Quebec Writers' Federation

The Art of Literary Translation
2023-05-08 18:00 - 20:00, 2023-05-15 18:00 - 21:00, 2023-05-29 18:00 - 21:00, 2023-06-05 18:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
In this workshop, we will explore literary translation from French to English: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and songs.

We will look at contemporary literature from Quebec and France, as well as some older (nineteenth- and twentieth-century) texts. Sources may include Gabrielle Roy, Anne Hébert, Annie Ernaux, and Samuel Archibald. We will start by looking at an excerpt of a literary text in French and reading a published English translation of it. What difficulties (such as euphony, voice, word play, and verb tense) did the translator face, and how successful were they? At each meeting, there will be time to produce your own translations, often in groups. We will read our work aloud and comment on difficulties and strokes of inspiration.

Participants will have the opportunity to translate a further passage from the same work (or from another) as a homework assignment for the next meeting. The corrected assignments provide individual feedback and lead to discussion of the issues encountered.

During the course of the workshop, you’ll be asked to present a passage you have translated from a work you have chosen, commenting on the issues it presents, and describing ways of solving these issues. This is an ideal opportunity to begin or pursue a project you intend to submit to a publisher. Jonathan Kaplanskywon a French Voices Award to translate Nobel Prize-winning author Annie Ernaux’s La vie extérieure (Things Seen)for the University of Nebraska Press. Recent translations include Jonathan Bécotte’s Like a Hurricane (Orca, 2023) and Hélène Rioux’s The End of the World is Elsewhere (Guernica, 2022). He has sat on the juries for the translation category of the Governor General’s Literary Awards and the John Glassco Translation Prize and recently translated the libretto of an opera by Hélène Dorion and Marie-Claire Blais entitled Yourcenar: An Island of Passions.

Helen Molesworth in Conversation with Jarrett Earnest
2023-05-11 18:00 | Cinema du Musée, 1379-A Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Thursday, May 11, 2023 at 6 PMCinéma du Musée1379-A Sherbrooke Street WestPresented by ART SPEAKS

Art Speaks is proud to present a conversation between Helen Molesworth and Jarrett Earnest, which will focus on Molesworth’s impressive career and trajectory in the art world as a thinker, writer and curator.

Helen Molesworth is a writer and a curator based in Los Angeles. She recently hosted Death of an Artist a 6-part podcast about the intertwined fates of Carl Andre and Ana Mendieta. She was the originating host of the podcast “Recording Artists” with The Getty. She is also the host of PROGRAM, streamed interviews with artists and writers hosted by the David Zwirner Gallery. Her major museum exhibitions include: One Day at a Time: Manny Farber and Termite Art; Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933–1957; Dance/Draw; This Will Have Been: Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s; Part Object Part Sculpture, and Work Ethic. She has organized monographic exhibitions of Ruth Asawa, Moyra Davey, Noah Davis, Louise Lawler, Steve Locke, Anna Maria Maiolino, Josiah McElheny, Kerry James Marshall, Catherine Opie, Amy Sillman, and Luc Tuymans. She is the author of numerous catalogue essays and her writing has appeared in Artforum, Art Journal, Documents, and October. The recipient of the 2011 Bard Center for Curatorial Studies Award for Curatorial Excellence, in 2021 she received a Guggenheim Fellowship and in 2022 she was awarded The Clark Art Writing Prize.

Jarrett Earnest is a writer and curator living in New York City. He is the author of What it Means to Write About Art: Interviews with Art Critics (2018) and editor of The Young and Evil: Queer Modernism in New York, 1930-1955 (2020), Painting is a Supreme Fiction: Writings by Jesse Murry, 1980-1993 (2021) and Devotion: today’s future becomes tomorrow archive (2022). His criticism has been published in magazines and exhibition catalogs around the world, and appears regularly in the New York Review of Books. His new collection of photographs and writing,Valid Until Sunset, will be out this fall.

T. Liem launches SLOWS:TWICE
2023-05-11 19:00 | La Petite Librairie Drawn & Quarterly, 176 Bernard West, Montréal, Québec, H2T2K2, Canada
Thursday, May 11 at 7:00 pmLa Petite Librairie Drawn & Quarterly

Join T. Liem at La Petite Librairie Drawn & Quarterly at 176 rue Bernard O at 7 pm on Thursday, May 11th for the launch of their new poetry collection SLOWS:TWICE! The evening will feature readings by Trynne Delaney, Alexe Perry-Cox and Lauren Turner, a conversation, Q&A and signing.

The event is free and open to all. Books will be available for purchase at the event and the author will sign copies of their book.

Please note that we are asking all guests to wear masks at this event. Masks will be available free of charge upon entry.

About the Book

Backward and forward: a double book of mirrored poems about identity in all its forms.

