Quebec Writers' Federation

Spiritual Reclamation/Ceremony: Healing from Intergenerational Trauma
2020-10-29 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Online via Zoom
Drawing on trauma theory, epistemology, and education for social justice, Suzanne Methot‘s lecture describes how Indigenous spirituality moves us from woundedness to interrelatedness – and how that process becomes a healing story. The Cartesian emphasis on thinking leads us to an individual, alone with their thoughts. Living a spiritual life requires us to look outward, to the world and our place within it. Canada needs a healing story.

Suzanne Methot is a Nêhiyaw (Cree) writer, editor, educator and community worker born in Vancouver, British Columbia and raised in Peace River, Alberta. Her work has been published in anthologies including Steal My Rage and Let the Drums Be Your Heart. She has worked in the non-profit sector, in the classroom, and in advocacy and direct-service positions in Indigenous community-based agencies. She is co-author of the textbook Aboriginal Beliefs, Values, and Aspirations. Her most recent book is titled Legacy: Trauma, Story, and Indigenous Healing (ECW Press, 2019).

Librairie D+Q presents Anne Helen Petersen launching Can't Even
2020-10-29 19:00 - 20:30 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
Join us for the virtual launch of Anne Helen Petersen‘s new book Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation
RSVP here: https://bit.ly/2GeLtiN
Where and How Can I purchase the books? Why our webstore of course… We ship Canada-wide!
http://mtl.drawnandquarterly.com/webstore
By purchasing your book at Librairie Drawn & Quarterly you help support events like this one, independent publishing and retailing, our neighborhood, and authors both local and from around the world who depend on independent bookstores for their livelihood. Your support is appreciated.
CAN’T EVEN: HOW MILLENIALS BECAME THE BURNOUT GENERATION
An incendiary examination of burnout in millennials—the cultural shifts that got us here, the pressures that sustain it, and the need for drastic change.
Do you feel like your life is an endless to-do list? Do you find yourself mindlessly scrolling through Instagram because you’re too exhausted to pick up a book? Are you mired in debt, or feel like you work all the time, or feel pressure to take whatever gives you joy and turn it into a monetizable hustle? Welcome to burnout culture.
While burnout may seem like the default setting for the modern era, in Can’t Even, BuzzFeed culture writer and former academic Anne Helen Petersen argues that burnout is a definitional condition for the millennial generation, born out of distrust in the institutions that have failed us, the unrealistic expectations of the modern workplace, and a sharp uptick in anxiety and hopelessness exacerbated by the constant pressure to “perform” our lives online. The genesis for the book is Petersen’s viral BuzzFeed article on the topic, which has amassed over eight million reads since its publication in January 2019.
Can’t Even goes beyond the original article, as Petersen examines how millennials have arrived at this point of burnout (think: unchecked capitalism and changing labor laws) and examines the phenomenon through a variety of lenses—including how burnout affects the way we work, parent, and socialize—describing its resonance in alarming familiarity. Utilizing a combination of sociohistorical framework, original interviews, and detailed analysis, Can’t Even offers a galvanizing, intimate, and ultimately redemptive look at the lives of this much-maligned generation, and will be required reading for both millennials and the parents and employers trying to understand them.

King of Canada - World Premiere
2020-10-29 19:30 - 21:30, 2020-10-30 19:30 - 21:30, 2020-10-31 19:30 - 21:30, 2020-11-01 19:30 - 21:30 | 397A Saint-Catherine St W, Montreal, Quebec H3B 1A4, 397A Saint-Catherine St W, Montreal, Quebec, H3B 1A4, Canada
Infinithéâtre is thrilled to welcome you home to the theatre with the world premiere of Paul Van Dyck’s tragicomic “King of Canada”!
Recently included as part of our “Infinite Playwrights’ Chat Room” series, “King of Canada” is a meta-theatrical political satire that puts William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada’s longest-serving prime minister, under the microscope. Part séance, part trial, the man and his actions are put to judgement. And with him, the actions of our nation. A look at the power of one, lifted by the will of many.
Ellen David and Brian Dooley, two celebrated stars of the Montreal theatre scene, perform in this playful yet biting examination of legacy. Dooley incarnates King, David brings many others to life; close to forty other characters including King’s mother, FDR, Churchill, Hitler, and three Irish terriers named Pat.
“King of Canada” will run from October 20th to November 1st at KIN Gallery. Tickets are limited, with a maximum audience size of 20 patrons per performance.
To purchase tickets, visit: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/116771405417

Crafty Poetry
2020-10-29 20:00 - 22:00, 2020-11-05 20:00 - 22:00 | Online via Zoom
Workshop details TBA!

Creating A QWF Workshop: Best Practices
2020-11-01 10:00 - 12:00, 2020-11-08 10:00 - 12:00 | Online via Zoom

Writing About Controversial Topics: Nonfiction
2020-11-02 18:00 - 20:00, 2020-11-09 18:00 - 20:00 | Online via Zoom
Workshop description TBA!

