Quebec Writers' Federation

Playwriting Circle: Do Be So Dramatic
2023-10-11 18:00 - 20:00, 2023-10-04 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Eight Wednesdays, Oct 4-Nov 22, 6-8pmOpen to allLimited to 12 participantsIn-Person Workshop

This will be a Learn-by-Doing-as-You-Go, anecdotal (in a theatre history way), ease-you-into-it experience that’s not scary or overwhelming and will result in the participants having something dramatic to show for it at the end of the session. If you have always wanted to write a play or already have a play idea in the works, this is the workshop for you. I’m quite motivational, coach-like and pushy in a good way. I will get that play out of you if you’re willing to try. I am all for deadlines, discipline, and contests. Since I have more of a comic bent, there could be more emphasis on comedy at times. The workshop will evolve as it goes, based on what everyone hopes to accomplish. I am often surprised and quite happy to see what happens when I throw ideas and writing games at writers in the workshop. I am very careful about how feedback is given because everything is so new. This does not mean that there won’t be plenty of opportunity to share your work or prove that you are indeed writing. One of my past QWF workshops resulted in Picturesque: Voices from Beaver Hall, which saw productions at Redpath Museum and Dawson Theatre as well as museums in Hamilton and Calgary.

Colleen Curran is an award-winning playwright, novelist, actor, and teacher. Her comedy Cake-Walk premiered at the Blyth Festival in 1984 and has had more than 50 productions across North America. It was brought to the attention of Showtime Network by Whoopi Goldberg. Curran’s many plays include Villa Eden, Sacred Hearts (winner of the International Gabriel Award and most recently done by Zeitgeist Stage in Boston), Maple Lodge (Winner Best Canadian Play, Samuel French Inc. Competition), Another Labour Day (Best New Play QDF 1984), El Clavadista, A Brave Girl, Sybil and Sylvia, Casa de Mary Margaret, Ceili House, and Ireland’s Own Carmel O’Reilly Tonite! Her three novels about Montreal singing waitress Lenore Rutland are Something Drastic, Overnight Sensation, and Guests of Chance. Her stage adaptation of Something Drastic premiered in 2002 and has been seen in Winnipeg, Toronto, Athens, and Melbourne. Her True Nature launched the 2011-2012 season at Centaur Theatre. Out for Stars, her latest novel, made the Long List for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. During the pandemic, Colleen created Kitty Calling starring Debra Hale and Lorna Wilson, it won best Canadian web series in Toronto’s Now magazine.

Fundamentals of Short Fiction
2023-10-10 20:00 - 22:00, 2023-10-03 20:00 - 22:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Eight Tuesdays, Oct 3-Nov 21, 8-10pmOpen to allLimited to 12 participantsHybrid Workshop

This is an eight-session long, interactive, hybrid workshop, exploring basic concepts related to short fiction. The workshop will be a space to receive constructive feedback on works in progress. Experimentation is encouraged.

Each two-hour session will focus on a different element of style:

character development

dialogue

descriptive writing

setting

point of view

voice

theme, and

structure.

Participants will receive prompts a week before each session (including before the first meeting) and will be asked to submit a short piece of writing (500-1000 words) to the group prior to each session. Participants are welcome to bring material generated in response to the weekly prompts or any other work that they would like feedback on (as long as it stays within the word count).

Everyone will have an opportunity to read aloud from their submitted work and receive in-depth feedback from the workshop leader and their peers. Participants will also receive written feedback on their submitted work from the workshop leader after each session.

Each week’s prompts will focus on a particular element of short fiction, and we will begin the session with a conversation about the role that element plays in creating a cohesive and immersive world. Then we will move into hearing and discussing submitted work.

Eva Crocker is a freelance editor and author based in Montreal. Her debut novel All I Ask was long-listed for the 2020 Giller Prize and won the 2020 BMO Winterset Award. Her short story collection Barreling Forward was shortlisted for Dayne Ogilvie Prize for Emerging LGBTQS2 Writers, the NLCU Fresh Fish and the Award for Emerging Writers. It won the Alistair MacLeod Award for Short Fiction and the CAA Emerging Author’s Award, and was a National Post Best Book. Her forthcoming novel Back in the Land of the Living will be published by House of Anansi Press in August 2023. She is a PhD student in Concordia University’s Interdisciplinary Humanities program where she is researching visual art from Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland).

