Photo: J. Parr
One in five Montrealers speak three or more languages, and Katia Grubisic, MA 06, is a prime example.
She learned French from her Swiss mother, Croatian from her father and English from having grown up in Northern Ontario. Alongside French, Spanish is also heard in her home, where her partner speaks it with their children.
To Grubisic, each language is “a great gift,” and it bothers her when certain politicians posit Montreal’s multilingualism as a problem rather than a boasting point.
“That’s based on a misunderstanding of what this city is,” she states. “It’s a place where you often hear the younger generations using French and English interchangeably and fluently, with no political weight.”
Montreal’s cosmopolitan character appealed to Grubisic when she decided to pursue a master’s in English at Concordia (with a focus on creative writing) after completing undergraduate studies in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
She was also drawn by the opportunity to work with Stephanie Bolster, a prominent poet and a professor in the Department of English.
“I loved her work, and she had a fantastic reputation,” Grubisic says. “I wanted to have her as a mentor.”
For her thesis, Grubisic produced what became her first poetry collection, What if red ran out. “It was precious to have Concordia as an incubator to think in and to work in,” she says.
“I also remember how involved we were in Montreal’s literary scene, and how porous the boundaries between the city and the university felt, in a really healthy way.”
After her time at Concordia, Grubisic was casting about for a home base. “But I was purposely looking for ways to come back to Montreal,” she says. “And soon I got a gig as a managing editor for a magazine based here.”
Subsequent work translating French literature into English earned Grubisic the 2024 Governor General’s Literary Award for Translation, and the 2023 Quebec Writers’ Federation’s Cole Foundation Prize for Translation.
“Literary translation gives me a lot of creative pleasure,” she says. “It makes my brain work in interesting ways. And I’ve had recognition for it, which means I get to work with astounding Quebec writers.”
Grubisic’s thoughtful artistry connects these writers to appreciative new audiences.
“There are people who want to read these works in English Canada, of course, but also in the United States and other English-speaking places around the world,” she says. “I’ve often been surprised to learn that there are Quebec-studies programs at universities where I wouldn’t necessarily have expected one.”
Quebec’s francophone literature often explores issues of global relevance. For instance, Grubisic has taken on novels about life under totalitarian regimes by the Romanian-born immigrant Alina Dumitrescu and the Haitian-Québécoise author Marie-Célie Agnant. She’s also translated Martine Delvaux, who has international reach as an important contemporary feminist writer.
Even though writing and translating are solitary activities, they allow people to enter one another’s worlds, observes Grubisic.
“You never know who’s going to pick up a book. It’s a really nice way to make a connection.”
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