada. From 1986 to 1992, she was co-editor of ellipse, a literary magazine devoted to the translation of Canadian poetry. She is the author of Traduction littéraire et sociabilité interculturelle au Canada (1950-1960). Pamela Grant is a professor and former director of the Département des lettres et communications at the Université de Sherbrooke, where she teaches courses in professional writing, editing, translation, and translation theory. She holds a PhD in linguistics from the Université de Montréal. A certified translator (OTTIAQ), she is a co-author of the Bibliography of Comparative Studies in Canadian, Québec, and Foreign Literatures / Bibliographie d'études comparées des littératures canadienne, québécoise et étrangères 1930-1995. The Québec English specialist for the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, she has published her work in a variety of scholarly publications in Canada, the United States, and Europe. Barbara Kerslake holds a PhD from the University of Chicago. Her career as a translator began in 1979 with Harlequin Books. A freelance translator with the Secretary of State since 1983, she has also worked for the Canada Council and various academic publishers, translating from French to English. Her interests include Québec culture and literature, especially theatre, since she is also a playwright. Since 1986, she has taught translation at York University. Jane Koustas is an associate professor in the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Brock University. Her articles on Québec theatre and translation have appeared in French Literature and Society, Québec Studies, Essays on Parody, Méta, TTR, and the University of Toronto Quarterly. A contributor to the Dictionary of Literary Biography, she is the co-author (with J. Donohoe) of Robert Lepage: Théâtre sans frontières. In 2002, she edited a special issue of TTR, Translation in Canada: Trends and Traditions. Gillian Lane-Mercier is an associate professor in the Department of French Language and Literature at McGill University, where she teaches critical theory and twentieth-century French literature. Her current areas of research include translation studies, literary theory, reception theory, the contemporary French novel, and literary translation in Québec and Canada since 1960. Author of La parole romanesque and co-author of Faulkner: Une experience de retraduction, she has published numerous articles on the theory of the novel and in the field of translation studies. She is currently working on a book on contemporary Anglo-Québécois and Canadian novelist-translators. Kathy Mezei teaches in the Department of Humanities at Simon Fraser University; she has published several articles on literary translation and the Bibliography of Criticism on French and English Literary Translations in Canada; she was one of the founding editors of Tessera, a feminist journal. She is part of the team, based at the Université de Sherbrooke, producing a database on Comparative Canadian Literatures and Translation Studies. Domestic Modernism, the Inter-War Novel, and E.H. Young, co-authored with Chiara Briganti, is forthcoming from Ashgate Press. Stephanie Nutting is an associate professor in the Department of French Studies at the University of Guelph. Her main area of research is Québec theatre and poetry. She has published Le tragique dans le théâtre québécois et canadien-français, 1950-1989 and numerous articles in Voix et Images, the French Review, Spirale, the University of Toronto Quarterly, and other journals. She is president of the Association des professeur(e)s de français des universités et collèges canadiens. Sherry Simon taught for many years at Concordia University. She is Canada Research Chair in Translation and Cultural History at Glendon College, York University. A member of the editorial board of the cultural magazine Spirale for more than ten years, she is the author or editor of numerous publications on feminist and postcolonial theories of translation, including (with David Homel), Mapping Literature: The Art and Politics of Translation, Le Trafic des langues, Culture in Transit: Translating the Literature of Quebec, and Gender in Translation: Cultural Identity and the Politics of Transmission. Robert Wallace is Professor Emeritus of English and Drama Studies at York University. His books include Producing Marginality: Theatre and Criticism in Canada, The Work: Conversations with English-Canadian Playwrights (with Cynthia Zimmerman), Quebec Voices, Making Out: Plays by Gay Men, Theatre and Transformation in Contemporary Canada, and Staging a Nation: Evolutions in Contemporary Canadian Theatre. He has written and produced ten documentaries for CBC radio about twentieth-century performance and edited more than twenty volumes of Canadian plays for Coach House Press. Agnes Whitfield co-ordinated the translation program at Queen's University for ten years, and is now a professor and the former director of the School of Translation at York University. She has published ten books and over fifty articles on Québec literature and translation, including Le Métier du double: Portraits de traducteurs et traductrices francophones. Her most recent articles have appeared in Méta, the University of Toronto Quarterly, and international conference proceedings in Porto and Prague. Shortlisted for the Governor-General's Award for Divine Diva, her translation of Venite a cantare by Québec writer Daniel Gagnon, she is a certified translator (ATIO). President of the Canadian Association for Translation Studies for two mandates (1995-99), she was Seagram Visiting Chair at the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada (2003-2004).

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