Rhonda Mullins

Rhonda Mullinsis the translator of SuzannebyAnas Barbeau-Lavalette. Suzanne will be defended by Yanic Truesdale on Canada Reads 2019.

The 2019 debates are happening March 25-28, 2019 and will be hosted by Ali Hassan.

• Get to know theCanada Reads2019 contenders

About Rhonda Mullins

Rhonda Mullins is a writer and translator living in Montreal. She won the 2015 Governor General's Literary Award for French-to-English translation for Jocelyne Saucier's Twenty-One Cardinals.And the Birds Rained Down her translation of Saucier's Il pleuvait des oiseaux was defended onCanada Reads 2015 by Martha Wainwright and wasshortlisted for a Governor General's Literary Award, as were Mullins's translations of Louis Carmain's Guano, lise Turcotte's Guyana,Herv Fischer's The Decline of the Hollywood Empire and Julie Demers's Little Beast.

• Suzanne by Anas Barbeau-Lavalette, trans. by Rhonda Mullins, makes Best Translated Book Award shortlist
• The finalists for the 2018 Governor General's Literary Award for translation
• Why translating the novel Suzanne by Anas Barbeau-Lavalette was an emotional process for Rhonda Mullins
• Rhonda Mullins on why being a literary translator can be both challenging and fulfilling

On the subtleties of literary translation

"I'm lucky enough to work with authors who are generous with their time or enthusiastic about translation... But I do go through an entire draft where I'm just working with the text itself. And you get worried about whether you're missing humour or irony, or inserting those things where they don't exist. So it is about a very close reading of the book, which comes very naturally because I read books for pleasure, obviously.

You get worried about whether you're missing humour or irony, or inserting those things where they don't exist. So it's about a very close reading of the book... and you start to inhabit the author's world a little bit.- Rhonda Mullins

"But when you translate, you're pulling apart sentences and putting them back together so it becomes this very intimate reading [and]that's a challenge, but you start to inhabit the author's world a little bit. And then of course I have access to them to clarify whenever I need to."

Listen to Rhonda Mullins's full interview with CBC Radio'sMainstreet.

• Read an excerpt from Suzanne
• Why Yanic Truesdale is championing Suzanne by Anas Barbeau-Lavalette on Canada Reads

Books translated by Rhonda Mullins

Interviews with Rhonda Mullins

CBC Books5:41Rhonda Mullins on translating a Canada Reads contender

Suzanne's award-winning translator speaks with Chris dela Torre on Afternoon Drive.

Mainstreet PEI5:43Rhonda Mullins

Rhonda Mullins is a writer and translator.She received the 2015 Governor General's Literary Award. Karen Mair recently spoke with her.