Maryse Warda

Warda was nominated for the Governor General’s Award in 2001 for her translation of George F. Walker’s Suburban Motel as Motel de passage, and later won a Governor General’s Award in 2011 for her translation of Greg MacArthur’s The Toxic Bus Incident as Toxique ou l’incident dans l’autobus. Warda later stated that she had never expected to win, as she had not expected a play to be chosen for the award.

In 2015, Warda’s translation into French of Erin Shields’ If We Were Birds was used in a production of the play directed by Geneviève L. Blais.

Warda was born in Cairo, Egypt, but immigrated to Montréal, Quebec, Canada with her parents at the age of 9. She first learned English from watching Happy Days on television. She graduated from the Université de Montréal with a degree in English literature. At the time, she did not intend to pursue a career in translation. In 1991, she began working as an assistant at the Théâtre de Quat’Sous under Pierre Bernard. Bernard persuaded her to translate her first play, Brilliant Traces by Cindy Lou Johnson. This was a success, earning her a Prix de la critique nomination from the Association québécoise des critiques de théâtre. She went on to translate several other plays during her tenure, such as Cindy Lou Johnson’s The Years (Les années), Brad Fraser’s The Ugly Man (L'homme laid), and Philip Ridley’s Pitchfork Disney. She left the Théâtre de Quat'Sous in 2001. In 2002, she began working for the National Theatre School of Canada, holding the position of Associate Director General.

Maryse Warda (born 1961) is an Egyptian Canadian translator. She primarily translates English plays of Canadian origin into French. Her work is described as being "faithful to the original with an unostentatious use of Quebec idiom".