The finalists for the 2018 Governor General's Literary Award for translation

Here are the finalists for the 2018 Governor General's Literary Award for translation.

The Governor General's Literary Awards are one of Canada's oldest and most prestigious prizes.The awards, administeredby theCanada Council for the Arts, are given in seven English-language categories:fiction,nonfiction,poetry,young people's literature text,young people's literature illustration,dramaandtranslation. Seven French-language awards arealsogiven outin the same categories.

The translator or translators of the winning book in this category willreceive$25,000.The winners will be announced on Oct. 30, 2018.

You can see the finalists in all seven categories here.

Descent into Night by Edem Awumey, translated by Phyllis Aronoff and Howard Scott

Descent into Nightfollows a playwright named Ito Baraka who, while on a train trip from Hull to Quebec City, furiously documents the hardships that have shaped him. Baraka had survived abduction and torture in an unnamed West African country after distributing leaflets with Samuel Beckett quotes at a student protest. Baraka was only able to escape the camp and flee to Canada by informing on his friends, an act that has left him with tremendous guilt and concern for their safety. For theoriginal French edition,Explication de la nuit,Awumey received rave reviews from literary critics. It is his fourth novel.

Explosions by Mathieu Poulin, translated byAleshia Jensen

Explosionsis a satirical novel about American filmmaker Michael Bay, known for intensely pyrotechnic movies likeTransformers, Bad BoysandPearl Harbor.In this book, Bay is painted as a tortured, misunderstood artist whose high-flying action films are really statements on decolonization, imposter syndrome and the meaning of life.Des Explosions,the original French version, is Mathieu Poulin'sfirst novel andExplosionsisAleshia Jensen's first translation of a novel.

Jacob Isaac Segal by Pierre Anctil, translated byVivian Felsen

Jacob Isaac Segalis a biography of one of Canada's first Yiddish writers. Jacob Isaac Segal was born in Ukraine in 1896 and moved to Montreal in 1910. His mystical poetry and essays describe the experiences of Canadian Jewish immigrants arriving from eastern Europe at the turn of the 20th century. This biographydives deep into Segal's previously unpublished work, examining its artistic, cultural and historical contributions to Yiddish literature in Canada. The French edition of this book received the 2014 Canada Prize in the Humanities.

Little Beast by Julie Demers, translated by Rhonda Mullins

Set in rural Quebec in 1944, this dark fairy tale follows an 11-year-old girl who has suddenly grown a full beard. Her father abandons the family, while her mother shuts her inside to keep her safe from the local townspeople. But when the villagers arrive at their doorstep one night, the little bearded girl must make her escape. Mullins has translated several literary novels, including And the Birds Rained Down by JocelyneSaucier and Suzanne byAnas Barbeau-Lavalette.

Songs for the Cold of Heart by Eric Dupont, translated byPeter McCambridge

Billed as a "big fat whopper of a tall tale," Montreal writerEricDupont's fourth novel traverses time and spacewith comedic ease. FromRivire-du-Loup in 1919 to Nagasaki, 1990s Berlin, Romeand beyond,Dupont'swinding tale is carried by a cast of idiosyncratic characters as they contendwith the worldly events of the last century.Songs for the Cold of Heart is also shortlistedfor the 2018 ScotiabankGiller Prize.The original French version of the novel,La Fiance Amricaine, waspublished in 2012 and won Quebec's top two literary prizes, the Prix des libraires and Prix descollgiens.