This is a book of slow hours, days, and years—how they can collapse into one another, how it can feel like we are living one day repeating itself. From within this collapse, the speaker seeks connection everywhere. They visit their father’s birthplace, Jogjakarta; they listen to a stranger’s phone call at the Motel 6 in Alberta; they linger in the so-called ethnic aisle of the grocery store. From all of these places the speaker is discouraged but tries to imagine a future joyously incomprehensible to the present.

Slows: Twice is a collection of revisions and repetitions. Every poem in one half of the book has an alternate version, or a mirror poem, in the other half. Lines, words, images, and forms are reused and reflected in a kind of palindrome, so the book can be read from front cover to back cover, or vice versa. In this way, Liem considers how language shapes identity over time and how the speaker’s position in relation to language might be revised. The poems are tied to themes of work and labor, consumption and waste, family and home, as other shapers of identity and relationships. The act of revising and repeating – slowly – is meant to be a resistance to efficiency, a resistance to being an always-productive body under capitalism.

About the Author

T. Liem was born and raised in Vegreville, Alberta, and now lives in Montreal, Quebec. They are the author of OBITS. (2018), which was shortlisted for a Lambda Literary Award, and won the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award as well as the A. M. Klein Prize. Their writing has been published in Catapult, Apogee, Plenitude, the Boston Review, Grain, Maison- neuve, Best Canadian Poetry 2018 and 2019, and elsewhere.

Accessibility

Organizers encourage the wearing of masks at events.

Event space uses StopGap.ca ramps in an effort to encourage accessibility. Both the step at the entrance, followed by a half step and a door have StopGap ramps. The door opens inward and is not automated. Once inside, there are no additional steps.

It is not a sober space, our events sometimes offer alcohol.

Please email events@drawnandquarterly.com if you have any questions!

Susan Lloy Launches: Nothing Comes Back
2023-05-11 19:30 - 20:30 | Argo Bookshop, 1841A Ste-Catherine St. West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Join us at 7:30 PM on Thursday, May 11th, for the launch of Susan Lloy’s new short story collection, Nothing Comes Back!The event will take place in-store, and is free. Please note that we still ask people to wear masks in the Argo. As seating is limited, RSVPs are encouraged; click here!

About the Book

Age is the great divider. One side fused of fire and lust, the other undetected like fallout. The characters in this collection have been plucked and blown through time like pollen on the wind, often rooting themselves in foreign landscapes both beautiful and adverse, sometimes altered, yet always unyielding, ripe for transformation. Nothing Comes Back is a deeply captivating collection by a major literary talent working at the top of her craft.

About the Author

Author of the two short story collections But When We Look Closer (2017) and Vita (2019), as well as the children’s book Coo and the Loo (2021), Susan E. Lloy has dozens of international publication credits to date. Currently working on a fourth collection, Susan continues to write about characters existing on the edges of ordinary life. She lives in Montreal.

Film Screening: The Seeds of Vandana Shiva
2023-05-12 18:00 | The Caribbean Food Factory, 5311 Boul. de Maisonneuve Ouest, Montreal, Quebec, H4A 1Z5, Canada
Friday, May 12, 6:00 pm

The Choosing Joy Collective pleased to invite you to join us, and share with your platform, a one-time documentary screening of the award-winning documentary Seeds of Vandana Shiva, which tells the remarkable story of an ecofeminist activist and her plight for global food justice. The screening will take place May 12th at 7:00pm at the Caribbean Food Factory.

About the Film

How did the willful daughter of a Himalayan forest conservator become Monsanto’s worst nightmare? The Seeds of Vandana Shiva tells the remarkable life story of Gandhian eco-activist Dr. Vandana Shiva, how she stood up to the corporate Goliaths of industrial agriculture, rose to prominence in the seed saving and organic food movements, and is inspiring an international crusade for change.

The Seeds of Vandana Shiva documentary shows how the battle against multinational agribusiness has become an international struggle between two visions for feeding the world: The first, a multinational corporate model of chemically dependent monoculture that rewards a capitalist imperative of profit and growth. And the other: ‘Earth Democracy, that honors ecology, biodiversity, sustainability and community—what Dr. Shiva demonstrates is the only way forward for the future of food. (Vandanashivamovie.com, 2021)

Doors open at 6pm, the screening begins at 7 pm.

Light food & snacks will be available for purchase.

Tickets are available at the door in limited quality. To guarantee a seat, buy your ticket on Eventbrite.

Shut Up & Write! with QWF
2023-05-13 10:00 - 12:30 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
Saturday, May 13, 10:00 am-12:30 pmOnline via Zoom—RSVP below to receive the Zoom link

Looking for some dedicated, quiet writing space?

Register below to do all that writing you’ve been meaning to do. Using the Pomodoro technique, participants write in 25 minute bursts, with 5 minutes break in between.

This event is for QWF members only. Not a member? Learn about becoming a member. Please note that you have to be logged in for the registration link to show up. A Zoom link will be sent out a few days before the session.

Please note as well that these sessions are designed for silent writing, rather than discussing or getting feedback on work.

