Date & time
Thursday, October 9, 2025
12 p.m. – 1 p.m.
12 p.m. – 1 p.m.
Arts & culture
Share this event:
WEBINAR: In conversation with award-winning translator Rhonda Mullins
Women Who Lead Book Club
Speaker(s)
Rhonda Mullins, MA 96
Cost
Comlimentary
Organization
University Advancement
Contact
Where
Online
Join us for an intimate conversation with award-winning translator, Rhonda Mullins, MA 96.
She is one of Canada’s best-known translators bringing French Canadian literary works to English-speaking audiences.
In this conversation with Kimberley Manning, Professor of political science and women’s studies at Concordia, Rhonda will delve into the art of literary translation – exploring how a translator breathes new life into another’s words while remaining true to the author’s authentic voice.
The discussion will focus on her translation of the book Suzanne, written by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette in 2015.
Originally published in French as ‘La femme qui fuit’, Suzanne is a fictionalized biography of the author’s grandmother, Suzanne Meloche, a member of the renowned French Canadian art collective, Les Automatistes, founded in the early 1940’s by painter Paul-Émile Borduas. She was a painter, a poet and a mother who abandoned her two children to pursue her passions. Barbeau-Lavalette wrote about her grandmother’s life as a way to understand her life choices.
Rhonda Mullins has translated the works of some of Québec’s most prominent authors, including Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette and Dominique Fortier, bringing the power and beauty of their voices to English-speaking audiences.
She is a seven-time finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Translation, winning the award in 2015 for her translation of Jocelyne Saucier’s Twenty-One Cardinals. Her translation of Dominique Fortier’s Pale Shadows was a 2025 finalist for the Carol Sheilds Prize for Fiction. Novels she has translated were contenders for CBC Canada Reads in 2015 and 2019.
Rhonda was the inaugural literary translator in residence at Concordia University in 2018, leading a master’s seminar in literary translation. She is a mentor to emerging translators in the Banff International Literary Translation Program, a founding editor of the online literary magazine carte blanche, and a former board member for the dance company Trial & Eros.
As a writer, Rhonda’s work has appeared in Maisonneuve, The Malahat Review, Publisher’s Weekly, The Globe and Mail and on Lithub and CBC platforms.
Former Principal of the Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Kimberley Manning specializes in gender politics in the People's Republic of China.
Her work also focuses on equity-seeking research projects in Canada, including efforts to support transgender young people and their families. In her work as a university leader and community organizer, Manning has co-founded a non-profit organization, supported student-directed projects in institutional equity, and presented before three different committees in the Canadian Senate.
She is a 2021 recipient of the Concordia Academic Leadership Award.