Dorothea Schlegel Artist in Residence

April–May 2025

Floating Islands

Emilie Moorhouse will translate Joyce Mansour's Floating Islands (Îles Flottantes) from French to English. This semi-autobiographical narrative, written in 1973, is told in the first person and weaves together fragmented prose, dream sequences, and poetic imagery. The result is an unusual meditation on illness, mortality, dreams, and the dissolution of self. Set in a Geneva hospital, Floating Islands remains relevant today, as it resonates with contemporary conversations about illness and institutionalization. Mansour contrasts bodily decay with desire and despair, creating a powerful exploration of vulnerability and longing.

While Mansour's other prose works—where she reimagines and subverts religious narratives—have drawn more critical attention, Floating Islands has been comparatively overlooked. This new translation will help illuminate its unique place within Mansour's body of work. The translated text is set to be published by Invisible Publishing in the fall of 2026.

Emilie Moorhouse is a Canadian writer, translator, and environmentalist. Raised in a French-speaking household in Toronto, she earned an MFA from the University of British Columbia. She was actively involved in the Canadian climate change movement for over a decade, an experience that continues to inform her current work as a screenwriter for an environmentally themed television show. Moorhouse is best known for her English translation of Emerald Wounds: Selected Poems by Joyce Mansour, published in 2023, and which was longlisted for the 2024 Griffin Poetry Prize and praised for capturing Mansour's uncompromising exploration of desire, death, and identity. Her second book of translations will focus on Mansour's works of prose, and will be published by Invisible Books in fall 2026.