Judith Elaine Cowan, after an Honours degree in Modern Languages and Literatures from the University of Toronto, went on to an M.A. in French literature, also at U. of T., and an M.A. in English literature at York University. She completed a Ph. D. in Canadian Comparative Literature at L’Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, and, while teaching literature in English at L’Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, specialized in the translation of Québec poets. Mirabel, her translation of Pierre Nepveu’s Lignes aériennes, won the Governor General’s Award for literary translation in 2004. Of Love is her ninth translation of a Québec poet, and her second translation of a book by Paul Bélanger.
Her own writing includes a childhood memoir, The Permanent Nature of Everything, and a novel, Listening for the Rumble. She has produced three story collections: More Than Life Itself, Gambler’s Fallacy, and Palimpsests, as well as a novella, Is It Wrong. More recently, she has brought out a book-length fable entitled Road of Metamorphoses and is currently working on a second novel. She is the only English-language writer in Trois-Rivières, Québec.
Awards
Glassco Prize for Translation for Quartz and Mica(shortlisted)
