Quebec Writers' Federation

Shut Up & Write! with QWF (Virtual)
2025-03-01 10:00 - 12:30 (America/New_York) | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
Saturday, March 1, 2025, 10:00 am–12:30 pm ETOnline 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-minute breaks in between.

This event is for QWF members only. Not a member? Learn about becoming a member.

The Zoom link will be sent out a day or two before the session.

Please note 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. You will receive the Zoom link a few days before the session.

Note: RSVPs for virtual Shut Up & Write! sessions close 24 hours before the session. If there is no option to RSVP, RSVPs are closed.

Keeping it Short and Simple
2025-03-01 10:30 - 16:30 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Are you writing about a complex, niche, or otherwise sticky topic? Want to reach more readers without compromising on depth? This workshop is for subject-matter experts, communications workers, and anyone else who wants to kick jargon to the curb and write clear prose.

As a plain language editor, I regularly support my academic clients in writing about their research so that it’s accessible to the general public. I also coach them in how to pitch story ideas to news editors, as well as how to make dense, technical information more approachable to experts in other fields. Drawing on this experience, I’ll guide workshop participants through a series of exercises to engage with the following key concepts:

Defining an audience(s)

(re)Framing to focus on what’s most important

Adjusting tone, syntax, and vocabulary without “dumbing down” the text

A majority of the workshop will be dedicated to responding to prompts and partner exercises. The goal is to provide participants with concrete, actionable feedback they can walk away with and incorporate into their work. For that reason, ideally, participants will come with a specific project in mind, and a 2-page sample (max) of a text they’d like to work on with peer support.

Danielle Douez is a writer and editor based in Tio:tia’ké/Montreal. She has more than a decade of experience communicating complex ideas to diverse audiences. Previously, she was an editor at The Conversation US, where she collaborated with scholars to publish accessible, research-based analysis on US politics. She has also done research communications for various nonprofits in the US and Canada. Her reporting and creative writing has been published by the Miami Herald, the Alexandria Times, How Stuff Works, Youth Today, 50 Shades of Black, and PRISM international.

Multimedia Art Installation: What Keeps Us Going
2025-03-01 13:30 - 15:30 | Teesri Duniya Theatre, 251 avenue des Pins Ouest, Montreal, Quebec, H2W1R5, Canada
Meet 7 CEGEP students who want to share their art installation unveiling “What Keeps Us Going.” Teesri Duniya Theatre is hosting the event at 251 Av. des Pins ouest. Doors open at 1:00 pm.

Bring your kids, family and friends. Everybody’s welcome! Light refreshments will be served. It’s a community celebration.

Write to Win! Young Writers’ Contest Writing Clinic
2025-03-05 15:30 - 17:30 | Eleanor London Côte Saint-Luc Public Library, 5851 Cavendish Blvd, Côte Saint-Luc, Quebec, Canada
Wednesday, March 5, 2025, 3:30–5:30 pm ETGrades 3 to 6; bilingual. Registration required.

Come write or polish your story or poem with help from author Monique Polak, and we’ll help you get it ready to submit for the contest!

Note: The contest deadline has been extended to Monday, March 17

Everyone who submits a story or poem could to win a Jansport backpack along with all the other great prizes that go with winning the contest!

Write to Win! Young Writers’ Contest Writing Party
2025-03-06 15:30 - 18:00 | Eleanor London Côte Saint-Luc Public Library, 5851 Cavendish Blvd, Côte Saint-Luc, Quebec, Canada
Wednesday, March 6, 2025, 3:30–6:00 pm ETGrades 3 to 6; bilingual. Registration required.

Stories are due tomorrow (Friday March 7)! Still need help or inspiration? Submit your story or poem to the Roslyn and Max Margles Young Writers’ Contest, or write one today with help from author Monique Polak (3:30-5:30). Snacks will be served!

Note: The contest deadline has been extended to Monday, March 17. Everyone who submits is entered to win a Jansport backpack along with all the other great prizes that go with winning the contest!

