Donald Winkler was born in Winnipeg in 1940, graduated from the University of Manitoba, and from 1967 to 1985 was employed at the National Film Board in Montreal. During that period, and beyond as a freelancer, he directed around 30 documentaries, primarily in the cultural domain, including a series of six films on Canadian poets who contributed to the introduction of modernism into Canadian Literature (Poets, a Sestet). They included F.R. Scott, Irving Layton, Al Purdy, and P.K. Page. Winkler also, upon occasion, produced experimental shorts (Doodle Film, Travel Log). In the 1980s he began translating Quebec literature from French into English, beginning with a selection of verse by Roland Giguère. Winkler has translated more than 40 works of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. He has been awarded the Governor General’s Award for French to English translation three times and has been a finalist for that prize on three other occasions. Winkler lives in Montreal with his wife, the translator Sheila Fischman.