10 Questions with Susan Ouriou
Susan Ouriou is an award-winning writer and literary translator with over sixty translations and co-translations of fiction, non-fiction, children’s and young-adult literature to her credit. She has won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Translation for which she has also been shortlisted on five other occasions. Many of her young adult translations have made the IBBY Honor List. Her translation of Catherine Leroux’s The Future won Canada Reads and was longlisted for the Carol Shield’s Prize for Fiction in 2024. She has also published two novels of her own, Damselfish and Nathan, edited the anthology Beyond Words – Translating the World and Languages of Our Land – Indigenous Poems and Stories from Quebec and contributed a one-act play to the upcoming anthology Many Mothers – Seven Skies. Susan lives in Calgary, Alberta.
I was thrilled to be able to speak to Susa about her work, in particular, her translation of Fanny Britt’s novel Faire les sucre (Le Cheval d’aout, 2020), which is being released this week as Sugaring Off (Book*Hug Press, 2024).
1. Were you a bookish child? If so, were there any particular books that left a mark on you when you were young?
Yes, I was a bookish child, in addition to which my mother was a librarian. She introduced me to many of my favourite books and, in my teen years, gave me free rein to make my own reading choices, whatever they were. However, I have to admit that the books that have touched me the most are those I've discovered as an adult in either French or Spanish and that I have had the good fortune of translating. Books that I wish had existed when I was young, books for children who are struggling, books that reflect them back to themselves. A few examples are Fanny Britt's Jane, the Fox and Me, Louis Undercover and Forever Truffle; Charlotte Gingras's Pieces of Me; Michèle Marineau's The Road to Chlifa; Marie-Francine Hébert's This Side of the Sky; Paloma Valdivia's And So It Goes; or Malala Speaks Out from the Speaks Out series. Or books like Love Ya Like a Sister, a collection of letters written by our 16-year-old daughter Katie Ouriou to her best friends that last summer of her life.
2. What did your path to becoming a literary translator look like?
At eighteen, I left Calgary for France to work as a jeune fille au pair in Paris, which also included taking the French language and civilization course at the Sorbonne University. I absolutely loved how, living in another country and language, the most mundane activities became voyages of discovery, and I was hooked. Of course, it also helped that I met my French husband there. My studies continued in Montreal, Quebec; Barcelona, Spain; Grenoble, France; and Cuernavaca, Mexico. With degrees in hand, it was only natural for me to turn to a career as a conference interpreter and a translator of French and Spanish literature for readers of English.
3. As someone who speaks only one language, literary translators seem a bit like magicians to me. I’m in awe of the skill, artistry, and effort that must go into making the work of translation appear seamless and natural. Writing, at the level of the line as well as at the level of story and plot, is so much about making choices— whether to use this word or that synonym, how to structure each sentence. These choices, which give a work of literature a particular rhythm and sensibility, are so enmeshed in the particularities of the language in which they are written. I’m wondering if you could talk a little bit about how you maintain an author’s voice and sensibility in the process of translation? How do you replicate not only what they are trying to say, but how they are trying to say it?
My goal is to leave the English reader with the same images, notions and emotions as the reader of the original French or Spanish. All this while staying true to the writer's style. Of course, to create a lyrical text, for instance, in English, the means won't be the same as in French or Spanish. Which is why, to attain the same lyricism, translators need an intimate knowledge of the way their own language works. Another important consideration is that of the sub-text, namely what lies underneath the words written on the page, which is always present in any work of literature. As a translator, it is part of my task to recognize that text beneath the text and the way it affects the words on the page.
4. On a related note, how do you think about the relationship to the translator’s own style and the text? Is the goal to become as invisible as possible? Or is the expectation that the translator’s own interpretation of the text and stylistic approach become additional layers through which the reader experiences the text?
As an author myself, I know how much I invest in the stories I write and how much it is important to me to have a translator respect the work I have done. That is what makes me even more determined to be faithful to the original author's style and intent, all while taking advantage of the possibilities afforded by my own language.
5. As a picture book writer, I’m often asked about the experience of collaborating with an illustrator. People are often surprised to hear most authors don’t get to decide who illustrates their books, and they generally don’t speak to each other directly during the production process. I’m realizing that I’m similarly ignorant when it comes to the relationship between author and translator. Can you speak a little bit about the nature this process? How collaborative is it generally?
I am fortunate in that, once I have spent months working on the text and produced a polished translation, I have always had the possibility of consulting the author regarding any lingering questions. I would never consult a writer in the beginning or middle of my process since so many questions I start out with are answered by the text itself as I become more fully immersed in it. With Fanny Britt, I have the added advantage of working with an author who has in-depth knowledge of the English language.