1000 – 1025: Writing 11025 – 1030: Break1030 – 1055: Writing 21055 – 1100: Break1100 – 1125: Writing 31125 – 1130: Break1130 – 1155: Writing 41155 – 1200: Break1200 – 1225: Writing 5

The Many Definitions of Family: Reflecting and Journalling with Christopher DiRaddo
2023-05-13 12:00 - 13:30 | Online via Zoom
Saturday, May 13, 12:00-1:30 pmFree, online via Zoom

Family is such an important part of our culture; it plays a large role in the stories we tell. But which family stories are not being told? And what does it mean to be a part of a family? How do we create honest depictions of those we share our lives with? In this workshop, we will reflect on what makes a family and explore what more can be done to expand that representation.

Montrealer Christopher DiRaddo is the author of the novels The Geography of Pluto and The Family Way. He is also the founder and host of The Violet Hour Reading Series & Book Club.

Offered by Accenti Magazine as part of the Workshops to Express Creativity: Engaging Canadian Seniors series.

Lunch & Learn with QWF
2023-05-16 12:00 - 13:00 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
Thursday, May 16, 12:00–1:00 pmOnline via ZoomTo register: RSVP below

Looking to connect with a community of like-minded writers? Whether you’re a new member of the Quebec Writers’ Federation or just curious about what we offer, join us for an engaging virtual lunchtime session with QWF!

Our knowledgeable staff members are passionate about supporting writers at all stages of their careers, from emerging wordsmiths to seasoned scribes. During this session, we’ll give you a deep dive into all of our programs and services, so you can get a better understanding of how QWF can support you on your writing journey.

Whether you’re interested in taking part in our writing workshops and mentorship programs, applying for our literary awards, or attending our events to connect with fellow writers and industry professionals, QWF has the resources and support you need to take your writing to the next level. We’re excited to meet you and look forward to welcoming you to our vibrant literary community!

Riley Palanca (Membership Services Coordinator) will be discussing QWF’s many programs and services geared toward emerging and aspiring writers, including our mentorship program, Shut Up & Write writing sessions, and writing workshops.

Lori Schubert (Executive Director) will be explaining QWF programs and services for more established writers, including the Writers in the Community program, the Hire a Writer Directory, and the QWF Awards.

John Wickham (Communications Officer) will provide a brief walkthrough of the website, highlighting sections and resources that are particularly useful to QWF members.

There will be time for questions at the end of the session.

To register, RSVP below. The Zoom link will be emailed to you a few days before the event.

Note: As this is a virtual event, you can join us from the comfort of your own home via Zoom. You’ll be able to interact with QWF staff and other attendees in real-time, and have the opportunity to ask questions and learn more about what QWF has to offer.

Daniel Allen Cox launches I Felt the End Before It Came in conversation with Heather O'Neill
2023-05-16 19:00 | La Petite Librairie Drawn & Quarterly, 176 Bernard West, Montréal, Québec, H2T2K2, Canada
Tuesday, May 16, 7:00 pmIn person and livestreamed

Join Daniel Allen Cox in conversation with Heather O’Neill for the launch of I Felt the End Before It Came: Memoirs of a Queer Ex-Jehovah’s Witness, which has been referred to by the latter author as “hugely entertaining, open-hearted, and insightful… a joy to read from start to finish.” The event will take place at La Petite Librairie Drawn & Quarterly at 176 rue Bernard O at 7 pm on Tuesday, May 16th, and will feature a reading, a conversation, Q&A and signing.

This event will be ASL interpreted. It is free and open to all. Books will be available for purchase at the event and the author will sign copies of their book.

Please note that we are asking all guests to wear masks at this event. Masks will be available free of charge upon entry.

The event will also be livestreamed on Drawn & Quarterly’s YouTube account—link to come.

About the Book

Daniel Allen Cox grew up with firm lines around what his religion considered unacceptable: celebrating birthdays and holidays; voting in elections, pursuing higher education, and other forays into independent thought. Their opposition to blood transfusions would have consequences for his mother, just as their stance on homosexuality would for him.

But even years after whispers of his sexual orientation reached his congregation’s presiding elder, catalyzing his disassociation, the distinction between “in” and “out” isn’t always clear. Still in the midst of a lifelong disentanglement, Cox grapples with the group’s cultish tactics—from gaslighting to shunning—and their resulting harms—from simmering anger to substance abuse—all while redefining its concepts through a queer lens. Can Paradise be a bathhouse, a concert hall, or a room full of books?

With great candour and disarming self-awareness, Cox takes readers on a journey from his early days as a solicitous door-to-door preacher in Montreal to a stint in New York City, where he’s swept up in a scene of photographers and hustlers blurring the line between art and pornography. The culmination of years spent both processing and avoiding a complicated past, I Felt the End Before It Came reckons with memory and language just as it provides a blueprint to surviving a litany of Armageddons.

