Poetry Marching for Sindy

Born in Jamésie in north-west Quebec, Virginia Pesemapeo Bordeleau is a multidisciplinary eeyou artist. For the past forty-four years, she has exhibited in Quebec, Canada, Europe and Mexico. Since 2007, she has published three novels, three collections of poetry, one storybook, one artist's book and a collection of correspondence. In 2021, she was awarded a medal by Québec's Assemblée nationale du Québec for her life's work and in 2023 she was appointed as Chevalier in the Ordre des Palmes académiques.
In 2024, the Université de Moncton granted her an honorary Doctor of Arts. Virginia still lives in Abitibi-Témiscamingue where she continues to paint, sculpt and, of course, write with the authenticity that characterizes all of her work. Susan Ouriou is an award-winning literary translator, fiction writer and conference interpreter. Her most recent translation of Virginia Pesemapeo Bordeleau's writing, The Lover, the Lake, was short-listed for the 2021 Governor General's translation award.
Her translations Kukum by Michel Jean and White Resin by Emmanuelle Walter were also short-listed for the GG in 2023 and 2022 respectively. An earlier translation, Pieces of Me by Charlotte Gingras, won that same award. With Christelle Morelli, Susan also co-translated Virginia Pesemapeo Bordeleau's Winter Child and Blue Bear Woman. As well, she and Christelle Morelli co-translated Emmanuelle Walter's Stolen Sisters: The Story of Two Missing Girls, Their Families and How Canada Has Failed Indigenous Women, another GG translation award short-listing.
In 2023, she published and performed Many Mothers, Seven Skies - Scenes for Tomorrow with the Many Mothers collective. Most recently, in 2024 Susan Ouriou's translation The Future of Catherine Leroux's novel L'Avenir was the winner of Canada Reads. She lives in Calgary, Alberta.