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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251206T110000
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DTSTAMP:20260425T222934
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SUMMARY:2025 Read Quebec Book Fair
DESCRIPTION:December 6–7\, 2025Casa d’Italia (505 Jean-Talon St. E.\, Montreal)\n\n\n\nThe Read Quebec Book Fair turns 10! Celebrate this milestone year on December 6–7 at Casa d’Italia\, with special events\, author signings\, and the latest releases from Canadian writers and publishers.  \n\n\n\nProduced by the Association of English-language Publishers of Quebec (AELAQ)\, the Fair celebrates the vibrancy of English-language writing\, publishing\, and translation in Quebec. In honour of the tenth anniversary\, this year’s Fair will\, for the first time\, welcome publishers from across Canada.  \n\n\n\nTaking place in the historic Casa d’Italia\, the Fair will present a full weekend of programming\, including a discussion between Heather and Arizona O’Neill about their new collaborative book Valentine in Montreal. Comic fans and those looking to discover the city’s beloved bédéistes will enjoy Art and Life in Graphic Novels with Juli Delporte\, Pascal Girard and D. Boyd. Meanwhile\, find your next dinner table discussion topic at our non-fiction lightning round\, where authors such as Francine Pelletier will demystify their research and share the passion inspiring their work. For writers looking to pitch a book idea\, we’re hosting the fair’s first ever speed-dating event for writers and editors\, where up-and-coming and seasoned wordsmiths will have the opportunity to deliver their pitches directly to publishers. \n\n\n\nThe Fair will offer plenty of fun for young booklovers in a cozy\, book-filled Kids’ Nook both days\, and a special reading and guided yoga practice for children with author Marlee Kostiner on Saturday afternoon. Other programming highlights include a panel discussion hosted by Italian community archivist Nancy Marrelli\, and a showcase of publisher Guernica Editions’ latest Quebec authors and releases.  \n\n\n\nStick around for our 5 à 7 opening cocktail on Saturday for delicious hors d’oeuvres and a chance to connect with Montreal’s vibrant literary community\, with a special 10th Anniversary High Fidelity DJ set with local journalist and author Brendan Kelly. \n\n\n\nCasa d’Italia is located at 505 Jean-Talon East\, and is fully accessible to wheelchairs and strollers. The fair takes place on the second floor\, accessible via stairs or elevator. Take the entrance on Berri Street\, across the street from Jean-Talon metro (exit Jean-Talon Nord). \n\n\n\n\nSee events\n\n\n\n\n\nSee Author Signing Schedule
URL:https://qwf.org/event/read-quebec-books-fair/
LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 Rue Jean-Talon Est\, Montreal\, Quebec\, H2R 1T6\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Festival
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251206T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251206T130000
DTSTAMP:20260425T222934
CREATED:20251112T195430Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251202T172626Z
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SUMMARY:New Knowledge: Nonfiction Lightning Round
DESCRIPTION:December 6\, 2025 at 12 pm – 1 p.m.Main Stage\, Salle des célébrations\n\n\n\n\nNathalie Cooke\n\n\n\nMartha Langford\n\n\n\nValérie Lefebvre-Faucher\n\n\n\nStephen Monteiro\n\n\n\nFrancine Pelletier\n\n\n\nCatherine Richardson\n\n\n\nAlex R. Tipei\n\n\n\nThomas Waugh\n\n\n\nAndrei Zanescu\n\n\n\n\nModerated by Ryan Van Huijstee \n\n\n\nOften\, fiction gets the limelight\, poetry gets the prestige. But nonfiction books are published every day that help illuminate\, preserve and create the world around us. Join local authors as they share the passions that led them to investigate a single subject in depth and then write an entire book about it. \n\n\n\nNathalie Cooke is an English professor at McGill University and a specialist in literary food studies and material culture. Her research uncovers the hidden stories told by menus\, textiles\, and other everyday artefacts\, revealing how their forms\, codes\, and designs shape what we remember\, and how we read. \n\n\n\nCatherine Richardson Kineweskwêw is a Métis therapist\, family therapist\, researcher and academic working at Concordia University. Her maternal relatives come from Fort Chipewyan and have ties to Red River. She holds a research Chair in Indigenous Healing Knowledges and teaches in First Peoples Studies and Creative Arts Therapies. She is a co-founder of the Centre for Response-Based Practice where she and her colleagues advance dignity-centered approaches to violence. Cathy is also interested in the broader and multi-dimensional aspects of healing\, such as the person as whole being\, a spirit in a body with emotions\, intelligence\, physicality and in relation to all beings in the natural world.  \n\n\n\nShe has taught in various counselling and social work programs and is the former director of the First Peoples Studies program at Concordia University. She explores various approaches to well- being on her substack podcast\, where she speaks with healers\, activists and response-based therapists. She is a student of shamanic practice and the mother of three amazing adult children. \n\n\n\nMartha Langford\, FRSC\, is the author of A History of Photography in Canada. The first of three volumes\, Anticipation to Participation\, 1839 1918 has just appeared. Beautifully produced\, the book is both lively and comprehensive\, with over 400 illustrations. Langford is a distinguished professor emeriti of Concordia University in Montreal. She is the former research chair and director of the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art. In prior lives\, she was the founding director of the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography\, an affiliate of the National Gallery of Canada\, and before that\, Executive Producer of the Still Photography Division of the National Film Board of Canada. She has organized photographic exhibitions for museums and festivals in Canada\, the UK\, and Europe. \n\n\n\nValérie Lefebvre-Faucher is editor-in-chief of Liberté. She has worked as an editor at both Remue-ménage and Écosociété\, with a focus on environmental\, anti-capitalist\, and feminist work. In addition to having collaborated with numerous collectives\, blogs\, and magazines\, she published Procès Verbal and Promenade sur Marx\, published in English under the title Jenny\, Eleanor\, and Laura\, et al.\, translated by Mélissa Bull. \n\n\n\nStephen Monteiro teaches and researches media and culture at Concordia University. He has written or edited several books\, including Needy Media\, The Fabric of Interface\, and The Screen Media Reader. He has contributed as an expert on contemporary technology to CBC Radio and the Toronto Star\, among other media outlets.  \n\n\n\nWell-known journalist\, documentary filmmaker\, teacher and broadcaster\, Francine Pelletier\, formerly of CBC’s the fifth estate\, is the author of three books: Second début: Cendres et renaissance du féminisme\, Atelier 10\, (2015)\, a short personal history of feminism in Quebec; : L’Art de se mouiller : Chroniques pour nourrir le débat\,  Écosociété (2022)\, a selection of her columns in Le Devoir from 2013-22; and Dream Interrupted : the Rise and Fall of Quebec Nationalism\, Sutherland House (2025). \n\n\n\nA transnational historian\, primarily focused on Southeast Europe and France\, Alex R. Tipei is professor of history and international studies at the Université de Montréal. MQUP published her book\, Unintended Nations: France’s Empire of Civilization\, Southeast Europe\, and the Post-Napoleonic World. Alex’s research has received funding from SSHRC\, the Fulbright Program\, and the American Council of Learned Societies. She has taught and researched at McGill and Princeton Universities as well as the Universities of Bucharest and Illinois. Alex is also a team leader on the European Research Council funded project Transnational Histories of Corruption in South-East-Central Europe based at New Europe College/Institute for Advanced Study in Bucharest. \n\n\n\nRyan Van Huijstee is the director of Concordia University Press. He previously held a range of roles at University of Toronto Press and McGill-Queen’s University Press. \n\n\n\nThomas Waugh is a writer\, programmer\, and activist who taught film studies and sexuality at Concordia University from 1976 to 2017. He is the author of The Romance of Transgression in Canada: Queering Sexualities\, Nations\, Cinema; and fourteen other books. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n2025 Read Quebec Book Fair
URL:https://qwf.org/event/new-knowledge-nonfiction-lightning-round/
LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 Rue Jean-Talon Est\, Montreal\, Quebec\, H2R 1T6\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Community Events,Festival,Panel,Read Quebec Book Fair
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251206T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251206T150000
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SUMMARY:Valentine in December! with Heather O'Neill and Arizona O'Neill
DESCRIPTION:December 6\, 2025\, 2–3 pmMain Stage\, Salle des célébrations\n\n\n\nThe duo will take to the stage to discuss their collaboration Valentine in Montreal. The novel\, written by Heather with illustrations by Arizona\, is a sweet Montreal adventure in which our famous metro plays a starring role. The O’Neills will sign copies after their onstage appearance. \n\n\n\nHeather O’Neill is a novelist\, short-story writer and essayist. Her most recent novel is Valentine in Montreal. Her previous works include Capital of Dreams and When We Lost Our Heads\, a #1 national bestseller and finalist for the Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal. The Lonely Hearts Hotel\, won the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and CBC’s Canada Reads. Lullabies for Little Criminals\, The Girl Who Was Saturday Night\, and Daydreams of Angels were shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction\, the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Scotiabank Giller Prize two years in a row. O’Neill has also won CBC’s Canada Reads and the Danuta Gleed Award. Born and raised in Montreal\, she lives there today. \n\n\n\nArizona O’Neill is a Montreal-based author and illustrator. Her illustrations appear in Valentine in Montreal. She is the author of Est-ce qu’un artiste peut être heureux ?