Book Launch: Black Cake, Turtle Soup, and Other Dilemmas
2025-03-06 17:00 - 19:00 | Librairie Paragraphe Bookstore, 2220 McGill College Ave, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 3P9, Canada
Join us at Librairie Paragraphe Bookstore for the highly anticipated Montreal launch of Black Cake, Turtle Soup, and Other Dilemmas! This special event offers a unique opportunity to celebrate literature, storytelling, and the voices that shape our cultural narratives.

Enjoy an evening of live readings, an engaging discussion, and a Q&A session with the author, who will delve into the themes of the book and its powerful storytelling. As we approach International Women’s Day, this event will spark meaningful conversations about identity, heritage, and the experiences of women in literature.

Don’t miss your chance to meet the author, get a signed copy, and connect with fellow book lovers in an intimate and welcoming setting.

Poets for the Montreal Tenants' Union (SLAM-MATU)
2025-03-06 19:00 | Bar Milton-Parc Co-op, 3714 avenue du Parc, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
A benefit night of poetry & music for the Montreal Autonomous Tenants’ Union / Syndicat des locataries Mtl (SLAM-MATU).

With:Ahmad Al-khatatAlex SadeumBryan SentesDarby Minott BradfordDeanna RadfordGeorge SlobodzianKelly Norah DrukkerMarilou CraftNorman NawrockiIanna Book (musique ambiante)

PWYC suggested donation: $5-$20

Shut Up & Write! with QWF (In Person)
2025-03-07 12:30 - 15:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Friday, March 7, 2025, 12:30 pm–3:00 pmFree, In PersonQWF Office (Room 3, 1200 Atwater Ave., Westmount)

Register for the session by filling out the RSVP form below.

Looking for some dedicated, quiet writing space?

Join us for an in-person Shut Up & Write session at the QWF office!

Do all that writing you’ve been meaning to do, and meet a few of your fellow QWF members. Using the Pomodoro technique, participants write in 25-minute bursts, with 5-minute breaks in between.

This event is for QWF members only. Not a member? Learn about becoming a member.

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

12:30–12:55: Writing 112:55–1:00: Break1:00–1:25: Writing 21:25–1:30: Break1:30–1:55: Writing 31:55–2:00: Break2:00–2:25: Writing 42:25–2:30: Break2:30–2:55: Writing 5

To register, RSVP below.

Getting to the QWF Office

Our office is located on the top floor of the Atwater Library and Computer Centre, in Room 3.

Address: 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3Westmount, QC H3Z 1X4

Closest Metro: Atwater Station

Closest Bus lines: 24, 63, 90, 104, 138, 144, 150

Accessibility:

The QWF Office is fully accessible by wheelchair from the side entrance on Tupper Street. Once inside, there is an elevator to the second floor, where the QWF office is.

Learn more about the office location and accessibility.

The Magic & the Nitty-gritty of Writing Prose
2025-03-08 10:30 - 16:30, 2025-03-15 10:30 - 16:30 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
This two-day workshop is for writers of prose (fiction or nonfiction) seeking to make the most of their writing practice and create quality, publishable work. It is geared to both beginner and intermediate writers.

During the course of two consecutive Saturdays, the workshop will explore:

The magic of the creative process

The impulse to write is personal, intangible, and beautiful. It is also often fraught with obstacles, such as a lack of focus or time, and fear. The workshop will include a review of bolstering techniques to enhance and energize your writing practice.

The nitty-gritty of storytelling

The workshop will cover the craft of writing, with an intensive review of the fundamentals of narrative prose. Topics include characterization and voice, pacing and structure, time and setting, suspense and drama, and how to refine your work through redrafting and editing with a view to being published.

Optional: Participants will be invited to submit up to one page (double-spaced) of an opening to a story, essay, or chapter. Each submission will be discussed during the final day of the workshop in a friendly, respectful, and inclusive manner.

There will also be ample opportunities for writers to share their preoccupations and ask questions. By the end of the second Saturday, participants should leave with a toolkit for pursuing artistic excellence and a strengthened sense of confidence.

