Against the backdrop of the great catastrophes of our time, in Lashing Skies we encounter a number of individuals in the grip of tragedy in New York City. We are projected unsparingly into their collective and private traumas and share their experience intimately. They could be Japanese, Haitian, Iraqi… This powerful, hard-hitting writing is a unique blend of fiction and poetry. It goes to the heart of the historical moment, confronting raw emotions and appealing to our deepest empathy and compassion.

A novelist, short-story writer and poet, Madeleine Monette was born in Montreal and lives in New York City where she wrote her first novel, Le Double suspect (1980, Robert-Cliche Award). Four other novels followed: Petites Violences (1982), Amandes et melon (1991), La Femme furieuse (1997) and Les Rouleurs (2007). Her first novel appeared in English under the title Doubly Suspect. Monette’s first book of poetry, Ciel à outrances, came out in 2013. Her novel Les Rouleurs will be published in 2015 by Galaade Editions in Paris. Short-listed for literary awards such as the Marguerite Yourcenar Award (USA), the Prix France-Québec Philippe-Rossillon (France), the Prix Molson and Prix Ringuet de l’Académie des Lettres du Québec, and the Prix Elle Québec (Canada), she was awarded the first grant from the Fonds Gabrielle-Roy in 1994. Many of her texts were broadcasted on radio; others were published in collections of short stories and literary magazines in Québec, English Canada, the U.S., and France. Madeleine Monette is a member of the Académie des lettres du Québec.

Phyllis Aronoff translates fiction, non-fiction and poetry from French to English. With co-translator Howard Scott, she has translated works by Madeleine Gagnon, Stéphane Bourguignon and Kim Doré, and conversations between Victor-Lévy Beaulieu and Margaret Atwood. She has also translated stories by Naïm Kattan and poetry by Joséphine Bacon. The Wanderer, her translation of Régine Robin’s La Québécoite, received a Jewish Literary Award for fiction. The Great Peace of Montreal of 1701, co-translated with Howard Scott, won the Quebec Writers’ Federation Translation Award.

Howard Scott’s translations include works by Madeleine Gagnon, science fiction writer Élisabeth Vonarburg, and Canada’s poet laureate, Michel Pleau. Scott received the Governor General’s Literary Award for his translation of Louky Bersianik’s The Euguelion. A Slight Case of Fatigue, by Stéphane Bourguignon, another co-translation with Phyllis Aronoff, was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award. Howard Scott is a past president of the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada.