Playwright and director Wajdi Mouawad was born in Lebanon and then lived in Quebec before settling in France. His play Incendies won critical acclaim and huge success as a film by Denis Villeneuve. In 2009, Mouawad received the Prix du Théâtre of the Académie française. His novel Anima, published in French in 2012 and translated into German, Italian, Spanish, and Catalan, won le Grand Prix Thyde Monnier de la Société des gens de lettres, le prix de la Méditerranée, le prix littéraire du deuxième roman de Lecture en tête (Laval), le prix du jury de l’Algue d’or, et le prix catalan Llibreter du roman étranger.
Linda Gaboriau is an award-winning literary translator based in Montreal. Her translations of plays by Quebec’s most prominent playwrights have been published and produced across Canada and abroad. In her work as a literary manager and dramaturge, she has directed numerous translation residencies and international exchange projects. She was the founding director of the Banff International Literary Translation Centre. Gaboriau has twice won the Governor General’s Award for Translation: in 1996, for Daniel Danis’s Stone and Ashes, and in 2010, for Wajdi Mouawad’s Forests. She was named a Member of the Order of Canada in 2015.
Shelley Tepperman has a long history in Canadian theatre specializing in new play dramaturgy, project development and translation for the stage. Her many translations from French (and occasionally, Spanish and Italian)—have been produced at CBC radio and on stages across North America, and two were nominated for the Governor General’s Award. Her play translations include Suzanne Lebeau’s A Giant in the Land of Men (Comment vivre avec les hommes quand on est un géant), Michel Monty’s Freak Accidents (Accidents de Parcours) and Dominic Champagne’s The Forbidden City (La Cité Interdite) and Playing Bare (La Répétition). Tepperman has worked for CBC Radio developing, adapting and directing/producing radio dramas for national broadcast. She also works in documentary film and television as a writer, story editor and director. She holds a Master’s Degree in the Dramatic Arts from the Université du Québec.