About the Participants

Daniel Allen Cox is the author of I Felt the End Before It Came: Memoirs of a Queer Ex-Jehovah’s Witness. His essays have appeared in Electric Literature, Literary Hub, Catapult, TriQuarterly, The Malahat Review, The Rumpus, Maisonneuve, and elsewhere. His essay “The Glow of Electrum” was named Notable in Best American Essays 2021 and was a finalist for a 2021 National Magazine Award. Daniel is the author of four novels, nominated for the Lambda Literary Award, the Ferro-Grumley Award, and the ReLit Award. He is past president of the Quebec Writers’ Federation and lives in Montreal.

Heather O’Neill is a novelist, short-story writer and essayist. Her most recent bestselling novel, 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. Her previous work, which includes Lullabies for Little Criminals, The Girl Who Was Saturday Night and Daydreams of Angels, has been 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. She has won CBC’s Canada Reads and the Danuta Gleed Award. Born and raised in Montreal, O’Neill lives there with her daughter.

A Gathering of Waters: A Writing Workshop with Mary Soderstrom & Font
2023-05-17 10:00 - 13:00 | Quebec
“There is nothing in the world more soft and weak than water, yet for attacking things that arehard and strong there is nothing that surpasses it, nothing that can take its place.” Lao Tzu

Wednesday, May 17, 10 am-1 pmFree, Online

Writer Mary Soderstrom (author of Against the Seas: Saving Civilisation from Rising Waters and the novels River Music and After Surfing Ocean Beach) will be leading an online writing workshop to explore our relation with the power and wonder of water, in particular the great gathering of waters that is the St. Lawrence River and its estuary. Writings from the workshop will be published in Font magazine in June 2023.

To reserve a place, please email Rachel McCrum at font@fontmag.ca. Priority will be given to residents of Lower St Lawrence and the surrounding area

Giller Power Panel: The End is Nigh—Apocalyptic Canadian Fiction
2023-05-17 19:00 | Online via Zoom
Wednesday, May 17, 7:00 pmOnline via Zoom

Listen in as these writers share their literary visions for the end of the world.

Moderated by Omar El Akkad, the panelists include authors Larissa Lai, Thea Lim, Saleema Nawaz and Waubgeshig Rice

Eliza Robertson launches I Got A Name in conversation with Kasia Van Schaik
2023-05-18 19:00 | La Petite Librairie Drawn & Quarterly, 176 Bernard West, Montréal, Québec, H2T2K2, Canada
Thursday, May 18 at 7 pmLa Petite Librairie Drawn & Quarterly

Join Eliza Robertson at La Petite Librairie Drawn & Quarterly at 176 rue Bernard O at 7 pm on Thursday, May 18th for the launch of her new book I Got A Name! The evening will feature a reading, a conversation with Kasia Van Schaik, Q&A and signing.

The event is free and open to all. Books will be available for purchase at the event and the author will sign copies of their book.

Please note that we are asking all guests to wear masks at this event. Masks will be available free of charge upon entry.

About the Book

A vivid and meticulous true-crime story that exposes the deep fractures in a system that repeatedly fails to protect women, while tracking the once-cold trail of a murderer still at large.

Krystal Senyk was the kind of friend everybody wants: a reliable confidant, a handywoman of all trades, and an infectious creative with an adventurous spirit. Most importantly, she was tough as nails. So when her best friend needed support to leave her abusive husband, Ronald Bax, Krystal leapt into action.

But soon Krystal became the new outlet for Bax’s rage. He terrorized and intimidated her for months on end, and finally issued a chilling warning to her and his ex-wife: the hunt is on. Krystal was scared but she was smart: she reached out to the RCMP for a police escort home. The officer brushed her off.

Bax’s threat had been all too real. At 29 years old, the woman who seemed invincible—who was a beloved sister, daughter, and friend—was shot and killed at her home in the Yukon. Ronald Bax disappeared without a trace.

Three decades later, Eliza Robertson has re-opened the case. In compelling, vibrant prose, she works tirelessly to piece together Krystal’s story, retracing the dire failings of Canadian law enforcement and Bax’s last steps. I Got a Name uses one woman’s tragic story to boldly interrogate themes of gender-based violence and the pervasive issues that plague our society. In this riveting true-crime story about victimhood, power, and control, Robertson examines the broken system in place, and asks: if it isn’t looking out for the vulnerable, the threatened, the hunted—who among us is it protecting?

About the Author

Eliza Robertson attended the University of Victoria and the University of East Anglia, where she received the 2011 Man Booker Scholarship. In 2013, she won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and was a finalist for the CBC Short Story Prize and Journey Prize. Her novel Demi-Gods won the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. Her first story collection, Wallflowers, was shortlisted for the East Anglia Book Award and selected as a New York Times Editor’s Choice. In 2015, she was named one of five emerging writers for the Writers’ Trust Five x Five program. She lives in Montreal.

Accessibility:

Wearing a mask is encouraged at all D&Q events

Event space uses StopGap.ca ramps in an effort to encourage accessibility. Both the step at the entrance, followed by a half step and a door have StopGap ramps. The door opens inward and is not automated. Once inside, there are no additional steps.