Mille-Feuille: Writing Layered Nonfiction
2023-10-10 19:00 - 21:00, 2023-10-03 19:00 - 21:00 | Online via Zoom
Eight Tuesdays, Oct 3-Nov 21, 7-9pmOpen to allLimited to 12 participantsOnline via Zoom

The Book of Delights, by Ross Gay. Ongoingness, by Sarah Manguso. Persephone’s Children, by Rowan McCandless. Citizen, by Claudia Rankine. Safekeeping, by Abigail Thomas. What these and many other contemporary memoirs and book-length essays share is that they build in fragments. Each fragment may be less than a page long, and the one that follows may or may not appear to be related. Yet somehow, layer upon layer, the fragments cohere into a rich and satisfying whole. In this online generative workshop, we’ll take a cue from books like these. We’ll practice writing as a process of accretion, starting small and layering, adding texture and depth to our memoirs or personal and lyric essays.

Each class will begin with a warm-up invitation, followed by conversation about a short reading related to the technique or form of the day. A second writing invitation will give you the chance to practice what we’ve discussed. You’ll also get opportunities to share your work.

You’ll come away with one or more short essays (in draft) and/or the beginning of a longer piece.

This workshop is suitable for participants at all levels. Poets wanting to move to prose and fiction writers may also enjoy it, because the exercises will be adaptable to these genres. Come prepared to write, to read, to experiment, to share.

Week 1: The Fragment and the Flash.

Week 2: Collage. Contrast, juxtaposition, the unexpected.

Week 3: The Braid. Parallel narratives.

Week 4: The Hermit Crab. The borrowed form.

Week 5: The Hermit Crab. More borrowings.

Week 6: Diptych or Triptych.

Week 7: Visual Essay.

Week 8: Accretion as Method and Aesthetic.

Note: Participants might wish to read one or more of the books mentioned above before the course begins, but there’s no requirement to do so. I’ll provide reading material before or during each class, and a list of suggested resources at the end.

Susan Olding is the author of Big Reader: Essays, a finalist for the Canadian Authors Association Fred Kerner Award and the Alberta Publishing Awards Trade Nonfiction Book of the Year, and Pathologies: A Life in Essays, selected by 49th Shelf and Amazon.ca as one of 100 Canadian books to read in a lifetime. She mentors writers through the Vancouver Manuscript Intensive and holds the 2023 Southam Residency in Personal Journalism at the University of Victoria. You can find her at www.susanolding.com.

Shut Up & Write! with QWF—In Person!
2023-10-06 12:30 - 15:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Friday, October 6, 12:30 pm–3:00 pmFree, In PersonQWF Office (Room 3, 1200 Atwater Ave., Westmount)

Looking for some dedicated, quiet writing space?

Join us for another in-person Shut Up & Write session since the pandemic!

Based on feedback from our membership survey last spring, we’ve decided to hold regular Shut Up & Write events 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.Note: RSVPs will close 24 hours before the event starts. If there is no option to RSVP, RSVPs are closed.

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.

Temporarily Stairs: Developing and Refining Long-Form Fiction
2023-10-05 20:00 - 22:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Ten Thursdays, Oct 5-Dec 7, 8-10pmOpen via application to those with a novel-in-progress

Limited to 10 participants

Hybrid Workshop

As Mitch Hedberg pointed out, escalators are never broken—if they stop running, they still work just fine as stairs. In the same way, a story of any length is never broken, even if it sometimes feels that way. If you’ve been working on a novel or novella and are feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or just plain lost, this workshop is here to help you look at your manuscript anew and get things moving again.

This workshop is intended for writers who are looking for resources and encouragement while working on a novel or novella already in progress. Ideally, you’ll have a significant portion (a minimum of about 30–50 pages) of your novel or novella already completed, as well as a solid grasp of the story you’re working on.

Writing long-form fiction on your own or with few readers can be exhilarating, but can also leave you with incomplete drafts, discarded chapters, and the feeling that things have stalled. If you have pages of text, a cast of fantabulous characters, an amazing idea, and a story no one else can tell, but you sometimes want to call it a day and throw the whole thing out the window—don’t! I’ve been there, and I’m here to help.

Gaining insight from unbiased readers—myself and the other members of the group—in a supportive, creative atmosphere will help you identify issues, clarify your intent, and find real ways to improve your manuscript. To this end, our focus will be on crafting outlines and workshopping sections of each participant’s novel or novella. You will be invited to submit pages from your work in progress to receive feedback and notes from your fellow writers (including me!). You’ll also be encouraged to include one or two questions about your work with each submission, and you will have the opportunity to engage in informal question-and-answer sessions in each workshop.