Cora Siré is a novelist, poet, and short story writer. She is the author of five books, including Fear the Mirror (Véhicule Press, 2021), a hybrid collection of stories and memoir. Her novel, Behold Things Beautiful, was a finalist for the 2017 QWF Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction.

Cora’s stories, essays, and poems have appeared in many anthologies and magazines in Canada, the US, Mexico, and Europe. Her work has been translated into French and Spanish. Based in Montréal, she often writes of elsewheres, drawing on her encounters in faraway places and her family’s history of displacement.

Novel Essentials: The Art & Craft of Long-Form Fiction
2025-03-10 18:00 - 20:00, 2025-03-17 18:00 - 20:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Have you had an itch to write a novel, but haven’t known how to tackle such a large project? Now is the perfect time to dust off your ideas! This workshop is a boot camp for budding writers eager to turn their novelistic dream into a reality. From iron-clad structures and story tropes to the ins-and-outs of how character motivation pushes a great plot, this 10-week intensive workshop will impart professional tips and tricks-of-the-trade essential to bringing long-form fiction to life.

The workshop will focus on practical knowledge not covered in a typical writing workshop: initial idea development; a deep dive on novelistic structure; how to build the perfect plot; character development and motivation; scene development; and how to handle secondary and tertiary characters, to name a few. Each week, you will learn one or more essential techniques and/or theories, as well as participate in short, practical exercises that will help you build your novel. As you master the elements, you will have opportunities to develop and workshop your original novel concepts.

While an emphasis will be placed on long-form writing, all writers looking to master essential elements of fiction writing are encouraged to attend. You do not require prior workshop experience or an idea for a novel to take this workshop. Participants interested in developing fiction of all kinds are more than welcome!

L. E. Sterling (Erin Vollick, also published under L. E. Vollick) is the author of numerous novels spanning contemporary, Young Adult, fantasy, science-fiction, dystopian and romance genres. Her hit series, the True Born Trilogy, was optioned for television, and True Born, the first novel in the trilogy, was recognized internationally with the 2017 Athena Award® in Young Adult literature. With a B.A. and M.A. in Creative Writing and a Ph.D. in Literature, Sterling taught creative writing and literature for many years. She has appeared at BookCon NYC, the LA Times Festival of Books, and Ad Astra.

Craft Meets Magic: The Alchemy of Short Fiction
2025-03-10 20:00 - 22:00, 2025-03-17 20:00 - 22:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Is there an art form more maddening than the short story? Demanding the complexity of a novel, the lyricism of a poem, and the economy of a joke, the work is tedious and the rewards (for most of us) are slim. Still, for us cursed few, the short story is an addictive nut to crack. After all, there’s little more thrilling than the prose of a writer who can do more with a handful of pages than most can do with 300. The complexity of a novel! The lyricism of a poem! The economy of a joke!

Join us, if you dare, for an 8-week workshop where participants will share and critique each other’s work with an eye towards craft. Specifically, we will ask ourselves questions like, “What are characters made of?” “How is a plot built?” “Do I really need to describe everything?”

Equally important to studying these questions will be putting them aside, as we celebrate and cultivate the magic that makes art artin the first place–that intangible whatever that defines our passion for fiction. After all, what else do we have to keep us warm as we trudge through draft to draft?

As time allows, we’ll also read stories by published authors like ZZ Packer, Donald Barthelme, Jhumpa Lahiri, Joy Williams, and George Saunders. Participants will be asked to read and prepare responses to a short story (distributed from me by email) prior to our first meeting.

Frankie Barnet is the author of Mood Swings (McClelland & Stewart), which was a finalist for the Grand prix du livre de Montréal; Kim: A Novel Idea (Metatron); and An Indoor Kind of Girl (Metatron). Her work has appeared in places such as PRISM International, EVENT, Joyland, The Erotic Review, and Biblioasis’ Best Canadian Short Stories Anthology. She has an MFA from Syracuse University and lives in Montreal.

