Gaboriau, Linda, 1942- : Literary translator, creative manager and dramaturg, Linda Gaboriau was born in Boston, Massachusetts in October 1942. She was schooled in Westwood, Mass. and spent an exchange year in Meppen, Germany. She completed a year at Western College for Women in Oxford Ohio before studying German Language and Literature at Harvard. Concurrantly, she worked as a researcher on a bibliographic study "The Changing Feminine Role," comissioned by the Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study. In 1962, she studied German literature at the University of Heidelberg and French literature at the Sorbonne. She returned to North America in 1963 and began studies in French language and literature at McGill University in Montreal. She obtained an M.A. in French Literature in 1972. Gaboriau holds dual citizenship and has lived in Montreal since 1963.
Gaboriau has worked extensively as a literary translator, particularly of drama from Quebec. She has translated more than 100 plays from French, most of which have been published and produced in Canada, and often these were also produced or given staged readings abroad: these include numerous plays by Michel Marc Bouchard, Normand Chaurette, Daniel Danis, René-Daniel Dubois, Michel Tremblay and Wajdi Mouawad. She translated works of Quebec feminist writers and theatre projects: including "La Nef des sorcières" (a series of feminist monologues staged at Théâtre du nouveau monde in 1976) and Les Folles Alliées productions of "Mademoiselle Autobody", as well as plays by Jovette Marchessault. She has also translated several works of fiction, scripts for feature films and documentaries, non-fiction prose (notably by Marie-Claire Blais and Pierre Morency) and works of literature for young readers.
Her awards and nominations for translation include: the Masque for Best Translation or Adaptation (winner 1999, finalist 2007); and the Governor General's Award (winner 1996, 2010 and finalist 1991, 1993, 2000, 2002, 2006). Plays translated by Gaboriau garnered the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play (1991 and 1999); and were ranked among the finalist or winners of the Chalmers Award (winner 1992, finalist 1995 and 1996). In 1996, the feature film Lilies which (based on Gaboriau's translation of the Michel Marc Bouchard play Les Feluettes) won the Genie Award in the Best Feature Film category and was a finalist for the Best Screenplay Adaptation. In 2008, the Banff Centre announced the Linda Gaboriau Translation Award, to be awarded annually to a translator from Canada, Mexico or the United States who has made an outstanding contribution to the art of translation and to literature.
In 1984, Gaboriau created the play development program at the Centre des auteurs dramatiques (CEAD), an organization supporting Quebec playwriting. At the CEAD, she also took charge of promoting Quebec plays in translation and coordinated playwright exchanges with English Canada, the United States, Great Britain and Latin America.
Gaboriau also worked as co-ordinator or Director of programmes focussing on theatre translation: first as Associate director and Co-ordinator of translation projects for the Banff playRites colony (1999-2002), then as founding director of the first international centre for literary translation in North America, the Banff International Literary Translation Centre (2003-2007). Since 1998, Gaboriau has acted as host and resident dramaturg for the annual Tadoussac Playwrights' Residence in Tadoussac, Quebec; sponsored by Playwrights Workshop in Montreal. Gaboriau has mentored playwriting students through the National Theatre School and participated in a playwrighting "think tank" through Théâtre d'Aujourd'hui.
Gaboriau also worked in film and video as a consultant, production assistant and assistant director in 1973 and 1974. Gaboriau was theatre critic for the Montreal Gazette in 1974-1975 and from 1972 to the 2000's she wrote freelance articles covering Quebec culture and Canadian theatre.
In addition, Gaboriau has consulted widely on theatre and the arts in Canada producing reports on children's theatre and the Saiyde Bronfman Centre, as well as participating in the Federal Cultural Policy Review Committee in the 1980's (the Applebaum-Hébert Commission). She has also sat on award juries for the Masques and Siminovitch awards and was a Theatre Officer for the Canada Council in 1976-1978.