Workshopping will be combined with lectures, discussions, and writing exercises to help you gain new insight to constructing and completing your novel or novella. We’ll explore ways to reinforce the structure of your existing manuscript, gain deeper understanding of characters, fix plot holes, tie up storylines, and approach publishers and editors. We’ll also work on sharpening another skill invaluable to any writer: the ability to pinpoint what might not be working and cut or rework if need be. Because writing a novel or novella takes as long as it takes, this workshop is designed to help you stay motivated and focused through the difficult parts of writing a long piece, and aims to give you the tools to get things moving and finish your manuscript in your own time.

To apply for a spot in this workshop, please submit the following to Riley at QWF (riley@qwf.org) by Wednesday, September 13 :

A short summary of your novel or novella (about one or two lines).

A maximum of 10 pages from your novel or novella, double-spaced (if these are not the opening pages, please include a brief note to let me know where we are in the story).

One or two questions about your novel, the process of completing a long work, and/or what to do with it when you feel it’s finished.

Sextant (Conundrum Press), Maya Merrick’s first novel, was released to critical acclaim in 2005, followed by The Hole Show (Conundrum Press) in 2007. She works with the Quebec Writers’ Federation as a mentor and workshop/master class facilitator, was an instructor at Concordia University’s Centre for Continuing Education, and served as the editorial and administrative assistant at Conundrum Press. She is an active writing coach, mentor, editor, copyeditor, and manuscript consultant. Maya is currently completing The Ride, a collection of microfiction.

Book Launch: Protocolo 48 by Gloria Macher
2023-10-05 19:00 | Maison Notman House, 51 rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Thurs, October 5, 7 pm

You are invited to the book launch of Gloria Macher’s Protocolo 48 (published by Editorial Verbum Spain) at Maison Notman House, 51 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, on Thursday, October 5 at 7:00 PM. Doors open at 6:30 PM.

The event will feature special guest Paul Brunet, health activist and President of the Conseil pour la protection des malades du Québec, and other distinguished writers and artists.

About Protocolo 48: https://www.gloriamacher.com/en/critiques

Mille-Feuille: Writing Layered Nonfiction
2023-10-05 18:30 - 20:30 | Online via Zoom
Eight Thursdays, Oct 5-Dec 7 (no meeting Oct 26 and Nov 23), 6:30-8:30pmOpen to allLimited to 12 participantsOnline via Zoom

The Book of Delights, by Ross Gay. Ongoingness, by Sarah Manguso. Persephone’s Children, by Rowan McCandless. Citizen, by Claudia Rankine. Safekeeping, by Abigail Thomas. What these and many other contemporary memoirs and book-length essays share is that they build in fragments. Each fragment may be less than a page long, and the one that follows may or may not appear to be related. Yet somehow, layer upon layer, the fragments cohere into a rich and satisfying whole. In this online generative workshop, we’ll take a cue from books like these. We’ll practice writing as a process of accretion, starting small and layering, adding texture and depth to our memoirs or personal and lyric essays.

Each class will begin with a warm-up invitation, followed by conversation about a short reading related to the technique or form of the day. A second writing invitation will give you the chance to practice what we’ve discussed. You’ll also get opportunities to share your work.

You’ll come away with one or more short essays (in draft) and/or the beginning of a longer piece.

This workshop is suitable for participants at all levels. Poets wanting to move to prose and fiction writers may also enjoy it, because the exercises will be adaptable to these genres. Come prepared to write, to read, to experiment, to share.

Week 1: The Fragment and the Flash.

Week 2: Collage. Contrast, juxtaposition, the unexpected.

Week 3: The Braid. Parallel narratives.

Week 4: The Hermit Crab. The borrowed form.

Week 5: The Hermit Crab. More borrowings.

Week 6: Diptych or Triptych.

Week 7: Visual Essay.

Week 8: Accretion as Method and Aesthetic.

Note: Participants might wish to read one or more of the books mentioned above before the course begins, but there’s no requirement to do so. I’ll provide reading material before or during each class, and a list of suggested resources at the end.