So You’ve Written a Novel – Now What?
2025-03-11 18:00 - 20:00, 2025-03-18 18:00 - 20:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
The first time I typed THE END on a manuscript, I didn’t know what to do next. There’s a lot of information and encouragement on HOW to write a book, but not a lot on what to do after you’ve written the thing. And the advice you find online can be woefully misleading, confusing, or at its very worst —fraudulent.

This 8-week workshop aims to fully lay out the roadmap to traditional publishing for someone who’s finished, or is close to finishing a fiction manuscript. The journey of getting your story from your laptop to an actual book you can pick up at Indigo follows a very specific series of steps. From landing an agent, to signing with a publisher, to contract details, this course will take you, in minute detail, through every step, with a centerpiece intensive workshop formulating your all-important Query Letter, along with details on crafting your logline and your pitch kits.

Designed for absolute newbies to the world of publishing, this workshop will offer you tips and tactics to maximize your chances at every step, and by its end you should have the knowledge and confidence to approach this perilous enterprise knowing exactly what you need to do next. Because typing THE END is only the beginning.

There is no submission required prior to the first session, but participants will be expected to write loglines and query letters and share them with the group as the workshop progresses. They will also be expected to read and critique each other’s work.

Toronto-born, Montreal-based writer and illustrator Sherwin Sullivan Tjia has written many odd and eclectic books. Their 2005 collection of pseudohaikus, The World is a Heartbreaker, was a finalist for the Quebec Writers’ Federation’s A. M. Klein Award. Their 2010 graphic novel, The Hipless Boy, was a finalist for the Doug Wright Award for best emerging talent, as well as being nominated for 4 Ignatz Awards. Their 2011 Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style book from the POV of a housecat entitled You Are a Cat! won that year’s Expozine Award for best English-language book. Their latest graphic novel entitled Plummet is about a woman who wakes up one day to find herself in literal, perpetual freefall. It was optioned for animation and named one of CBC Books’ “Top 20 Graphic Novels of 2019.”

Make It Make Sense: Writing Memoir
2025-03-11 20:00 - 22:00, 2025-03-18 20:00 - 22:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Writing a story about something that really happened seems like it should be easy: after all, compared to something like fiction, a lot of the work is already done for you. You already know what happens! But as anyone who has attempted to make art about their own life and experience can attest, the practice can feel a lot more complicated when you actually get down to it. Life doesn’t always make sense — but a good story has to.

Led by Tara McGowan-Ross, the author of the Hilary Weston Prize-shortlisted memoir Nothing Will Be Different, Make It Make Sense is a workshop that engages directly with the complicated questions that can impede creativity when writing about real life. What makes memoir different from other kinds of nonfiction? Why does writing about yourself honestly so often feel like lying through your teeth? What are the ethics of writing about other people? And what gives me the right, in our complicated global environment, to take up space telling my own story at all?

This workshop aims to foster a sense of confidence and capacity in a genre that is both highly marketable arts entertainment and powerful personal reflective practice. Participants will be asked to think critically about memoir from the perspective of both writer and reader in a discussion-based environment that features short lectures, collaborative dialogue, peer editing, and revision to foster a sense of ease in one of the most fraught and risky modes of self-expression.

Make It Make Sense is designed for writers of all skill levels who feel they are psychologically blocked in their memoir-writing practice. Participants will be encouraged to develop a solid foundation of confidence and understanding so that they can live with the sense of uncertainty (or even danger) that often makes this genre so challenging and exciting. Participants will be required to write a short piece for peer editing and workshop with their cohort and encouraged to revise that same piece based on feedback. Not all revised pieces will be workshopped.

Montreal Review of Books Spring 2025 Issue Launch
2025-03-12 08:00 - 17:00 | Hotel 10, 10 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, H2X 4C9, Canada
Tuesday, March 12, 2025, 6:00 pm ETHôtel 10, Espace Godin10 Sherbrooke St. W., Montreal

The Montreal Review of Books launches its Spring 2025 issue on Wednesday, March 12th at Hotel 10 (10 Sherbrooke Street West) in partnership with the Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival! Following the festival’s 2025 programming announcement, join us in Espace Godin for refreshments and readings by Leila Marshy (My Thievery of the People, Baraka Books), Rachel McCrum (La belle-mère / The Stepmother, l’Hexagone) and Oana Avasilichioaei (Chambersonic, Talonbooks).

