Fischman has translated nearly 150 Quebec novels into English, including works by such noted Quebec authors as Michel Tremblay, Jacques Poulin, Anne Hébert, Marie-Claire Blais, Roch Carrier, Yves Beauchemin and François Gravel.

Since 1987, Fischman has received 14 nominations for the Governor General's Award for Translation, receiving the prize in 1988 for Bambi and Me, her translation of Michel Tremblay's Les vues animés. She has twice won the Canada Council Prize for Translation (in 1974 and 1984) and the Félix-Antoine Savard Award offered by the Translation Center, Columbia University (in 1989 and 1990). Her translation of Pascale Quiviger's The Perfect Circle was a finalist for the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize and her translation of Am I Disturbing You by Anne Hébert was a finalist for the same prize in 2000. Three of Fischman's translations have been selected for Canada Reads: Next Episode by Hubert Aquin in 2003; Volkswagen Blues by Jacques Poulin in 2005; and The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant by Michel Tremblay in 2008.

In recognition of her work, Fischman has received honorary doctorates from the University of Ottawa and the University of Waterloo. In 2000, she was invested into the Order of Canada and, in 2008, into the Ordre national du Québec. She won the 2008 Molson Prize for the Arts.