Susan Olding is the author of Big Reader: Essays, a finalist for the Canadian Authors Association Fred Kerner Award and the Alberta Publishing Awards Trade Nonfiction Book of the Year, and Pathologies: A Life in Essays, selected by 49th Shelf and Amazon.ca as one of 100 Canadian books to read in a lifetime. She mentors writers through the Vancouver Manuscript Intensive and holds the 2023 Southam Residency in Personal Journalism at the University of Victoria. You can find her at www.susanolding.com.

Opening the Floodgates: A Short Fiction Workshop
2023-10-05 18:00 - 20:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Eight Thursdays, Oct 5-Nov 23, 6-8pmOpen to allLimited to 12 participantsHybrid Workshop

An eight-week workshop designed to help fiction writers open the creative floodgates. Feeling stuck in your writing? You are not alone! Participants in this workshop will spend four weeks using prompts and writing exercises to generate new stories before expanding and revising one story to workshop with the group.

With inspiration from masters of the craft such as Ursula LeGuin, George Saunders, and Matthew Salesses, participants will be encouraged to experiment with narration, structure, character arcs, and other story elements. We will also unpack the critiquing process to provide participants with the confidence and tools to refine their editor’s eye, read each story on its own terms and provide helpful feedback to fellow writers.

Other discussion topics will include how to create a writing routine, how to tackle revisions between drafts, where to submit finished stories and how to find a writing community. Participants should emerge from this workshop with clear ideas and strategies to invigorate their writing practice both on and off the page.

Rebecca Morris is a Montreal writer of literary fiction. Her stories won the Humber Literary Review’s 2022 Emerging Writers Fiction contest and the 2017 Malahat Review Open Season Award for Fiction. She also earned Honourable Mention in Prairie Fire’s 2018 Short Fiction contest and was long-listed in Room Magazine‘s 2018 Fiction contest. Other stories have been published in various Canadian literary magazines, including FreeFall, carte blanche, and the Antigonish Review. Rebecca attended the 2019 Banff Spring Writers Retreat to work on her first novel, Other Maps, which is forthcoming with Linda Leith Publishing. Visit her online at rebeccamorris.ca

So You've Written a Novel - Now What?
2023-10-04 20:00 - 22:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Eight Wednesdays, Oct 4-Nov 22, 8-10pm

Open to writers who have completed, or are close to completing, a fiction manuscript. 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 one another’s work.

Limited to 12 participants

Hybrid Workshop

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 !ndigo 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, your synopsis, 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 start.

—

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 Poetry 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 named Holden Catfield titled You Are a Cat! won that year’s Expozine Award for best English-language book and spawned a sequel, and a prequel. Their latest graphic novel, from 2019, entitled Plummet, is about a woman who wakes up one day to find herself in literal, perpetual freefall.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/inconsolablecat/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inconsolablecat/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/inconsolablecat

As Being Is: Poetry Reading
2023-10-02 18:00 | McLennan-Redpath Humanities and Social Sciences Library
Monday October 2 at 6pmInnovation CommonsMcLennan-Redpath Humanities and Social Sciences Library, main floor

Please join Poetry Matters for a reading with Canadian poets leading from neuroaesthetics. Alongside recent work, they will share ekphrastic responses to bill bissett’s painting “as being is” guided by cognitive psychology. Featuring Robert Colman, Geoffrey Cook, Kevin Andrew Heslop, Jeremy Luke Hill, Jim Johnstone, and Shane Neilson.

Robert Colman is a Newmarket, Ont.-based writer and editor. His fourth collection of poems, Ghost Work, is forthcoming from Palimpsest Press in February 2024.

Geoffrey Cook‘s poetry and translations have been widely published and anthologized. Postscript (Signal, 2004) was shortlisted for the Alfred G. Bailey and Gerald Lampert Memorial awards. He teaches English at John Abbott College in Montreal.

Kevin Andrew Heslop is a wandering polyvalence whose debut poetry collection, the correct fury of your why is a mountain, appeared in 2021. In 2023, he mounted his second art exhibition and released his directorial debut.

Jeremy Luke Hill is a publisher at Gordon Hill Press in Guelph, Ontario. He is the author of Ordinary Perpetual Machinery (845 Press, 2021), among others. His writing has appeared widely.

Jim Johnstone is a Toronto-based poet, editor, and critic. He curates Anstruther Books for Palimpsest Press. His seventh book of poetry, The King of Terrors, was recently published by Coach House Books.

Shane Neilson is a poet and physician from New Brunswick. His Dysphoria (PQL, 2017) won the Hamilton Arts Council Literary Award for Poetry in 2018. With Roxanna Bennett, he published The Suspect We (Palimpsest Press) in 2023 along with Saving: A Doctor’s Struggle to Help His Children (Great Plains Publications).