The Blue Metropolis press conference will begin at 4:30 p.m., followed by a wine reception at 5:15 p.m., and mRb readings beginning at 6:00. The authors will be available to sign books after the readings. Admission is free.

For those unable to attend in person, readings will be live-streamed on our YouTube page: https://youtube.com/live/Qmvu6tSMBIA

Blue Metropolis: 2025 Spring Program Unveiling
2025-03-12 16:30 | QC
Wednesday, March 12, 2025, 4:30 pm ETHôtel 10, Espace Godin10 Sherbrooke St. W., Montreal

Join us as we unveil the 2025 program of the Blue Metropolis Festival. We can’t wait to share with you the highlights of this year’s edition. Be among the first to discover our line-up of guests and the highlights of our spring edition.

After the unveiling of the programming, stick around for the launch of the Spring issue of Montreal Review of Books, with readings by Rachel McCrum, Oana Avasilichioaei and Leila Marshy.

View on blue Met Website

Listening for the Poem
2025-03-12 18:00 - 20:00, 2025-03-19 18:00 - 20:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
This workshop engages poetry through a listening practice.

Listening shifts attention away from prosaic sense-making and toward poetic meaning-making. Through listening, we can quiet our inner editorial voice, make unexpected leaps of thought, create new patterns of association, and attune to the fullness—the timbre, tone, and sway—of any given moment.

Developing a listening practice also carves out dedicated time, space, and attention for writing. Listening permits an encounter between you and your voice, which emerges when you do not self-consciously construct it. Listening halts self-critical chatter, allowing you to tune in to your natural rhythms, embodied knowledge, and inner language.

You will be invited to engage in a directed listening experience, on your own time, before each workshop. During this experience, you will compose the poems that will be brought into workshop, which will be spent reading new poems aloud and providing feedback on one another’s writing. The idea is that you will bring in new work during each session to share, with writing taking place on your own time. Consequently, this is a writing-intensive workshop. Short readings and audio files will be assigned, and participants will need a recording device for one exercise (phone is OK).

The workshop will fully engage the intellect and life experiences of all the writers in the room as we talk shop about craft, poetics, and more. New work is privileged to demonstrate the limitless potential we have within us to create poetry—the potential to hear poetry in everyday life.

Jay Ritchie is an English PhD candidate at McGill University and holds an MFA in Poetry from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is the author of Listening in Many Publics (Invisible Publishing, 2024), which was a finalist for the QWF’s A. M. Klein Prize for Poetry, and Cheer Up, Jay Ritchie (Coach House Books, 2017). He has taught creative writing at UMass and Bishop’s University. His writing and music have appeared in Maisonneuve, SAND, on CBC Radio One, WMUA Amherst, Frozen Section Radio, at the PHI Centre, and he performs expanded poetry readings using portable cassette players and field recordings.

Don’t Quit Your Day Job…Yet: Freelance Writing for Print and Internet
2025-03-12 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-03-19 19:00 - 21:00 | Online via Zoom
The Internet has boosted demand for articles, photo features, website text, and niche content for both online and print outlets. The technical skills to post, blog, tweet, and upload are common – especially amongst the younger generation!

Less common, however, is the combination of these skills with the ability to write clear, concise, targeted, interesting, and well-structured prose suitable for small screens, short attention spans, F-pattern skim reading, and search engines.

Conducted by a professional journalist, author, freelance writer and PR lecturer, this workshop is designed to enhance the communications skills of freelancers, publicists, bloggers, and other writers. It will also help you acquire the business and survival smarts you’ll need if you want to earn money from your writing.

Variations of this workshop have been delivered online and live, for credit and non-credit purposes at McGill University, UCLA, Shaanxi University, and various arts groups.

Through discussions, examples, simulation exercises, and peer review, workshop sessions are conducted in a “real-life” context that aims to get participants published after the course.

