In this collection of twenty-six stories, acclaimed author Louise Dupré celebrates women who have reached the summer of their lives, with plenty to look back upon and even more to look forward to. In one story, two lovers trapped by a snowstorm call an end to their relationship. In another, a woman buries her father but finds herself unable to grieve for him. At Expo 67, a teenage girl discovers the world and the fellowship of humankind. A quietly desperate academic travels to a conference and unexpectedly finds passion — perhaps even love.

These women are tightrope-walkers, alone and courageous; having crossed so many thresholds, they must now find the strength to defy convention, and take one more leap into the unknown in order to start over. Dark, yet radiant, High-Wire Summer is proof of Louise Dupré’s ability to disarm and seduce with the delicate music of her words.

Louise Dupre is the author of numerous books and was twice nominated for the Governor General's Award for Poetry. Her novel La Memoria (1996) won two major literary prizes. La Voie lactee (The Milky Way), her most recent book, was nominated for the 2001 Prix France-Quebec. Louise Dupre teaches literature and creative writing at the Universite du Quebec a Montreal.

Liedewy Hawke's translation Hopes and Dreams: The Diary of Henriette Dessaulles, 1874-1881 won the 1986 Canada Council Prize for Translation (now the Governor General's Award for Translation). Her other translations include Memoria (Louise Dupre's La memoria), published by Simon & Pierre in 1999, and House of Sighs, a translation of Jocelyne Saucier's La vie comme une image, published by Mercury Press in 2001.

Louise Dupré's profile page

Winner of both the Canada Council Translation Prize and the John Glassco Translation Prize, Liedewy Hawke has been nominated four times for the Governor General's Literary Award for Translation (French to English) and is a recent winner, with author Lise Dion, of the White Pine Non-Fiction Award. One of her translations, republished in the U.K., was featured on the BBC Radio 2 Book Club, and she has also translated works by prominent Dutch and Flemish authors as well as three previous works by Louise Dupré. She lives in Toronto.

Liedewy Hawke's profile page

• Short-listed, Governor General’s Literary Award for Translation

“Radiates confidence and felicity … a marvel brimming with unforgettable tableaux, balanced, bodacious, often brilliant … simply bask in the wonder of a gorgeous performance by two of this country’s most accomplished creators, hands down, arms outstretched, heads held high.”

The Globe and Mail

“Liedewy Hawke’s graceful translation adroitly and sensitively recreates the rhythm and poetry of Louise Dupré’s writing, and the delicate and astute observations of her reflective vignettes.”

Governor General’s Literary Awards jury citation