Donald Winkler (born 1940) is a Canadian documentary filmmaker and French-to-English literary translator. He lives in Montreal with his wife

Sheila Fischman Sheila Leah Fischman (born 1 December 1937) is a Canadian translator who specializes in the translation of works of contemporary Quebec literature from French to English. Born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, she was brought up in Ontario. She hold ...

Life and career

Early life

Winkler was born in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...

, Manitoba and grew up loving theatre. He was introduced to French through his mother who studied the language in

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

before coming to Canada when she was fifteen years old. As a student, he took French courses alongside his literary studies at the

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba. He also went on to do graduate studies at the

Yale School of Drama The David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University is a graduate professional school of Yale University, located in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1924 as the Department of Drama in the School of Fine Arts, the school provides training in e ...

. In his early twenties, he spent a year and a half in Paris teaching English where he enjoyed watching films at the Cinématheque and the little

Latin Quarter The Latin Quarter of Paris (french: Quartier latin, ) is an area in the 5th and the 6th arrondissements of Paris. It is situated on the left bank of the Seine, around the Sorbonne. Known for its student life, lively atmosphere, and bistro ...

art houses. When he returned to Canada, he was drawn to Montreal because, for him, it was "the only city in the country at that time cosmopolitan enough". The city was also the headquarters for the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

, where Winkler first began making films. He applied for an apprenticeship position that did not require film experience and was hired in 1967 when one of the three initial applicants declined the offer. He learned the trade on the job and within a couple of years, began working on his first film.

Film career

Winkler has been an independent filmmaker since leaving the National Film Board where he worked as a documentary film director and writer from 1967 to 1995. His films primarily deal with the arts and culture in Canada. He wrote and directed a number of films that look into the lives of Canadian playwrights, writers and musicians such as Irving Layton,

F. R. Scott Francis Reginald Scott (1899–1985), commonly known as Frank Scott or F. R. Scott, was a lawyer, Canadian poet, intellectual, and constitutional scholar. He helped found the first Canadian social democratic party, the Co-operative Commonwe ...

, P. K. Page,

Al Purdy Alfred Wellington Purdy (December 30, 1918 – April 21, 2000) was a 20th-century Canadian free verse poet. Purdy's writing career spanned fifty-six years. His works include thirty-nine books of poetry; a novel; two volumes of memoirs and four b ...

Earle Birney Earle Alfred Birney (13 May 1904 – 3 September 1995) was a Canadian poet and novelist, who twice won the Governor General's Award, Canada's top literary honour, for his poetry. Life Born in Calgary, Alberta, and raised on a farm in Eri ...

Ralph Gustafson Ralph Barker Gustafson, CM (16 August 1909 – 29 May 1995) was a Canadian poet and professor at Bishop's University. Biography He was born in Lime Ridge, near Dudswell, Quebec on August 16, 1909. His mother was British, his father, Carl ...

and

Tomson Highway Tomson Highway (born 6 December 1951) is an Indigenous Canadian playwright, novelist, and children's author. He is best known for his plays ''The Rez Sisters'' and ''Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing'', both of which won the Dora Mavor Moore ...

. In the year 2005, he entered his three films: ''Moshe Safdie: The Power of Architecture'', ''The Pines of Emily Carr'' and ''The Colour of Memory: Conversations with Guido Molinari'' into the International Festival of Films on Art in Montreal.

Translation

Winkler first began translating

Quebec literature This is an article about literature in Quebec. 16th and 17th centuries During this period, the society of New France was being built with great difficulty. The French merchants contracted to transport colonists did not respect their end of t ...

in the late 1980s. Although he never studied translation, he has since translated over 25 works including novels, poetry and essays. He is a member of the

Literary Translators' Association of Canada The Literary Translators' Association of Canada (LTAC) (or, in French, ''Association des traducteurs et traductrices littéraires du Canada'' (ATTLC)) is an association of literary translators from across Canada. The Literary Translators' Associat ...

. Carmine Starnino describes Winkler as "one of anada'smost gifted and highly decorated practitioners." Winkler describes the process of translation as "a constant quest for perfect pitch" and a "sophisticated word game". A successful translation, in his words, gives readers "some sense of what it’s like to be in another culture’s skin". His translations have been described as "seamless" and "wonderful".

, his spouse, is also an award-winning translator. He describes her as the "doyenne of Canadian literary translation".

Awards and nominations

Donald Winker has won the

Governor General's Award The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual List of awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields. Th ...

for Translation three times: * in 1994, for ''The Lyric Generation: The Life and Times of the Baby-Boomers'' by François Ricard'','' * in 2011, for ''Partitia for Glenn Gould'' by Georges Leroux, * and in 2013, for ''The Major Verbs'' by

Pierre Nepveu Pierre Nepveu (born 16 September 1946 in Montreal, Quebec) is a French Canadian poet, novelist and essayist. As a scholar, he specializes in modern Quebec poetry, in particular the work of Gaston Miron. He taught at the French Studies Departm ...

. His work was also nominated for the Governor General's Award on three separate occasions. Donald Winkler was nominated for the

Giller Prize The Giller Prize (sponsored as the Scotiabank Giller Prize), is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English (including translation) the previous year, after an annual juried competitio ...

twice: * in 2007, for ''A Secret Between Us'' by

Daniel Poliquin Daniel Poliquin (born December 18, 1953) is a Canadian novelist and translator. He has translated works of various Canadian writers into French, including David Homel, Douglas Glover, and Mordecai Richler. Poliquin and his hometown of Ottawa a ...

, * and in 2015, for ''Arvida'' by Samuel Archibald In addition, he won the Quebec Writers’ Federation's Cole Foundation Translation Prize for his translation of ''The Major Verbs'' by

, and in 1987, he received an honorable mention at the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada’s John Glassco Prize for Literary Translation for his translation entitled ''Rose and Thorn'': ''The Selected Poetry by Roland Giguère''. Winkler's translation of ''Arvida'' by Samuel Archibald was also

short-listed A short list or shortlist is a list of candidates for a job, prize, award, political position, etc., that has been reduced from a longer list of candidates (sometimes via intermediate lists known as "long lists"). The length of short lists varie ...

for the 2016

Best Translated Book Award The Best Translated Book Award is an American literary award that recognizes the previous year's best original translation into English, one book of poetry and one of fiction. It was inaugurated in 2008 and is conferred by Three Percent, the onlin ...

List of Translations

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Winkler, Donald 1940 births Canadian documentary film directors National Film Board of Canada people Canadian translators Governor General's Award-winning translators Living people Film directors from Winnipeg Film directors from Montreal University of Manitoba alumni David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University alumni Anglophone Quebec people