It is not a sober space; our events sometimes offer alcohol

Everything for Everyone
2023-05-19 19:00 - 21:00 | Argo Bookshop, 1841A Ste-Catherine St. West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Friday, May 19, 7:00-9:00 pmArgo Bookshop

Join us on Friday, May 19th as we welcome authors M.E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi along with Helen Hudson to discuss their novel of revolutionary science fiction, Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052-2072!The event begins at 7 pm and is free and open to all. It will take place in-store; please note that masks are required at the Argo. As space is limited, RSVPs are recommended via Eventbrite by clicking here.

About the Book

By the middle of the twenty-first century, war, famine, economic collapse, and climate catastrophe had toppled the world’s governments. In the 2050s, the insurrections reached the nerve center of global capitalism—New York City. This book, a collection of interviews with the people who made the revolution, was published to mark the twentieth anniversary of the New York Commune, a radically new social order forged in the ashes of capitalist collapse.

Here is the insurrection in the words of the people who made it, a cast as diverse as the city itself. Nurses, sex workers, antifascist militants, and survivors of all stripes recall the collapse of life as they knew it and the emergence of a collective alternative. Their stories, delivered in deeply human fashion, together outline how ordinary people’s efforts to survive in the face of crisis contain the seeds of a new world.

About the Authors

M. E. O’Brien writes and speaks on gender freedom and capitalism. Everything for Everyone was her first book, coauthored with Eman Abdelhadi. Her second book, Family Abolition: Capitalism and the Communizing of Care, will be out from Pluto in June 2023. She co-edits two magazines, Pinko, on gay communism, and Parapraxis, on psychoanalytic theory and politics. She works as a therapist, and is pursuing training as a psychoanalyst.

Eman Abdelhadi is an academic, artist and activist based in Chicago who writes and thinks at the intersection of gender, sexuality, politics, and identity. She is co-author of “Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052-2072,” a revolutionary sci-fi novel published in 2022 with Common Notions Press. Her academic work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals and covered by press outlets such as the Washington Post, Associated Press, and NPR. Abdelhadi received her PhD in Sociology in 2019 and is currently an assistant professor at the University of Chicago.

The authors will be joined by discussant Helen Hudson. Helen Hudson has been involved in movements for social liberation for over 30 years, mostly while living in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal. Her work has included antiracist, feminist, and queer organizing; eco-justice work; student activism; anarchist movement building; prisoner solidarity and migrant justice.

Montréal Book Launch: House Within a House and Baby Book
2023-05-20 18:00 | Librairie Le Port de tête, 262 avenue du Mont-Royal Est, Montreal, Quebec, H2T 1P6, Canada
Saturday, May 20, 6 pmLibrairie Le Port de tête

Join D.M. Bradford, Amy Ching-Yan Lam, and Nicholas Dawson for a double book launch in Montréal! Hosted by Michael Nardone.

**We kindly ask that people mask for this event**

About the Authors

Amy Ching-Yan Lam is an artist and writer. She is the author of Looty Goes to Heaven (2022) and her poems have been published by Book Works, Montez Press, and yolkless press. Baby Book is her first collection of poetry. Lam’s exhibitions, performances, and public artworks, both solo and as part of the collective Life of a Craphead, have been presented at Seoul MediaCity Biennale, Eastside Projects, and Art Gallery of Ontario, amongst others, and she has participated in residencies at Macdowell and Delfina Foundation. She lives in Toronto, which is Mississauga Anishinaabeg treaty territory, as well as the land of the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat. Lam was born in Hong Kong.

D.M. Bradford is a poet, translator, and editor based in Tio’tia:ke (Verdun). His first book, Dream of No One but Myself, won the 2022 A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry and was a finalist for the Gerard Lampert Memorial Award and the Griffin Poetry Prize. His forthcoming collection, Bottom Rail on Top, will be published in 2023. House Within a House is his first book-length translation.

Born in Chile and based in Montréal, Nicholas Dawson is a writer, scholar, and the Literary Director of Éditions Triptyque. He is the author of La déposition des chemins (La Peuplade, 2010), Animitas (La Mèche, 2017), and Désormais, ma demeure (Triptyque, 2020), for which he received the Grand Prix du livre de Montréal and the Blue Metropolis Diversity Prize. He is also the co-author of Nous sommes un continent, Correspondance mestiza (Triptyque, 2021, with Karine Rosso), and the editor of many anthologies.

Michael Nardone is a poet and editor based in Montréal. His works include OEI #98-99: Aural Poetics, The Ritualites, Sonic Materialities, Transaction Record, and, with live artist Dana Michel, Yellow Towel: A Score.