Remembering: The Art and Craft of Memoir
2020-11-02 20:00 - 22:00, 2020-11-09 20:00 - 22:00 | Online via Zoom

Take a Second Look: Poetry Editing Workshop
2020-11-03 14:00 - 16:00, 2020-11-10 14:00 - 16:00 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
An early draft is often a diamond in the rough. Writers polish their writing through revision. Whether you’re writing for your personal archives or publication, taking a second look at your work will create tighter writing.
During the workshop, we will discuss three features of a poem—words, lines, and titles. We will look at poems by acclaimed poets for practical examples of our discussion. Participants will revise three poems. Before the start of the workshop, participants will be asked to send Blossom three poems they plan to edit during the workshop.
Blossom Thom is a poet and editor. She is the author of #HashtagRelief (Gaspereau Press, 2017) and her poetry has appeared during art collaborations and in literary magazines and anthologies including Poetic Notions: A Weaving of Poetry and Visual Arts, Kola: A Black Literary Magazine, and Montréal Serai. A mentorship with George Elliott Clarke set the groundwork for her work-in-progress and was supported by a Professional Development for Artists Grant from the Canada Council for the Arts.
Please see event link for further details.

Writing Memorable Characters for the Screen
2020-11-03 18:00 - 20:00, 2020-11-10 18:00 - 20:00 | Online via Zoom

Review, Refine, Submit: Strategies for Writing Short Prose
2020-11-03 20:00 - 22:00, 2020-11-10 20:00 - 22:00 | Online via Zoom

Silver Pins: Novel Writing Workshop
2020-11-04 18:00 - 20:00, 2020-11-11 18:00 - 20:00 | Online via Zoom

Gay Reads Book Club: Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl
2020-11-04 19:00 - 20:30 | Online via Zoom
Join the Gay Reads book club to discuss classic and contemporary literature by LGBTQ2IA+ authors. We’ll read across genres to uncover queer sensibilities, alternative canons, and exciting new voices. In a previous era, the club met every two months at La Petite Librairie Drawn & Quarterly with host Kathleen Fraser. These days we’re meeting VIRTUALLY, via Zoom!
At our next meeting, Wednesday, November 4th, at 7 PM EST, we’ll discuss PAUL TAKES THE FORM OF A MORTAL GIRL by Andrea Lawlor.
Where and How Can I purchase the book? From our online store:
We Ship Canada-wide! & we deliver by bike to select postal codes in Montreal!
By purchasing your book at Librairie Drawn & Quarterly you help support events like this one, independent publishing and retailing, our neighborhood, and authors both local and from around the world who depend on independent bookstores for their livelihood. Your support is appreciated.
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PAUL TAKES THE FORM OF A MORTAL GIRL
It’s 1993 and Paul Polydoris tends bar at the only gay club in a university town thrumming with politics and partying. He studies queer theory, has a dyke best friend, makes zines, and is a flaneur with a rich dating life. But Paul’s also got a secret: he’s a shapeshifter. Oscillating wildly from Riot Grrrl to leather cub, Paul transforms his body and his gender at will as he crossed the country––a journey and adventure through the deep queer archives of struggle and pleasure.
Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl is a riotous, razor-sharp bildungsroman whose hero/ine wends his/her way through a world gutted by loss, pulsing with music, and opening into an array of intimacy and connections.

Writing What We Don’t (Yet) Know: Fiction
2020-11-04 20:00 - 22:00, 2020-11-11 20:00 - 22:00 | Online via Zoom

Indigenous Spirituality in Poetry
2020-11-05 18:00 - 19:00 | Online via Zoom
In this presentation, Louise Bernice Halfe (Sky Dancer) will read a selection of her work and discuss the ways in which spirituality operates in her own writing as well as how it manifests in Indigenous poetry more generally.
Halfe’s first published poetry appeared in Writing the Circle: Women of Western Canada. She has since published four collections: Bear Bones & Feathers (1994, winner of the Canadian People’s Poet Award and finalist for the Spirit of Saskatchewan Award), Blue Marrow (1998, finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Poetry, Pat Lowther Award, and Saskatchewan Book of the Year Award), The Crooked Good (2007) and her most recent collection Burning in this Midnight Dream (2016, winner of three Saskatchewan Book Awards and the League of Canadian Poets Raymond Souster Award).
In September 2020, she received the 2020 Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence.
This event is part of the Spirituality as Land, Story and Relation series presented by the Department of Theological Studies with the support of the Faculty of Arts and Science. Visit the series page to view the full line-up of speakers for Fall 2020.