Advanced Memoir: Maintaining Momentum
2023-10-02 08:00 - 17:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
This workshop on memoir is designed for people who have already studied at the intermediate or advanced level with Elaine Kalman Naves. Please don’t be daunted by the “advanced” label. All of you are at a level to benefit from this workshop if you’re interested in writing, reading, and talking about memoir!

Though you need not be working on a book- length narrative, you will be expected to have a specific project in mind. It can be something you were working on in a previous workshop or something entirely new.

During the course of the workshop, you will have the opportunity to submit a piece of up to 3000 words, and with luck you will have a chance to present a second time. (More details about this once we get rolling.)

Instead of a text, you will have the opportunity of reading some fine memoirs and the long lead-up to this fall workshop will give you a chance to do some advance reading. Please give priority in your summer reading to the terrific memoirs by the three writers who will be guest lecturers over the course of the session. (See below.) Once we have established who the actual workshop participants will be, I will also supply you with a list of suggested optional works to enjoy over the course of the summer.

The emphasis is – as always in any workshop – on student input. Participants will not only be presenting their own work to the group but will also be expected to give careful reading of each other’s pieces in order to provide vital critical feedback. This element of the program is equally important to the writing. As in the past there will also be in-class exercises and discussion of topics of writerly interest. In a new departure, we will start critiquing participants’ pieces at the very first session. Participants who volunteer to present early in the session will be much appreciated! Getting a head start will make it possible to present second drafts. Again, we will work out these details ahead of time once the class list is established.

Here are the names of the guest lecturers and their respective titles:

Charles Foran, Just Once, No More

Harriet Alida Lye, Natural Killer

Merrily Weisbord, The Strangest Dream; Our Future Selves; Love Queen of Malabar

And please don’t forget that William Zinsser’s On Writing Well is a great resource for matters of grammar and style!

To apply, please send an email to Riley@QWF.org with the subject line “Advanced Memoir Application” no later than June 30, 2023. Your email must include:

1. a 3-5-page double-spaced writing sample (non-fiction or fiction) that you feel is representative of your abilities.

2. a paragraph or two outlining the writing project you plan to pursue in the workshop.

Elaine Kalman Naves is a long-time literary journalist and the author of seven non-fiction titles, and of a novel. She is a two-time recipient of the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction, the winner of two Canadian Jewish Book Awards, and of a Canadian Literary Award for Personal Essay. Her memoir Journey to Vaja: Reconstructing the World of a Hungarian-Jewish Family has been made into a documentary film. Elaine’s novel, The Book of Faith, was nominated for the Leacock Prize for Humour. She has led workshops at the QWF since their inception in 1998. To find out more about Elaine, visit her website at http://www.elainekalmannaves.com/.

Garden of Literary Delights 2023
2023-10-01 17:00 - 19:00 | Atwater Library Auditorium, 1200 Atwater Avenue, 2nd floor, Westmount, QC
Sunday, Oct 1, 5-7 pmAtwater Library Auditorium

Readings by four, wonderful Canadian authors of South Asian origin followed by a discussion. Book sale, giveaways and more!
RSVP at info@centrekabir.com Please use side entrance to the venue at 4023 Tupper St.
Farzana Doctor is a Tkaronto-based author, activist and psychotherapist who has written four critically acclaimed novels, including the bestselling, Seven, which explores the issue of female genital mutilation/cutting. Her most recent work is a poetry collection.
Shailee, based in Montreal, is a writer, poet, playwright and literary scholar who recently published her first book, a graphic novel: My Story, My Voice: Sita and Helen (yes, Helen of Troy).
Toronto-based Angela Misri is an award-winning journalist (CBC and more), educator and author of YA, adult and children’s fiction. She will regale you with the adventures of her creation, Portia Adams, Sherlock Holmes’ granddaughter!
Playwright and short story writer, Zahida Rahemtulla has won accolades for plays, The Wrong Bashir (a comedy about mistaken identity) and The Frontliners both of which premiered in her hometown, Vancouver.
A celebration of diverse genres and voices as well as Muslim Heritage Month (October), this event is part of the NexGen MultiArts Festival, 2023, organized by the Kabir Cultural Centre, Montreal.