About the Books

Baby Boy by Amy Ching-Yan Lam

House within a House by Nicholas Dawson, trans. D.M. Bradford

Désormais, ma demeure by Nicholas Dawson

Montreal International Anarchist Theatre Festival presents: Marusya Nikiforova: Ukraine's Legendary Anarchist Warrior
2023-05-23 19:00 | La Sala Rossa, 4848 St. Laurent Boulevard, Montreal, Quebec, H2T 2R5, Canada
Tuesday, May 23, 2023, 7:00 pmLa Sala Rossa, Montreal

Norman Nawrocki’s one-act play Marusya Nikiforova: Ukraine’s Legendary Anarchist Warrior debuts May 23 as part of the Montreal International Anarchist Theatre Festival.

Tickets are $20 and include entry to all the day’s performances:

Kiltras, by the Compania Danza JAM (Chile)

Marusya Nikiforova: Ukraine’s legendary anarchist warrior, by Norman Nawrocki/Babushka Theatre (Montreal)

CÍCLICAS: Resistiendo en la (de) (re) construcción, by Colectiva Tribu (Montreal)

A three-day pass to the entire festival is available for $50.

For more information, click here to visit the festival website.

Finding the Fun in Children's Nonfiction
2023-05-23 19:30 - 20:30 | Online via Zoom
Tuesday, May 23, 7:30-8:30 pmOnline via Zoom

Non-fiction is NOT fiction’s boring cousin. Join children’s non-fiction author Rachel Poliquin as she explores the use of fictional elements like character development, world-building, and dialogue in non-fiction writing and learn a few tips and techniques to create wildly entertaining and educational books for kids.

Rachel Poliquin writes about all things orderly and disorderly in nature. She particularly likes celebrating unexpected heroes — the lumpy, the lowly, and quietly extraordinary. She has written many non-fiction books about animal and nature for children including The Museum of Odd Body Leftovers and The Strangest Thing in the Sea. Rachel lives in Vancouver with her husband and three children.

Learn@Lunch: Navigating Bill 96 – Understanding Quebec’s French Language Law
2023-05-24 12:00 - 13:30 | Online via Zoom
Wednesday, May 24, 12:00-1:30 pmOnline via Zoom

Are you wondering about Quebec’s newly approved Bill 96?

In this Learn@Lunch, YES Employment + Entrepreneurship will be discussing the potential impact of Quebec’s new French language law Bill 96 on the labour market. More specifically, we will examine the effect of these new measures imposed on Quebec English-speaking entrepreneurs, employees and job seekers who may not have a good command of the French language.

This presentation will allow you to better understand the new requirements you may have to face in your job search or in your entrepreneurial journey in Quebec, with respect to the required use of French.

Guest Speaker: Hanna El Fishawy, Avocate en droit du travail et de l’emploi – Employment Lawyer | Plūme inc.

About the speaker: As a member of the Quebec bar, Hanna El Fishawy focuses her practice on advising and representing companies across all industries, big and small, in the various aspects of employment law. She quickly became conscious of the issues that employers face on a daily basis, with respect to the management of their employees, and the conflictual relationship that often ensues.

Hanna makes sure to keep up to date with current employment legislation and ensures that her clients not only understand their current situation, but also guides them toward decisions that are made in their best interest.

With the implementation of Bill 96, Hanna has invested much time and effort in analyzing it with regards to its impact on both employers and employees in Quebec.

Pre-registration is required. Available as a free online, live-streaming webinar.

SpeakUp: Recto-Verso
2023-05-24 19:30 - 21:30 | Phoenix Books, 5928 Sherbrooke St W, Montreal, Quebec, H4A 1X7, Canada
L’Échange Interactif de Poésie de Montréal
Poets: Louise Dupré, Emmanuel Deraps, et Jean-Guy Forget
​Join us at Phoenix Books in NDG (5928 Sherbrooke St W, Montreal, Quebec H4A 1X7)
on Wednesday, May 24th @ 7:30 PM
​for a poetry reading with a difference, avec SpeakUp le public est engagé:
Chaque membre de l’auditoire recevra une copie du poème.
Chaque poète lira d’abord leur poème dans la version originale, puis dans sa version traduite, suivi d’une discussion de 15-20 minutes.
Le poète lira leur poème une dernière fois.

The Writers' Union of Canada Awards Announcement
2023-05-25 12:00 | Quebec
Thursday, May 25, 202312 pm EDT on Facebook Live

Join The Writers’ Union of Canada for a live announcement of the winners of the Danuta Gleed Literary Award and the Short Prose Competition for Emerging Writers. Please join us to cheer on the finalists and winners!

The Danuta Gleed Literary Award recognizes the best first collection of short fiction by a Canadian author published in 2022 in the English language. The Award consists of cash prizes for the three best collections, with a first prize of $10,000 and two additional prizes of $1,000. This year’s jury comprised authors Jack Wang, Sally Ito and Cynthia Holz who determined the short list from 23 collections submitted, some by seasoned writers, others by authors being published for the first time. This year’s finalists are:

Nada Alic, Bad Thoughts (Vintage Books)Kathy Friedman, All the Shining People (House of Anansi Press)Kim Fu, Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century (Coach House Books)Rawi Hage, Stray Dogs (Knopf Canada)Saeed Teebi, Her First Palestinian (House of Anansi Press)

The Short Prose Competition for Emerging Writers aims to discover, encourage, and promote new writers of short prose in order to provide opportunity and exposure to developing writers. A $2,500 prize is awarded to a Canadian writer for the best piece of unpublished prose of up to 2,500 words in the English language. This year’s Short Prose Jury comprised Doretta Lau, Tāriq Malik, and Ann Shortell.

