Robert Markland Smith

Robert Markland Smith was born into a French Canadian Catholic family in Hull, Quebec. Raised in Ottawa, Robert moved with his family to Montreal, where he completed a BA in French literature at Loyola College in 1969 and undertook an MA in translation at the Université de Montréal in 1980-81. Meanwhile, he hung around jazz clubs, read Sartre, Blake and Kafka, hitchhiked through Western Europe, lived on the streets in New York City and went to demonstrations against the war in Vietnam. He began publishing in French and English in 1968. In the early 70s he worked in factories and hotels, got into trouble doing revolution, lived in communes in the country and studied the occult in Colorado Springs. After a brief stint as a born-again Christian in Berkeley California, he returned to Montreal going on and off his medication until he began doing translation for a living. He worked in government offices in the 80s and then in the 90s, he quit cigarettes, alcohol and drugs. He has published in mainland China, Australia, England, Italy, the USA and Canada. He self-published several books and received grants from the Quebec government. He recently appeared in a couple of local films directed by Donigan Cumming and Michel Lamothe. Robert is currently living in Montreal with his girlfriend Bonnie and their two teenage daughters, Isabelle and Cordelia. He earns his living doing freelance translation and draws and writes in his spare time.