Marie-Francine Hébert is an award-winning writer for young people of all ages. She has nearly twenty books to her credit and has seen her work translated into numerous languages, among them Chinese, Arabic, Korean, Polish, English and German; Marie-Francine’s books and work for television and film have garnered many prizes, among them the Governor General’s Award, the Mr. Christie’s Book Award and the Munich Library’s White Ravens Selection.

Marie-Francine Hébert's profile page

Susan Ouriou is an award-winning literary translator who has translated the fiction of Quebec, Latin-American, French and Spanish authors. She won Canada’s Governor General’s Literary Award for Translation in 2009 for Pieces of Me by Charlotte Gingras, after first being shortlisted for The Road to Chlifa by Michèle Marineau and then for Necessary Betrayals by Guillaume Vigneault. The Road to Chlifa was also awarded an honour list placing by IBBY (International Board of Books for Youth) as were Naomi and Mrs. Lumbago by Gilles Tibo, This Side of the Sky by Marie-Francine Hébert and Pieces of Me. Necessary Betrayals was also voted one of the 100 best books of 2002 by the Globe and Mail. Another translation, The Thirteenth Summer by José Luis Olaizola, was runner-up for the John Glassco Translation Prize. She has worked as the director of the Banff International Literary Translation Centre and as faculty for the Banff Centre's Aboriginal Emerging Writers residency. She is the editor of the 2010 anthology Beyond Words – Translating the World.

Susan Ouriou's profile page

"Translator Susan Ouriou achieves a colloquial English that suits the setting and captures Mona's poetic flair. For instance, we read: "The light's shining louder than usual in all four houses, a blaring light that can be heard from a long way away." Author Marie-Francine H�bert makes use of high-level narrative skills to show the creative and moral potential of people in humble circumstances. I feel elevated for having read it and wish my French was good enough to appreciate the original novel."
Highly Recommended
— CM Magazine

"Skilled in the art of illusion, H�bert creates a strong feeling of fragmentation in this novel, while maintaining a tight, unified structure. The translation, by Calgary-based writer Susan Ouriou, is sensitive and subtle, telling the story in natural-sounding, colloquial English without sacrificing its otherworldly sensibility."
— Quill and Quire

"H�bert's characters are finely drawn and realistic."
— School Library Journal