Visit the Union’s website for more info about the Danuta Gleed Literary Award and the Short Prose Competition for Emerging Writers: www.writersunion.ca. If you would like to support the work of The Writers’ Union of Canada, donations are gratefully accepted online at www.writersunion.ca/support.

Hackmatack Panel with Valerie Sherrard, Edeet Ravel, Laura Best, and host Stephanie Domet
2023-05-25 18:30 | Online via Zoom
Thursday, May 25, 6:30 pm EDT (7:30 pm ADT)Online via Zoom

Join 2023 Hackmatack award nominees Laura Best (The Family Way, Nimbus Publishing, 2021), Edeet Ravel (A Boy Is Not a Ghost, Groundwood Books, 2021), and Valerie Sherrard (Birdspell, Cormorant Books, 2021) for a discussion on writing difficult topics for middle grade readers.

In conversation with Stephanie Domet (AfterWords Literary Festival), the authors will explain how their novels tackle difficult issues such as war, racism, historical traumas, mental health, and strained family relationships. The discussion will offer advice on how to approach tough topics with sensitivity and forethought, craft an age-appropriate narrative, and navigate the publishing process.

League of Canadian Poets: Quebec/French Open Mic
2023-05-25 19:00 - 20:00 | Quebec
Thursday, May 25, 7-8 pm EDT

Events will feature 10-15 poets maximum, who will read for 3-4 minutes (typically 1-3 poems). No payment is offered for participation; these are casual, community-building events to help connect poets in similar regions or communities!

Sign up is first come-first served. The first 15 poets to register will be contacted to confirm their availability. All LCP members are welcome to attend our Open Mic series, but only LCP members who receive confirmation will be allowed to read.

Shut Up & Write! with QWF
2023-05-27 10:00 - 12:30 | Quebec
Saturday, May 27, 10:00 am–12:30 pmOnline via Zoom—RSVP below to receive the Zoom link

Looking for some dedicated, quiet writing space?

Register below to do all that writing you’ve been meaning to do. Using the Pomodoro technique, participants write in 25 minute bursts, with 5 minutes break in between.

This event is for QWF members only. Not a member? Learn about becoming a member. Please note that you have to be logged in for the registration link to show up. A Zoom link will be sent out a day or two before the session.

Please note as well that these sessions are designed for silent writing, rather than discussing or getting feedback on work.

10:00–10:25: Writing 110:25–10:30: Break10:30–10:55: Writing 210:55–11:00: Break11:00–11:25: Writing 311:25–11:30: Break11:30–11:55: Writing 411:55–12:00: Break12:00–12:25: Writing 5

To receive the Zoom link, RSVP below.

Writing retreat in idyllic Central Switzerland
2023-05-28 15:00 - 2023-06-03 11:00 | Fl, Gasthaus Paxmontana, Flüeli-Ranft, Obwalden, Switzerland
Make time and space for you and your craft in idyllic Switzerland. Enjoy writing in inspiring surroundings in the supportive company of like-minded people, and enhance your day with a walk in nature. Your tutor will guide you through daily workshops and discussions on key elements of writing, such as characterisation, plot, point of view, sense of place and dialogue. The final session will offer a practical approach to various stages of editing. The daily schedule incorporates private writing time. You can view a sample timetable on the website.
Hosted by an author and creative-writing tutor with years of experience (teaching all age groups and levels: from secondary-school pupils to students on Creative Writing undergraduate and Masters degrees).
Accommodation will be at the intimate Gasthaus Paxmontana (built 1617) which belongs to the nearby Jugendstil-Hotel Paxmontana, an icon of Art Nouveau listed in the Swiss Historic Hotels directory.
The course fee is inclusive of tuition, accommodation and meals.
To learn more, see website: https://valeriavescina.com/teaching/writing-retreats/

Épiques Voices poetry reading
2023-05-29 19:00 - 21:00 | Café Cléopâtre, 123o St. Laurent Blvd, Montreal, QC, H2X2S5, Canada
The bilingual opening show, Épiques Voices part of the 24th edition of the Festival de la poésie de Montréal under the theme Constellé*e*s.

Metatron Press Presents: CAPSULE: A Tetrad Book Launch
2023-06-01 19:30 | Ursa Montreal, 5589 Park Avenue, Montreal, Quebec, H2V 4S8, Canada
Thursday, June 1, 7:30 pmUrsa Montreal, 5589 Park Ave., Montreal

Join us for a long-awaited book launch to celebrate four Metatron Press releases that have come out over the past 3 years. Due to the pandemic, we were unable to celebrate these books the way we had wished, so it’s our hope to do right by these powerful works and share in welcoming them into our psychic and physical milieus by participating in an evening of active listening as each author reads from their books.