Exercises are written and reviewed during sessions to mediate feedback and prepare participants to work within time limits. The instructor will set a main homework assignment, to be reviewed before it’s submitted for publication:

A third-person profile, based on an interview, which describes an interesting person, their occupation and achievements.

or

A researched, first-person narrative analyzing a subject of topical interest.

Sessions will cover all aspects of choosing, planning, pitching, writing, and editing the article.

Participants enrolling in this workshop should have a clear idea why they want to write, what they want to write, and for whom. They should also consider whether they intend to sell their writing to external outlets, give it away, or use it for personal, career/business development.

Workshop schedule

Week 1

Course introduction

Overcoming writer’s block and generating story ideas

Choosing the right topic at the right time

Differences between print and online writing

Week 2

Analysis of techniques, tone, and content of publications

Inverted pyramid writing

Researching and selecting relevant material

Search engine optimization

Online vs print reading patterns

Week 3

Writing catchy leads, headings, and subject lines

Basic writing structures

Show don’t tell – writing for the senses

Similes, metaphors, allusions, and other writing devices

Cutting jargon and superfluous words

Week 4

Interviewing techniques and psychology

Turning an interview into a profile

Use of quotations

Choosing a publication for your article

Pitching stories

Week 5

Working with editors

Building your network

Caption writing

Sourcing, choosing, and editing pics

Travel writing

Week 7

Writing as a business

Quoting for jobs

Tax and invoice issues

Marketing

Self-publishing, hybrid publishing

Week 8

Course review

Preparation to submit workshop article for publication

Inspired Writing Retreat
2025-03-15 08:00 - 2025-03-16 17:00 | Château de Bossey, Chem. Chenevière 2, 1279 Bogis-Bossey, Switzerland
The Inspired Writing Retreat has been running at the beautiful Chateau de Bossey, near Geneva, Switzerland, since 2017. QWF member Daniela Norris is one of its founding members and she warmly invites you to this event on the 15-16 March, 2025. More details here https://lingurib.wixsite.com/inspiredwriting/about

QWF Member Discount: Inspired Writing is offering a 10% discount to QWF members who sign up by 10 March. Use coupon code QWF2025 to get the discount.

Register Now

Shut Up & Write! with QWF (Virtual)
2025-03-15 10:00 - 12:30 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
Saturday, March 15, 2025, 10:00 am–12:30 pm ETOnline 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-minute breaks in between.

This event is for QWF members only. Not a member? Learn about becoming a member.

The Zoom link will be sent out a day or two before the session.

Please note 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. You will receive the Zoom link a few days before the session.

Note: RSVPs for virtual Shut Up & Write! sessions close 24 hours before the session begins. If there is no option to RSVP, RSVPs are closed.

Challenges Facing Writers of Middle Eastern Origin
2025-03-18 08:00 - 17:00 | Hotel 10, 10 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, H2X 4C9, Canada
—The Groundwork for the Day After

Sunday, April 27th, 2025, 2:30 pm ET

Part of the 2025 Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival

Writers of Middle Eastern origin living and working in the West face many challenges. One is supporting freedom struggles they believe in then being accused of supporting rogue factions or terrorism. Another can be speaking their mind on local community issues that the mainstream audience does not connect with, or, staying silent to preserve their acceptance with readers and their relationship with publishing houses. Another struggle can be when publishers encourage them to portray exotic subjects and characters in unreal or artificial ways. Another struggle for some is the urge to write in their mother tongue, where market is limited, or in the languages of the land, which may not be the language they think in.

A discussion between three writers on their works, their origins and the various degrees of connection between the two.

Participants: Yara El-Ghadban, Dimitri Nasrallah, Rachad Antonius

Moderator: Ehab Lotayef

ground, field, figure: poets and critics in relation
2025-03-20 17:00 - 19:00 | QC
Thursday March 20th 2025, 5pm-7pmRocket Science Room, 170 Rue Jean-Talon O #204

What does it mean to draw the work of living poets into the realm of critical commentary and conversation, and what does it mean to be the poet whose work is thus drawn?

