QUILLBLOG

André Alexis to Giller jury: J’accuse!

André Alexis has waded into the simmering debate over whether works in translation should be considered for prizes for English-language books. Specifically, Alexis believes the Giller jury erred in nominating Pascale Quiviger’s The Perfect Circle, (translated by Sheila Fischman) and Gaétan Soucy’s The Immaculate Conception (translated by Lazer Lederhendler) on this year’s shortlist. Moreover, he feels that if either book wins, it’s the translator, and not the author, who deserves the lion’s share of the cash.

It’s as if the prize were being given not to a book but to an “essence” (a story, a plot, characters) that can be, now, in French or, now, in English without losing any significance. Again, I think this is profoundly wrong and it is, besides, a great insult to the translators. The Immaculate Conception is in the English of Sheila Fischman (who is, I think, one of the least-heralded great contributors to Canadian literary culture).

If the Giller is a prize given to work written in English, the majority of the prize should be given not to Soucy but to Fischman. Same goes for The Perfect Circle by Lederhendler. Yes, Soucy and Quiviger are important to the English novels, but they do not write in English, have not written these novels in English and should not be eligible for the major portion of the Giller Prize amount. At the very least, Fischman and Lederhendler should share the prize equally with the writer of their book’s original version.

Related links:
Read André Alexis’s piece in The Globe and Mail

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