Featuring:

Lee Suksi (Toronto) launching The Nerves (2020)Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch launching knot body (2020)Trynne Delaney launching the half-drowned (2022)Jayson Keery (Philadelphia) launching The Choice Is Real (2023)

Doors open at 7:30 pmReadings start at 8:00 pm

Books Being Read:

The Choice Is Real by Jason Keery

Challenging the conventions of how queer and trans people are encouraged to tell their stories, The Choice is Real engages the concept of choice in queerness and trivializes the linear “born-this-way” narratives that queer people are sold. In response to a second puberty brought on by medical transition and an unravelling of family structures following the death of their stepmother, Keery regresses through a warped and foreboding childhood landscape saturated with pop culture iconography. Writing with and against Disney classics, Keery moves between formative memories and contemporary moments, weaving in accounts of current relations in their playful uprooting of assumptions of queer relationality. Opening with a cheeky epigraph from trans author and activist Lou Sullivan: “I love being a girl. So delicate,” The Choice is Real explodes with celebration and criticism of girlhood from a transmasculine perspective.

the half-drowned by Trynne Delaney

the half-drowned is a vision of a future at the end of the world where what survives is the shapeshifting love of family both given and chosen. Drawing on the Afro-diasporic ancestral knowledge of water and the urgency of desire, Delaney builds a glittering, speculative world where community holds through grief, where we must choose to fend for ourselves while also caring for others. the half-drowned is a genre-bending novella that crafts a polyphony of voices to speak to and through our lives and dreams in order to reach for the unspoken and unsayable and make it heard.

the half-drowned was the winner of the Concordia University First Book Prize at The Quebec Writers’ Federation Literary Awards in 2022.

knot body by Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch

Bringing together poetry, essay, and letters to “lovers, friends and in-betweens,” Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch confronts the ways capitalism, fatphobia, ableism, transness, and racializations affect people with chronic pain, illness, and disability. knot body explores what it means to discover the limits of your body, and contends with what those limitations bring up in the world we live in.

knot body was shortlisted for the Quebec Writers’ Federation’s Concordia University First Book Prize. Their second collection of poetry, The Good Arabs (Metonymy Press), won the 2022 Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal.

The Nerves by Lee Suksi

The Nerves subverts the literary approach to sexuality by treating the erotic not as a site of anxiety but of reverie. Set in an imaginary world where our sense memories tell us who we are, Lee Suksi’s literary debut is psychedelic, attentive, cinematic and hot. Writing toward sensitivity and ecstasy, exploring touch as healing abandon, The Nerves is charged with desire, devotion, and creative fantasy. Through a series of joyful encounters, Suksi reminds us that pleasure can be abundant, nuanced and that it can heal. Engaging in a queer erotics of language, Suksi’s debut is a bundle of wet atmospheres, speaking to faith in touch.The Nerves won the award the award for LGBTQ Erotica at the Lambda Literary Awards in 2021.

Alright: Solving the Problem of Living
2023-06-08 00:00 - 2023-06-17 23:59 | Comedy Theatre of Montreal, 1113 Boul. de Maisonneuve E, Montreal, Quebec, H2L 1Z6, Canada
Running June 8-June 17

Acclaimed storyteller Nisha Coleman (Self-Exile, Cornichon) takes you on an exhilarating, nail-biting, and heart-wrenching adventure. This is an intimate storytelling show about life’s arduous events and the pinpricks of light that tilt our gaze from the gutter to the stars.

Playwright: Nisha Coleman

Directors: Paul Van Dyck & Stephen Maclean Rogers

Other Collaborators or Performers: Patrick McMaster

From Montreal, QC

Montreal Premiere

English

Latecomers: 10 minutes

rabbitinahatproductions.com

Instagram: @rabbitinhatprod

#alrighttheshow

Documentary Screening: What We Choose to Remember
2023-06-09 14:00 | National Film Board, 1501 Rue de Bleury, Montreal, QC, H3A 2J2, Canada
Friday, June 9, 2:00 pmAlanis Obomsawin Theatre, National Film Board 1501 Rue de Bleury, Montreal

Filmmaker Guy Rex Rodgers and the National Film Board present a special screening of the documentary What We Choose To Remember at the new Alanis Obomsawin Theatre on June 9th at 2:00 pm.

What We Choose to Remember features a cast of over 30 characters whose families arrived in Montreal and Quebec in successive waves of immigration. The oldest families arrived during the period of “the two solitudes,” when Montreal’s population was more than 50% English. They share firsthand accounts decades of political upheaval. Guy Rex Rodgers is offering pairs of tickets to the screening to QWF members.

To reserve your tickets, email guyrexrodgers@gmail.com.
