Robert Majzels (born May 12, 1950) is a Canadian novelist, poet, playwright and translator.

Life

Majzels was born in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. In 1986, he graduated with a master's degree in

English Literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

from

Concordia University Concordia University ( French: ''Université Concordia'') is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College and Sir George Williams University, Concordia is one of the t ...

in Montreal, where he would later teach creative writing for thirteen years. Between 2000 and 2002, he lived in Beijing,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and studied

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

. After teaching for seven years at the University of Calgary, he now lives in Sooke, British Columbia.

Works

Majzels is strongly influenced by

critical Critical or Critically may refer to: *Critical, or critical but stable, medical states **Critical, or intensive care medicine *Critical juncture, a discontinuous change studied in the social sciences. *Critical Software, a company specializing in ...

and

literary theory Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, mo ...

. His works explore both the limits of language and narrative forms and their ethical repercussions. His novels highlight the artificiality of Western literary language, especially its linearity, archetypal narratives, and the ways in which it works to establish characters as believable personae ( characterization). Concurrently, they explore other, neglected forms of literary expression. For example, ''Apikoros Sleuth'' experimented with a Talmudic form, noted for its

polyphonic Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...

, discursive, and digressive qualities.

Awards

*2000

Governor General's Award for French to English translation This is a list of recipients of the Governor General's Award for French-to-English translation. Winners and nominees 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s References {{Governor General's Literary Awards * Translation awar ...

for ''Just Fine'', from the French ''Pas Pire'', by France Daigle (2000). *2008 Griffin Poetry Prize shortlist for ''Notebook of Roses and Civilization'', from the French ''Cahier de roses & de civilisation'', by Nicole Brossard (2007). *2008

nomination with Erín Moure for ''Notebook of Roses and Civilization'', from the French ''Cahier de roses & de civilisation'', by Nicole Brossard (2007). *2014 Best Translated Book Award, Poetry, shortlist for ''White Piano'' by Nicole Brossard, from the French. *1994 Canadian Jewish Playwriting Competition, first prize for ''This Night the Kapo''. *1991 Dorothy Silver Award, Playwrights competition, first prize for ''This Night the Kapo''.

Partial bibliography

;Novels * 1992: ''Hellman's Scrapbook'' a novel. Cormorant Books * 1998: ''City of Forgetting'' a novel. Mercury Press * 2004: ''Apikoros Sleuth'' a novel. Mercury Press * 2007: ''The Humbugs Diet'' a novel. Mercury Press * 2020: ''kHarLaMoV's aNkLe: A Utopian Fantasy''. The Elephants ;Plays * 2005: ''This Night the Kapo''. Playwrights Canada Press ;Translations * 1999: ''A Fine Passage'' a novel, translated from the French ''Un fin passage'' by France Daigle. Anansi * 2000: ''Installations'' poetry translated with Erín Moure from the French ''Installations'' by Nicole Brossard. Muses' Co. * 2002: ''Museum of Bone and Water'' poetry, translated with Erín Moure from the French ''Musée de l'os et de l'eau'' by Nicole Brossard. Anansi * 2004: ''Life's Little Difficulties'' a novel, translated from the French ''Petites difficultés d'existence'' by France Daigle. * 2013: ''For Sure'' translated from the French ''Pour sûr'' by France Daigle. Anansi

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Majzels, Robert 1950 births Living people Canadian male dramatists and playwrights Canadian male non-fiction writers Canadian male novelists Canadian male poets People from the Capital Regional District Writers from Montreal Writers from British Columbia Concordia University alumni Governor General's Award-winning translators Academic staff of the University of Calgary 20th-century Canadian poets 20th-century Canadian male writers 20th-century Canadian translators 20th-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian translators 21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Canadian male writers