Quebec poet, painter and author Célyne Fortin has published eleven books of poetry since the publication of her first collection Femme Fragmentée by Éditions du Noroît in 1982. Her collection of short stories Summer Days was published in 2014 by Ekstasis Editions. In Wabakin or Four Windows Onto Snow, published in French by Les Heures bleues in 2013 and now translated by Donald Winkler, she reflects on the winter months spent in her home region of Quebec, Abitibi, with her older sister, Cécile. In 2014, the French edition won the Prix AQPF-ANEL, awarded jointly by the Association québécoise des professeurs de français and the Association nationale des éditeurs de livres.

Through the four windows of this house where she stays, her sister Cécile's house, Célyne Fortin observes the present as if the laughter of school kids heading home from school or the trees that Mr. Dubuc planted years ago were timeless, yesterday and now merging with the snow crystals that surround and protect the dwelling.
~ Jean-François Crépeau, Le Canada français, January 16, 2014

A journey to the land of memory and origins with ten photos and thirteen drawings by the author. Pure impressionist poetry, with a strong affinity for the natural world. In the tradition of Émile Nelligan, evokes and draws one in to the Quebec landscape.
~ Le Devoir

Born in La Sarre in Abitibi in 1943, Célyne Fortin co-founded and co-directed the Éditions du Noroit from 1971 to 1991, along with René Bonenfant. There she published collections of poetry and art books: from Femme Fragmentée, 1982, and L’envers de la marche, 1982, limited editions with pastel drawings, to Les Intrusions de l’oeil, 1993, and Un ciel laiteux, 2008. In 2012 there appeared the collection Ovale, Femme infrangible, poems (1982-2008), an anthology prepared and presented by Jean Chapdelaine Gagnon. She also published the tales and narratives Jours d’été, 1998, with Editions de la Pleine Lune, published in English by Ekstasis Editions as Summer Days, Chanterelles, 2000, with Lanctôt éditeur, Commandements, litanies, et autres imprecations, with Heures bleues, 2003, other art books with Bonfort, and Ile est un mot magique, 2000, with Éditions du Silence. Since 2003, she has been responsible for the collection “Le Dire,” at Heures bleues.

Donald Winkler is a Montreal-based literary translator and documentary filmmaker. In the realm of poetry, he has made films on Irving Layton, P.K. Page, F.R. Scott, among others. And, among others, he has translated Roland Giguère and Pierre Nepveu. He is a three-time winner of the Governor General’s Award for French to English translation.