Please join Poetry Matters for a conversation with Liz Howard (Concordia) and Sarah Dowling (University of Toronto) on being poets and critics in relation. Moderated by Carmen Faye Mathes (McGill), this event is at once a celebration of Dowling’s new book, Here is a Figure: Grounding Literary Form and an opportunity to reflect on the grounds of poetic making with an award-winning poet.

Liz Howard is an award-winning poet, editor, and teacher, whose work explores Anishinaabe ways of knowing, cosmology, ecology, and the liberatory potentials of language as art. Born and raised on Treaty 9 territory in Northern Ontario (Chapleau), she is of mixed settler and Anishinaabe heritage. She is the author of Infinite Citizen of the Shaking Tent, which won the 2016 Griffin Poetry Prize, and Letters in a Bruised Cosmos, which was shortlisted for the Griffin in 2022. Howard’s work has been performed and published internationally as well as in translation. She is an assistant professor in English and Creative Writing at Concordia University.

Sarah Dowling is an assistant professor of Comparative Literature, Women, Gender, and Sexual Studies at the University of Toronto whose research and teaching focus on language politics, settler colonialism, and contemporary writing. With a special interest in poems written between and across languages, Dowling is the author of Translingual Poetics: Writing Personhood under Settler Colonialism (2018) as well as several books of poetry. Dowling’s new book, Here is a Figure: Grounding Literary Form (2024), works across genres to explore figures of recumbency in contemporary writing.

“The Lives and Liveliness of Books”: Perspectives on Scholarly Publishing with Faith Wilson Stein
2025-03-21 11:30 - 13:00 | QC
Friday March 21st 2025, 11:30am-1:00pm McGill University, 845 Sherbrooke Street West, Ferrier 408

How do books come to life through publication? Please join Poetry Matters and Connected Academics for a professional development workshop with Faith Wilson Stein, Senior Editor and Acquisitions Manager at Northwester University Press. What should a prospective author expect when working with an acquisitions editor? What kinds of career paths in academic publishing are possible for graduate students in the arts and humanities? This workshop is intended for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and early career researches who are interested in the worlds of publishing in and beyond academia.

Faith Wilson Stein began her career in publishing with positions at Slavic Review and Stanford University Press. As Senior Editor and Acquisitions Managing at Northwestern University Press, she oversees projects from across the humanities, including work in literary studies, theater and performance studies, and critical ethnic studies, as well as select translations and crossover titles. Faith Wilson Stein holds a PhD in Comparative Literature with a focus in English, Russian, and French from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Shut Up & Write! with QWF (In Person)
2025-03-21 12:30 - 15:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Friday, March 21, 2025, 12:30 pm–3:00 pmFree, In PersonQWF Office (Room 3, 1200 Atwater Ave., Westmount)

Register for the session by filling out the RSVP form below.

Looking for some dedicated, quiet writing space?

Join us for an in-person Shut Up & Write session at the QWF office!

Do all that writing you’ve been meaning to do, and meet a few of your fellow QWF members. Using the Pomodoro technique, participants write in 25-minute bursts, with 5-minute breaks in between.

This event is for QWF members only. Not a member? Learn about becoming a member.

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

12:30–12:55: Writing 112:55–1:00: Break1:00–1:25: Writing 21:25–1:30: Break1:30–1:55: Writing 31:55–2:00: Break2:00–2:25: Writing 42:25–2:30: Break2:30–2:55: Writing 5

To register, RSVP below.

Getting to the QWF Office

Our office is located on the top floor of the Atwater Library and Computer Centre, in Room 3.

Address: 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3Westmount, QC H3Z 1X4

Closest Metro: Atwater Station

Closest Bus lines: 24, 63, 90, 104, 138, 144, 150

Accessibility:

The QWF Office is fully accessible by wheelchair from the side entrance on Tupper Street. Once inside, there is an elevator to the second floor, where the QWF office is.

Learn more about the office location and accessibility.

If you registered and can no longer attend, please email john@qwf.org to notify us.