An Evening of Poetry & Reflection
2023-09-30 18:00 | Atwater Library Auditorium, 1200 Atwater Avenue, 2nd floor, Westmount, QC
Saturday, September 30, 6 pmAtwater Library Auditorium

Witness the diversity of poetry at the NexGen MultiArts Festival: An Evening of Poetry & Reflections. Centred around the theme ‘Prejudice: Defying Expectations’ the event offers a unique multilingual, multicultural, multi-generational platform for poets and poetry enthusiasts to appreciate the art of poetry.

While shining a spotlight on emerging talents scouted from across Canada, the festival includes multilingual readings by both established and emerging poets and a panel discussion. Free event.

Featured Poets

Aryan Aggarwal has always been captivated by the romanticism of poetry that reflects the beautiful synergy of Hindi-Urdu literature. His roots are deeply immersed in Bollywood’s sentimentality. Initially expressing his thoughts in prose, he eventually transitioned to writing Shayari.

Youtuber Johny Hans is a Punjabi hip hop rapper, spoken word artist, song writer and MC. He creates spoken word videos based on his own poetry. His passion is to express his emotions through words. He believes that language is a facilitator and not a barrier.

Born in Haiti, Claudel Jean-Mary moved to Montreal in 1986. He is a faculty member at the Children’s World Academy. In 2004, he co-founded a cultural organization now known as Les Productions Chemins Artistiques. He is also a cultural chronicler at Radio CPAM, and co-author of Blues à deux voies, a collection of short stories and poems.

Abhishek Koyalkar is an IT professional who is passionate about making the world a better place. He recently started a podcast named Perceptional Imprints and aims to spread the ideology of having uncomfortable conversations comfortably. He is exploring different realms of music and finds peace in simple things.

Avleen K. Mokha, also known as Mirabel, was the 2019 winner of McGill’s Peterson Memorial Prize for Creative Writing. Her debut poetry chapbook, Dream Fragments, was published in 2020. Mirabel’s poems have appeared in carte blanche, Yolk Literary, Dream Pop, Glass: A Journal of Poetry among others. Her first full-length collection, The Vanishing Act (& The Miracle After), was published in June 2023.

Yusuf Saadi’s first poetry collection Pluviophile was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2020. Saadi won the Malahat Review’s Far Horizons Award for Poetry in 2016. He is also an editor for The Ex-Puritan and was an editor for Watch Your Head, a climate change anthology.

Manikya Singh has been pursuing his professional interest in cyber security. Music has been his ultimate refuge. Rooted in profound values of Sikhism, singing, songwriting, and strumming melodies have been his fervent passions.

Shut Up & Write! with QWF
2023-09-30 10:00 - 12:30 | Quebec
Saturday, September 30, 10:00 am–12:30 pm Online 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.

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.

Note: RSVPs will close 24 hours before the event starts. If there is no option to RSVP, RSVPs are closed.

Poetic Attention
2023-09-29 19:30 - 21:00 | Yellow Door, 3625 rue Aylmer, Montreal, QC, Canada
Friday, September 29, 7:30 pmThe Yellow Door3625 Aylmer St, Montreal

Join Poetry Matters for a reading with poets Susan Elmslie, Patrick Errington, and Patrick O’Reilly

Susan Elmslie lives in Montreal/Tiohtià:ke. She is author of Museum of Kindness (Brick, 2017); I, Nadja, and Other Poems (Brick, 2006), which won the A.M. Klein Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for the McAuslan First Book Prize, the Pat Lowther Award, and a ReLit Award; and the prize-winning chapbook When Your Body Takes to Trembling (Cranberry Tree, 1996). She holds a PhD in English (specialization: Canadian literature) from McGill. She was a Hawthornden Poetry Fellow in 2002.

Patrick James Errington is author of two chapbooks, Glean (ignitionpress, 2018) and Field Studies (Clutag 2019), and his debut full-length collection, the swailing (MQUP 2023). Errington is recipient of awards from the National Poetry Competition and The London Magazine Poetry Competition, as well as many others. He holds an MFA from Columbia University (2015), a PhD in poetic theory and enactive hermeneutics from the University of St Andrews (2018), He is a Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh.

Patrick O’Reilly is an archivist and writer from Renews, NL, now living in Montréal/Tiohtià:ke. His first chapbook, A Collapsible Newfoundland, was published by Frog Hollow Press in 2020. Recent work has appeared in, or is forthcoming, in Yolk, ionosphere, and Black Sails, vol.1. His poem “Mint Julep in a Highball Glass” has been nominated for 2023’s Best of the Net anthology.