\, a collection of graphic interviews\, and illustrated Nelly Arcan’s L’enfant dans le miroir. Her comics have appeared in Hazlitt\, Exclaim!\, the Montreal Gazette and mRb. She has created animated videos for many outlets\, including CBC. She is a regular contributor to Radio-Canada’s Il restera toujours la culture\, and is one half of the bookstagram page @ONeillReads. She is currently working on a graphic memoir.  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n2025 Read Quebec Book Fair
URL:https://qwf.org/event/valentine-in-december-with-heather-oneill-and-arizona-oneill/
LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 Rue Jean-Talon Est\, Montreal\, Quebec\, H2R 1T6\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Community Events,Festival,Panel,Read Quebec Book Fair
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://qwf.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Valentine-in-December.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251206T153000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251206T163000
DTSTAMP:20260425T222934
CREATED:20251112T200402Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251202T172707Z
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SUMMARY:NaMOOste Yoga for Kids 
DESCRIPTION:December 6\, 2025\, 3:30 – 4:30 pmMain Stage\, Salle des célébrations\n\n\n\nAuthor Marlee Kostiner never fails to get kids giggling as she reads all the ways animals say “Namaste” with their animal sounds (the cow says naMOOste\, the chick says namaSQUEEK). After an engaging reading\, Marlee guides the kids through yoga poses they learned in the book\, ending with a relaxing moment of silence (yes\, the kids are quiet!). NaMOOste features 13 beautiful watercolour animals practising authentic yoga poses\, and shows young readers ways to care for their bodies and minds. For kids ages 3–9. \n\n\n\nMarlee Kostiner is an award-winning journalist\, writer\, editor\, and the author of NaMOOste\, a playful yoga book that helps kids build social-emotional skills. A passionate advocate for neurodiversity and mental health\, Marlee brings these values into all her creative work. In 2021\, she founded Garden Wolf Publishing House to help fellow purpose-driven experts\, organizations and non-profits turn their ideas into meaningful children’s books. She lives in Montreal with her two sons\, her husband\, and their grumpy cat. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n2025 Read Quebec Book Fair
URL:https://qwf.org/event/namooste-yoga-for-kids/
LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 Rue Jean-Talon Est\, Montreal\, Quebec\, H2R 1T6\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Community Events,Festival,Read Quebec Book Fair
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251206T153000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251206T170000
DTSTAMP:20260425T222934
CREATED:20251112T200220Z
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SUMMARY:Guernica Editions Showcase
DESCRIPTION:December 6\, 2025\, 3:30 – 5 pmRotunda\n\n\n\nAn event celebrating Guernica Editions’ longstanding presence in Quebec\, featuring readings by authors with new releases this year\, including fiction\, memoir\, and poetry. With the purchase of a book\, guests will be entered into a raffle to win a selection of Guernica titles. \n\n\n\n\nMichael Carin\, Edisson & Jeremiah\n\n\n\nAnn Cavlovic\, Count on Me\n\n\n\nJonathan Kaplansky and Francis Catalano\, The Origin of the Future\n\n\n\nAndreas Kessaris\, The Grand Tour of Park Ex\n\n\n\nBunmi Oyinsan\, A Ladder of Bones\n\n\n\nMeryem Yildiz\, Backbone\n\n\n\nContributors from The Nuances of Love\n\n\n\n\nMichael Carin trained as a political theorist at McGill University\, where he also studied under the godfather of Canadian literature\, Hugh MacLennan. He is the author of several novels\, including Five Hundred Keys\, The Kremlin Papers\, and the work of alternate history Churchill at Munich. His non-fiction response to the Holocaust\, The Future Jew\, won him wide recognition as a provocative secular humanist. Mr. Carin lives in Montreal. \n\n\n\nPoet\, novelist\, short story writer and essayist born in Montreal\, Francis Catalano won the Quebecor Prize of the Trois-Rivières International Poetry Festival for Qu’une lueur des lieux (2010) and the La Métropole Prize of Excellence for Climax (2022). As a translator of Italian poetry\, he won the John Glassco Prize in 2006 for Instructions pour la lecture d’un journal de Valerio Magrelli. \n\n\n\nAnn Cavlovic’s fiction and creative non-fiction have appeared in Canadian literary magazines and news media\, such as Event\, The Fiddlehead\, Grain\, PRISM International\, The Globe & Mail\, and CBC. She lives in Western Quebec.  \n\n\n\nConnie Guzzo McParland\, president and co-director of Guernica Editions\, holds a BA in Italian Literature and a master’s degree in Creative Writing from Concordia University. She is the author of The Girls of Piazza D’amore (2013)\, The Women of Saturn (2017)\, Le Donne di Saturno (2019)\, An opera in 3 Acts/Un opéra en trois actes (2021)\, and The Twelfth Room\, a translation of La Dodicesima Stanza. \n\n\n\nJonathan Kaplansky is a literary translator of French in Montreal. He won a French Voices Award to translate Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux’s Things Seen and was shortlisted for the David Booth Award for Jonathan Bécotte’s Like a Hurricane. He has also translated works by Hélène Dorion\, Lise Gauvin\, Louis- Philippe Hébert\, Hélène Rioux and Lise Tremblay. \n\n\n\nAndreas Kessaris grew up in Montreal’s Park Extension district\, the son of Greek immigrants. He graduated from Dawson College and Concordia University\, earning a BA in Communications & English. His column\, Read On! with Andreas Kessaris\, was a popular feature in the West-End community paper The Local Herald. His writing has also appeared on Suite101.com\, in the literary journal The Write Place\, on the Montreal entertainment website Curtainsup.tv\, The Miramichi Reader\, and The Montreal Review of Books. His first book\, The Butcher of Park Ex & Other Semi-Truthful Tales\, was released in 2020 to great acclaim. \n\n\n\nBunmi Oyinsan is a Nigerian/Canadian writer. From novels to scripts for radio\, television\, and the theatre\, she has contributed to both the nonfiction and fiction canons of African literature. Oyinsan gained her MA focusing on orature and literature from Saint Mary’s University and a Ph.D. from York University. She is the writer\, producer\, and presenter for the Sankofa Pan African Series\, which has over 100K subscribers and over 5 million views. She is a winner of the Matatu Prize for her YA novel Fabulous Four and has been nominated for THEMA’s Best Film Script. Her novel Three Women was nominated for the Flora Nwapa Prize for Women’s Literature in 2006. Born in Lagos\, she lives in Bowmanville\, Ontario. \n\n\n\nMeryem Yildiz is a Turkish-Canadian poet from Tiohtià:ke (Montreal). Her poems have appeared in journals across the country\, including Arc Poetry Magazine\, The Ex-Puritan\, PRISM International\, The Fiddlehead\, and yolk\, among others. In 2022\, she won The Malahat Review’s Far Horizons Award for Poetry as well as the Quebec Writers’ Federation’s carte blanche Prize. She’s also a poetry editor at LBRNTH\, a queer literature and arts magazine\, which she co-edits with Misha Solomon. In her debut collection\, Backbone\, Meryem explores the complexities of identity across geographies\, and reveals how friendship and memory shape the search for home. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n2025 Read Quebec Book Fair
URL:https://qwf.org/event/guernica-editions-showcase/
LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 Rue Jean-Talon Est\, Montreal\, Quebec\, H2R 1T6\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Community Events,Festival,Panel,Read Quebec Book Fair,Reading
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://qwf.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Guernica-Showcase.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251206T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251206T190000
DTSTAMP:20260425T222934
CREATED:20251112T200614Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251202T172724Z
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SUMMARY:Opening Cocktail
DESCRIPTION:December 6\, 2025\, 5 – 7 pmSalle des mémoires\n\n\n\nJoin us for a special 10th anniversary edition of the Read Quebec Book Fair’s 5 à 7 featuring a DJ set by journalist and author of Habs Nation Brendan Kelly\, known for his popular High Fidelity in the Park events. New wave\, old-school disco and you. Open to all!   \n\n\n\nBorn in Glasgow\, raised in Montreal and a fan of the Canadiens for longer than he can remember\, Brendan Kelly was one of the founders of the late great alternative weekly the Montreal Mirror. He worked at the Montreal Daily News in the late ‘80s and had a weekly music column on CBC Radio for over 30 years. His Montreal Gazette column What the Puck is a controversial contrarian hot take on the Canadiens that elicits much hate and even more love. He has written for the Gazette since 1996. He also frequently contributes to various Radio-Canada cultural shows. He has published two books on the Montreal Canadiens – Le CH et son people (2024)\, and Habs Nation: A People’s History of the Montreal Canadiens (2025). \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n2025 Read Quebec Book Fair
URL:https://qwf.org/event/opening-cocktail-2025/
LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 Rue Jean-Talon Est\, Montreal\, Quebec\, H2R 1T6\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Community Events,Festival,Read Quebec Book Fair
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://qwf.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Opening-Cocktail.png
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