Nora Alleyn grew up in a bicultural family in Québec City. Following a B.A. in languages (McGill University), she joined the Department of External Affairs and lived in Europe and the Middle East. She studied translation at Laval, McGill and the Université de Montréal, and creative writing at the National University of Ireland (Galway), Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference (U. of Vermont), Summer Film Institute (Massachussetts), West Word (U.B.C.) After a year translating at the Québec National Assembly, she spent the next twenty at the National Film Board working as a staff writer and translator. She versioned French-language films into English and directed two documentaries: Mary Bell (1976) and Fragments of a Conversation on Language (1990). Her poetry appeared in Edmund Alleyn: Indigo sur tous les tons (les editions du passage, Montréal, 277 p., 2005)

Biography from Guernica Editions.

Ms. Alleyn’s obituary from the Montreal Gazette.

 

Translated Works

D’Alfonso, Antonio, Bluewater and we are the bearers of water, ellipse, vol. 69, Fredericton, N.B., 2003.

David, Carole, Unholy Stories, Guernica Editions, Toronto, 2005.

Desbiens, Patrice, I remember a station wagon…, ellipse, vol. 71, summer 2004.

Gagnon, Marie, The Fall in ellipse, no 64, Sherbrooke, 2000.

Gagnon, Marie, Field Day in TransLit, vol. 5, Calgary, 1999.

Gagnon, Marie, A Mother Up in Arms, TransLit, vol. 6, 2004.

Paulin, Marguerite, Maurice Duplessis, Politician, Powerbroker, XYZ Publishing, 2005.

Perrault, Pierre, Icewarrior in Translit, vol. 4, 1997, Calgary.

Pronovost, André, Divine Kimberly, Montréal: Éditions carte blanche.

Rajic, Négovan, To the Far Shore: Adieu Belgrade, Cormorant Books, Toronto, autumn 2006.

Thibault, Louis-Jean, The Other Life, Thibault, ellipse, vol. 72, autumn 2004.

Turcotte, Élise, Baptism of Vesuvius and Phonemes, two poems performed at the Bowery Poetry Club, New York City, February 2006, (Productions Rhizome, Montréal).

 

Versioned Films

Cadieux, Marie, Twice Condemned, NFB feature documentary.

Carrière, Marcel, Glimpses of China, NFB feature documentary.

Dumesnile, Thérèse, Tomorrow Winter Comes, NFB documentary.

Falardeau, Pierre, The Steak, NFB feature documentary.

Gagliardi, Laurent, When Love Is Gay, NFB feature documentary.

Gervais, Suzanne, The Studio, NFB animation film.

Giguere, Nicole, Enough Is Enough, NFB documentary.

Poirier, Anne Claire, Let Me Go (narration), NFB feature documentary.

Poirier, Anne Claire, They Called us « Les Filles du Roy », NFB feature film.