Space is limited. Please register through Contact Us on the Poetry Matters website.

Responding with Poetry: An Interactive Talk with Patrick James Errington
2023-09-29 15:00 - 16:30 | Arts Building, McGill University
Friday, September 29, 3:00-4:30 pmArts Building (McCall MacBain) 160McGill University, Montreal

Please join Poetry Matters for Responding with Poetry with Dr. Patrick Errington (University of Edinburgh).Poet and researcher Patrick Errington will give an in-person talk leading from his current research on the neuroscience of the aesthetic experience of poetry.

A portion of the talk will involve an interactive workshop on what Errington theorizes as the process of “responding with” a poem.

Please register at “Contact Us” at https://www.mcgill.ca/poetrymatters/

Errington will also give a poetry reading that evening, Friday, September 29, 7:30, at The Yellow Door, 3625 rue Aylmer, with poets Susan Elmslie and Patrick O’Reilly.

Patrick James Errington is a poet, translator, critic, editor, and academic from the prairies of Alberta, Canada. He is author of two chapbooks, Glean (ignitionpress, 2018), and Field Studies (Clutag, 2019), and his full-length collection, the swailing, has just appeared through McGill Queen’s University Press (2023). Errington is recipient of awards from, among others, the London Magazine Poetry Competition, the Flambard International Prize, the McLellan Poetry Prize, the Plough Prize, the 2020 Callan Gordon/Scottish New Writers Award, and the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award from the Writer’s Trust of Canada. He holds an MFA from Columbia University a PhD in poetic theory and enactive hermeneutics from the University of St. Andrews. He is currently a Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh.

Lunch & Learn with QWF
2023-09-26 12:00 - 13:15 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
Tuesday, September 26, 12:00–1:15 pmOnline via ZoomTo register: RSVP below

Looking to learn more about QWF, what we do, and how we can help you?

Join us for another Lunch & Learn with QWF on September 26. This 75-minute session will provide a deep dive into all our programs and services, giving you a better understanding of how QWF can support you on your writing journey.

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.As part of our efforts to welcome new members, we plan to hold a Lunch & Learn with QWF approximately every three months. The last one was held in May 2023.

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

Note: If you attended the last Lunch & Learn with QWF in May, you may not want to attend this one, as we will be going over the same information.

As Being Is: Poetry Reading on cognitive psychology and ekphrastic poetry
2023-09-25 08:00 - 17:00 | McLennan-Redpath Humanities and Social Sciences Library
Please join Poetry Matters for

As Being Is

a poetry reading with

Robert Colman

Geoffrey Cook

Kevin Andrew Heslop

Jeremy Luke Hill

Jim Johnstone

Shane Neilson

——

Monday October 2 at 2pm

Innovation Commons

McLennan-Redpath Humanities and Social Sciences Library,

main floor

Please join Poetry Matters for a reading with Canadian poets leading from neuroaesthetics. Alongside recent work, they will share ekphrastic responses to bill bissett’s painting “as being is” guided by cognitive psychology.

Emerging Writers Residency: Poetry 2023
2023-09-25 00:00 - 2023-10-06 23:59 | Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, 107 Tunnel Mountain Drive, Banff, Alberta, T1L 1H5, Canada
Overview
This two-week writing program supports new writers in poetry at varying levels of accomplishment, from not-yet-published writers to those with one published book. In this workshop-based residency, you will work closely with our faculty, Suzanne Zelazo, Sharanpal Ruprai, and professional guest Helen Hajnoczky, to expand your practice and focus on improving writing skills.
The Emerging Writers Residency is an energizing, transformative experience, designed to help you take your writing to a new level. This residency is a perfect entry point into Banff Centre’s full suite of Literary Arts programs, offering new writers the opportunity to work on a portion of a manuscript in a workshop setting directly with faculty. The program will help you build your critical vocabulary, making you better critics of your own and others’ work. You will also learn more about the craft of writing, and about the conventions and possibilities for innovation in poetry.
What does the program offer?
This two-week residency provides thematic teaching from faculty members and professional guests, Q&A sessions, public readings, and one-on-one workshopping. Mentors will discuss ideas, experiences, and obstacles that you may be encountering with your writing from across poetic genres.
In addition to a single room, and a small private studio, you will be surrounded by a community of artistic peers. The flexible program format allows you to choose the amount of support you are looking for. All program elements are optional.
Who should apply?
Any new writer of poetry interested in structured feedback from faculty and fellow participants will benefit from this program. The program is open to writers with no publications, a few publications, or even a first book.
*Financial Aid available.
Program Dates: September 25 – October 06, 2023
Application Deadline: June 14, 2023
Learn more and apply online: http://bit.ly/3ilinBK

