Nigel Spencer


Nigel Spencer is a writer, translator, and professor of English living in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He has thrice received the Canadian Governor General's Literary Award for translation, in 2002, 2007, and 2012. He was also awarded a 'Proclamation of Recognition' by President Lansana Conté of the Republic of Guinea.

Education

He was born in postwar England to a Holocaust survivor and a Blitz survivor, then raised in London and Montreal, Canada. He received a B.A.. He also took courses in teacher training at Concordia University and the Université de Sherbrooke. He received a McGill University Entrance Scholarship, a Canada Council Graduate Fellowship, a University College Teaching Fellowship, and a Residency at Banff International Literary Translation Centre.

Career

As Advisor to the Minister of Education of the Republic of Guinea, he was responsible for researching and re-instituting the teaching of English at the high school and university levels from 1985 to 1987. He was given a Proclamation of Recognition by President Lansana Conté in 1987.
Most of his career has been spent as a professor of English including: the State [University of New York at Plattsburgh] 2005; Champlain Regional College 1974–2006.
Université de Sherbrooke 1976; Teaching Fellow, University College, University of Toronto 1968–71;
Since 1997, he has worked increasingly as a translator of stories, poems, plays, songs and journalism:
He has written the subtitles for numerous films including "A Season in the Life of Emmanuel", "Raoul Wallenberg:The Angel of Budapest", "Illuminations: Marie-Claire Blais", various documentaries for Bravo! Channel, The Other Side of Mount Royal, and educational films.
He has appeared as an actor at the University of Toronto, the St. Lawrence Centre, the Old Firehall and other venues in Toronto. He has performed with the Touring Players Foundation, the Lindsay Festival, the Piggery in North Hatley, the Lennoxville Players and the Pointe-Saint-Charles Community Theatre.
A selection of Spencer's poems, titled After-Images, was published in "Rampike Magazine" in 1998.
He has also been a journalist, a presenter at the Governor General's Lit. Awards, a jury member and chairman for various literary prizes, an organizer and speaker at numerous conferences and seminars, a teachers' union president, a director, plus co-founder of a theatre company and a literary magazine.
He is currently translator for the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.

Timeline of career

Évelyne de la Chenelière, Marie-Claire Blais, Alain Dubuc, Mario Bolduc, Time Magazine, Jacques Claessens, Pauline Michel, Jean-Pierre Rogel.