Funny Writers Out Loud: On Writing Humour
15 March at 19:00 – 20:30 EDT
Friday, March 15, 7:00–8:30 PM
Unitarian Church of Montreal
5035 Maisonneuve Blvd. W. (Métro Vendôme), Montreal QC
Suggested Donation: $15 at the door ($10 for QWF members)
In Person
Join us for Funny Writers Out Loud: On Writing Humour. Authors Ali Hassan, Tara McGowan-Ross, and Rebecca Păpucaru sit down with moderator Nisha Coleman to talk all things comedy and humour writing-related. A Q&A period with the audience will follow. Prepare to learn and laugh!
The event starts at 7:00 PM in the Sanctuary of the Unitarian Church of Montreal (5035 Maisonneuve Blvd W.), near Métro Vendôme. For transportation and accessibility information, visit the Unitarian Church’s website.
Books by the participants will be available for sale after the discussion.
RSVPs are not required but encouraged to help us gauge attendance. RSVP below to let us know you’re coming!
About the Panelists
Ali Hassan is an author, broadcaster, actor, and comedian who has performed for audiences across Canada, in the United States, and internationally. Ali is the host of the CBC Radio hit stand-up comedy show Laugh Out Loud. He is also this season’s guest host on The Next Chapter, and for the past eight years (come March) he has been the host of Canada Reads, CBC’s “Battle of the Books.” Ali has appeared on the big screen in award-winning films such as French Immersion, the hockey hit Goon, and Tammy’s Always Dying. Some of his recent television roles include Designated Survivor (ABC & Netflix), Cardinal (CTV), Odd Squad (PBS Kids, CBBC), Dino Dana (TVOKids), Workin’ Moms (CBC) and Murdoch Mysteries (CBC). Ali is currently featured in two television shows: Run The Burbs (CBC, Hulu) and the Peabody-Award winning Sort Of (CBC Gem, HBO Max). Ali has performed at the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal and Toronto’s JFL42 and has toured across Canada as one of the stars of Just For Laughs Comedy Night In Canada tour, hosted by Rick Mercer. A Canadian Screen Award and Canadian Comedy Award nominee, Ali has toured his solo show Muslim Interrupted around Canada to great acclaim. His comedic memoir Is There Bacon in Heaven? is out now with Simon & Schuster, and was described by Rick Mercer as “perhaps the funniest and most heartfelt Canadian memoir yet.”
Tara McGowan-Ross is an urban Mi’kmaw multidisciplinary artist and writer. She graduated from Concordia University’s philosophy program with a minor in Creative Writing in 2016. She is the author of poetry collections Girth and Scorpion Season, and the memoir Nothing Will Be Different. She has served on numerous editorial boards, including Goose Lane’s Icehouse imprint, and has been anthologized in Best Canadian Poetry and Anthologie de la poésie actuelle des femmes au Québec. She lives in Montreal, where she is a theatre critic, a rebel educator, a Substack columnist, and the host of Drawn & Quarterly’s Indigenous Literatures Book Club.
Rebecca Păpucaru‘s first novel, As Good a Place as Any, will be published by Guernica Editions in 2025. Her first book, The Panic Room (Nightwood Editions), was awarded the 2018 Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Poetry and was also a finalist for the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry and longlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Her short story “Yentas” won The Malahat Review’s 2020 Novella Prize. Her work has also appeared in The Best Canadian Poetry in English, Arc, EVENT, Grain, The Literary Review of Canada, Canadian Literature, and The New Quarterly, among others.
The Host
Nisha Coleman is a writer, storyteller, musician, and actor based in Montreal. Her stories have been featured on the CBC, Moth Radio Hour, Risk!, and Confabulation, among others. Her children’s book, Dear Humans, addresses climate change and was published last year.
Suggested Donation: $15 at the door ($10 for QWF members)
Location:
Unitarian Church of Montreal —
5035 Boulevard de Maisonneuve Ouest
Montreal,
QC
Canada