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Marie Helene Poitras was born in Ottawa and lives in Montreal. She received the Prix Anne-Hebert for her first novel, Soudain le Minotaure (2002, reissued by Alto in 2022; Suddenly the Minotaur, DC Books, 2006). Her short story collection La mort de Mignonne et autres histoires (Alto, 2017) was a finalist for the Prix des libraires du Quebec. While Griffintown (Prix France-Quebec and finalist for the Prix Ringuet) was inspired by her experience as a carriage driver in Old Montreal, Sing, Nightingale, an ode to creation, draws on her travels in the French countryside. Rhonda Mullins is a Montreal-based translator who has translated many books from French into English, including Jocelyne Saucier's And Miles To Go Before I Sleep, Gregoire Courtois' The Laws of the Skies, Dominique Fortier's Paper Houses, and Anais Barbeau-Lavalette's Suzanne. 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. Novels she has translated were contenders for CBC Canada Reads in 2015 and 2019 and one was a finalist for the 2018 Best Translated Book Award. Mullins was the inaugural literary translator in residence at Concordia University in 2018. She is a mentor to emerging translators in the Banff International Literary Translation Program.
A tale that is both beautiful and cruel, like only fairy tales can be. One that is deep and rich in what is found within and between the lines, like only fairy tales can be. [...] This is already quite an achievement, and then Marie Helene Poitras adds [...] a sensuality that stretches out in every direction. [...] A novel that is beautiful in content and form, to be read and discussed. - Sonia Sarfati, Selection Reader's Digest Marie Helene writes both the marvelous and the contemptable, the magical and the horrific. She writes about the question of origins and the silence offered up as an answer. - Natalia Wysocka, Le Devoir Marie Helene Poitras offers readers yet another surprise by taking us where we least expected to go: into an enchanted, sinister forest like the woods of fairy tales... and the nursery rhymes that have left children quaking for centuries, without truly understanding their deep, dark meaning. - Chantal Guy, La Presse Poitras (Griffintown) delivers a gloomy and lyrical fairy tale set in and around Noirax, a fictional French village...This is a feast for lovers of gothic lit. - Publishers Weekly Fans of dark, fairy-talelike worlds will enjoy Sing, Nightingale tremendously. - Leah von Essen, Booklist Sing, Nightingale is, by design, a disconcerting book: At times it seems to take place in the distant past, but mentions of modern technology crop up throughout. The text is peppered with quotations from playfully cruel French nursery rhymes. And Poitras constantly describes food in a way that is both sumptuous and unsettling. . . The overall effect is one of decadence laced with a creeping sense of horror. - Charlie Jane Anders, The Washington Post An enticing visitor spells doom-or a new beginning-for a distinguished but troubled family line in Marie Helene Poitras's novel...Sing, Nightingale is a twisted, haunting tale of jealousy, murder, and vengeance in the countryside. - Foreword Reviews Poitras' work serves as a tuning fork; we feel its vibrations within us. We recognize the frequency, buried deeply in our psyches. It is a story that is immediately familiar, yet utterly unique, unfolding with the ineffable logic of a dream, of a memory of events which we have not yet experienced. - Robert J. Wiersema, The Toronto Star
