Studies in Joy

Born in 1949 in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Louise Dupré is a prolific and influential member of Quebec's vibrant literary scene whose work is becoming increasingly well-known outside Quebec. Both a writer and an educator, Louise has received numerous prizes, distinctions and literary honours, notably her appointment to the Order of Canada in December, 2014, and the 2011 Governor General's award for her poetry collection Plus haut que les flammes (translated as Beyond The Flames (Guernica, 2014). Primarily a poet, she also writes fiction, theory and plays.

Donald Winkler was born in Winnipeg in 1940, graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1961, and as a Woodrow Wilson Scholar, did graduate study at the Yale School of Drama. From 1967 to 1995 he was a film director and writer at the National Film Board of Canada in Montreal, and since the 1980s, a translator of Quebec literature: in 1994, 2011, and 2013 he won the Governor General's Award for French to English translation, and has been a finalist for the prize on three other occasions.