Argo Zoom Reading Series : Verse, Prose & Song
2020-11-05 19:00 - 21:00 | Online via Zoom
Argo Zoom Reading Series : Verse, Prose & Song
Brian Campbell, Ilona Martonfi, Barry Webster, Cora Siré, Kelly Norah Drukker, Tom Abray, Flavia Cosma, Su J. Sokol
Argo Bookshop 1915 Ste. Catherine St. West
https://www.argobookshop.ca/
Hosted by Adele-Elise Prevost & Moti Lieberman 514.931.3442
Curator Ilona Martonfi ilona.martonfi@sympatico.ca
Thursday, November 5, 2020 7 PM-9 PM
Please email events@argobookshop.ca for the Zoom link

Librairie D+Q presents Leanne Betasamosake Simpson launching Noopiming
2020-11-05 19:00 - 21:00 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
Join us for the virtual launch of Leanne Betasamosake Simpson‘s new book Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies.
Where and How Can I purchase the books? Why our webstore of course… We ship Canada-wide!
http://mtl.drawnandquarterly.com/webstore
By purchasing your book at Librairie Drawn & Quarterly you help support events like this one, independent publishing and retailing, our neighborhood, and authors both local and from around the world who depend on independent bookstores for their livelihood. Your support is appreciated.
NOOPIMING: THE CURE FOR WHITE LADIES
Award-winning Nishnaabeg storyteller and writer Leanne Betasamosake Simpson returns with a bold reimagination of the novel, one that combines narrative and poetic fragments through a careful and fierce reclamation of Anishinaabe aesthetics.
Mashkawaji (they/them) lies frozen in the ice, remembering a long-ago time of hopeless connection and now finding freedom and solace in isolated suspension. They introduce us to the seven main characters: Akiwenzii, the old man who represents the narrator’s will; Ninaatig, the maple tree who represents their lungs; Mindimooyenh, the old woman who represents their conscience; Sabe, the giant who represents their marrow; Adik, the caribou who represents their nervous system; Asin, the human who represents their eyes and ears; and Lucy, the human who represents their brain. Each attempts to commune with the unnatural urban-settler world, a world of SpongeBob Band-Aids, Ziploc baggies, Fjällräven Kånken backpacks, and coffee mugs emblazoned with institutional logos. And each searches out the natural world, only to discover those pockets that still exist are owned, contained, counted, and consumed.
Cut off from nature, the characters are cut off from their natural selves. Noopiming is Anishinaabemowin for “in the bush,” and the title is a response to English Canadian settler and author Susanna Moodie’s 1852 memoir Roughing It in the Bush. To read Simpson’s work is an act of decolonization, degentrification, and willful resistance to the perpetuation and dissemination of centuries-old colonial myth-making. It is a lived experience. It is a breaking open of the self to a world alive with people, animals, ancestors, and spirits, who are all busy with the daily labours of healing — healing not only themselves, but their individual pieces of the network, of the web that connects them all together.
Enter and be changed.

Carmen Maria Machado and Silvia Moreno-Garcia double launch
2020-11-09 19:00 - 20:30 | Online
Join us for a virtual launch for Carmen Maria Machado and Silvia Moreno-Garcia!
Purchase a copy of The Low Low Woods, In The Dream House, or Mexican Gothic to receive access to this exclusive virtual event.
Already purchased one of these books from us and want to join? Email events@drawnandquarterly.com
Where and how can I purchase the books?
Why our webstore of course… We’ve got signed copies & we ship Canada-wide!
http://mtl.drawnandquarterly.com/posts/webstore-faq
By purchasing your book at Librairie Drawn & Quarterly you help support events like this one, independent publishing and retailing, our neighborhood, and authors both local and from around the world who depend on independent bookstores for their livelihood. Your support is appreciated.

True Reads Book Club - Intimations
2020-11-11 19:00 - 20:30 | Online via Zoom
Come discuss the best new Non-Fiction books with our True Reads book club!

For our November meeting, we’ll be reading INTIMATIONS: Six Essays by Zadie Smith.

Where and How Can I purchase the book? Our webstore is here:
http://mtl.drawnandquarterly.com/posts/webstore-faq
We ship Canada-wide!
By purchasing your book at Librairie Drawn & Quarterly you help support events like this one, independent publishing and retailing, our neighborhood, and authors both local and from around the world who depend on independent bookstores for their livelihood. Your support is appreciated.
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INTIMATIONS: Six Essays
Deeply personal and powerfully moving, a short and timely series of essays on the experience of lock down, by one of the most clear-sighted and essential writers of our time
“There will be many books written about the year 2020: historical, analytic, political and comprehensive accounts. This is not any of those–the year isn’t half-way done. What I’ve tried to do is organize some of the feelings and thoughts that events, so far, have provoked in me, in those scraps of time the year itself has allowed. These are above all personal essays: small by definition, short by necessity.”
Crafted with the sharp intelligence, wit, and style that have won Zadie Smith millions of fans, and suffused with a profound intimacy and tenderness in response to these unprecedented times, Intimations is a vital work of art, a gesture of connection, and an act of love–an essential book in extraordinary times.
