Over the past twenty years, Wajdi Mouawad has risen to fame in Canada and internationally, acclaimed for the power of his writing and the originality of his vision as a theatre director. He is the author of an epic quartet for the stage, The Blood of Promises (Tideline, Scorched, Forests, Heavens), and two novels, Visage retrouvé and Anima, which won numerous prizes. His work has been translated into more than twenty languages, and his plays have been produced around the world. In 2016, he was named artistic director of La Colline – Théâtre national in Paris.
Linda Gaboriau is an award-winning literary translator based in Montréal. Her translations of plays by Québec’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 is the founding director of the Banff International Literary Translation Centre. Gaboriau has won the Governor General’s Award for Translation three times: in 1996 for Daniel Danis’s Stone and Ashes, in 2010 for Wajdi Mouawad’s Forests, and in 2019 for Wajdi Mouawad’s Birds of a Kind. She is a member of the Order of Canada and an Officer of the Ordre national du Québec.