6. In addition to being an award winning translator, you are also an author. Do these two sides of your work inform each other, or do you think of them as essentially separate?
I do think of them as separate because of the added advantage I feel that I have as a translator. In other words, when I'm translating, I know that particular story can be brought to life in English since the original author has done it before me in their own language. Whereas with my own writing, I can never know for sure, not until the last page has been written. Where my own work is concerned, I have published two novels, Damselfish and Nathan, a score of short stories including the award-winning "Violette Bicyclette", and a short play, "Signs", yet there are almost as many stories that I have had to abandon along the way. As a translator, I have never had to abandon a project.
7. What advice might you have for aspiring literary translators? For writers?
I would recommend that aspiring translators spend extended periods of time in the country or countries of their source language and study that language in depth. That they read the literature, attend plays and films, speak to people from all walks of life there. For those translators working with Indigenous authors, there is the added need to become versed in the history of the Indigenous peoples, to visit their nations, to participate in their ceremonies, to learn from their elders. Over many years, I had the honour of interpreting and translating for Indigenous participants from Canada and Mexico at the Banff International Literary Translation Centre's residencies. I also had the privilege of translating and interpreting for years for participants in Banff Centre's Indigenous Writers residency. Both of those experiences helped me immensely when I went on to translate work by Virginia Pesemapeo Bordeleau, Michel Jean and Jean Sioui and edit the work of the Indigenous writers featured in Languages of Our Land — Indigenous poems and stories from Quebec translated by Christelle Morelli. As well, my work interpreting for both the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls has informed so much of what I do now. Finally, I would recommend that aspiring translators read and read and read in their mother tongue since it is the knowledge of their own language and of all that it encompasses that will allow them to cross the great language divide. My advice for writers is much more succinct: dive deep, dare to explore the unknown, take risks.
8. I’m very nosey when it comes to other writer’s workspaces. Can you describe yours, if you have one? If you don’t have a dedicated space, where do you like to work?
I have a desk in our half-basement piled high with books related to my ongoing projects and that desk is surrounded by bookcases and filing cabinets full to bursting. Underneath the desk are containers overflowing with "some day" projects of all sorts. Everywhere there is art on the walls by artist friends and memorabilia from past festivals and award ceremonies. My office is not what anyone would call tidy, however, the few times I have managed to lessen the clutter, my creativity has dried up. So messy I will be!
9. Do you have any current obsessions? They can be literary, or not.
My obsession is the state of our world right now and what I or any of us can do about it. With a collective of women friends, I wrote one of the seven one-act plays we staged as "Many Mothers, Seven Skies" last summer at Calgary's Heritage Park Canmore Opera House. Our plays were also published simultaneously by Freehand Books in the collection Many Mothers, Seven Skies — Scenes for Tomorrow. My hope now is to continue finding ways to make a difference and ensure a better future for our children and grandchildren.
10. Are there any books you would recommend to someone interested in reading more works in translation?
This is a golden era for translation, with amazing works by authors from all over the world being brought to English readers (and vice versa) thanks to translations commissioned by devoted publishers. For the following books, some I have read in the original (in the case of authors writing in French and Spanish), and some in translation: My Grandmother Sends her Regards and Apologises by Fredrik Backman, tr. by Henning Koch; The Postcard by Anne Berest, tr. by Tina Kover; The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Mariel Burbery, tr. by Alison Andersoon; The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, tr. by Magda Bogin; Drive your Plow over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, tr. by Antonia Lloyd-Jones; Among authors I myself have translated, I would also recommend Virginia Pesemapeo Bordeleau's The Lover, the Lake, Winter Child and Blue Bear Woman; Fanny Britt's Sugaring Off (of course!), and Hunting Houses; Catherine Leroux's The Future, Michel Jean's Kukum, Emmanuelle Walter's Stolen Sisters — The Story of Two Missing Girls, Their Families and How Canada Has Failed Indigenous Women; and Audrée Wilhelmy's White Resin and The Body of the Beasts. If readers would like to learn more about translation itself, I would also recommend the anthology I edited of translators writing about their art: Beyond Words — Translating the World.
11. Are you working on anything new right now?
I am working on my next novel, in French this time. Although English is my mother tongue, I have spent a good part of my life in French, from the age of 18 on. Since the novel deals with the place in France and the family that took me in as one of their own, it seems only natural to write in that language. Where translation is concerned, I am anxious to hold in my hands my translation of author Virginia Pesemapeo Bordeleau's Poetry Marching for Sindy as well two children's books I have just finished. Future translations feature two more novels, Tiohtiá:ke and Qimmik, by another of my favourite authors, Michel Jean. Finally, l am eager to receive my copy of Sugaring Off and to read Fanny Britt's upcoming novel for young adults, Bonjour, mon cœur, when it is published this fall.
