Antonine Maillet Author

Antonine Maillet, a native of Bouctouche, New Brunswick, has spent her life conjuring the impossible into being. She is the author of wry and wildly inventive adult fiction, children's books, radio and television scripts, and more than a dozen plays. Maillet's sparkling imagination, versatility, and commitment to giving Acadian culture a voice have been recognized at home and abroad. She was the first non-citizen of France to win the prestigious Prix Goncourt, which she received for Pélagie-la-Charette. Her now classic monologue La Sagouine won the Chalmers Canadian Play Award; Don l'Orignal won the Governor General's Award for Fiction; and On the Eighth Day, Wayne Grady's rollicking translation of Le Huitième Jour, won the Governor General's Award for Translation. Barbara Godard teaches English and Women`s Studies at York University. Her nimble translation of The Tale of Don l'Orignal, the first of her many distinguished book-length translations, recreates the spirit and the raucous dialogue in an English that's colourful, familiar, and just strange enough to capture the magic of the Fleas.