Writing retreat in the spectacular Bernese Oberland, Switzerland
2023-09-24 08:00 - 2023-09-30 17:00 | Hasliberg-Reuti, Am Tychelwaegli, Hasliberg-Reuti, 6086, 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 a luxury apartment in a modern chalet, in a village at approx. 1070 metres above sea-level. It’s an easy walk from the flat to the local cafes, shop and public transport. You’ll have your own space: a double room put to single-occupancy use, with stunning views of the mountains (including Wetterhorn, Wellhorn, Engelhörner and Eiger) and high in natural light.
The course fee is inclusive of tuition, accommodation and meals.
To learn more, see website: https://valeriavescina.com/teaching/writing-retreats/

How to Start (A Poem)
2023-09-23 13:00 - 16:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Saturday, Sep 23, 1-4pmOpen to allLimited to 12 participantsHybrid Workshop

“The first line of a poem is a gateway to emotions,” said Pablo Neruda. “It is the poet’s invitation to the reader to embark on an emotional journey.” This workshop will focus on starting a poem, unravelling the enigmatic question of how to even begin. I would like to extend a warm invitation to aspiring writers and poetry enthusiasts to explore the art of crafting impactful beginnings. We will delve into a myriad of first-line techniques, such as détourned imagery, evocative language, and compelling narrative situations, to help design and finesse your poetic gateway. Through interactive exercises, group discussions, and constructive feedback, participants will gain new tools to capture readers’ attention from the first word, setting the tone for the poem that follows. We will also venture into the daunting task of conceptualizing a poem before its inscription, using a variety of collaborative prompts to embark upon the vital and challenging first step together. The first step—like the first word—is the most difficult and important step on a journey. Participants are invited to bring in examples of favourite first lines. Let us go then, you and I.

Gregory Betts is an experimental poet with 11 poetry collections published in Canada, the United States, and Ireland. His books explore conceptual, collaborative, and concrete poetics. He has produced two exhaustive, prize-winning academic studies of avant-garde writing in Canada, Avant-Garde Canadian Literature: The Early Manifestations (2013) and Finding Nothing: The VanGardes, 1959-1975 (2020), both with University of Toronto Press. His most recent books include Foundry (Redfoxpress, Ireland, 2021), a collection of visual poems inspired by a font named after a 15th century poet, and The Fabulous Op (Beir Bua Press, Ireland, 2022), a collaborative epigenetic romp through the canon with Gary Barwin. He lives in St. Catharines, Ontario

Shut Up & Write! with QWF—In Person!
2023-09-22 12:30 - 15:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Friday, September 22, 12:30 pm–3:00 pm Free, In Person QWF Office (Room 3, 1200 Atwater Ave., Westmount)

Looking for some dedicated, quiet writing space?

Join us for the first in-person Shut Up & Write session since the pandemic!

Based on feedback from our membership survey last spring, we’ve decided to hold a Shut Up & Write event at the QWF office to gauge demand for in-person sessions. Depending on the turnout, we may hold more!

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.Note: RSVPs will close 24 hours before the event starts. If there is no option to RSVP, RSVPs are closed.

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.

AI & The Future of Writing
2023-09-21 19:00 - 21:30 | Atwater Library Auditorium, 1200 Atwater Avenue, 2nd floor, Westmount, QC
Thurs, September 21, 7 pm ESTAtwater Library Auditoriam & Online via ZoomFree, open to all

Join us for AI & The Future of Writing, a free panel discussion on the threats, challenges, and benefits artificial intelligence poses for writers.Featuring moderator Julian Sher and panelists Crystal Chan, Sean Michaels, and Andrew Piper, the event will kick off QWF’s 25th-anniversary fall campaign called “Writing Matters,” which aims to raise awareness about the importance of professional writing both in enriching our culture and in supporting the success of companies, non-profits, governments, and other organizations.

The panel discussion will take place in person, with attendees able to join online via Zoom. Following the discussion, there will be a hybrid Q&A session and an in-person wine and cheese reception.

To attend online, register below to get the link to the Zoom Webinar. You will receive the link shortly thereafter.

register to get the zoom link

You do not need to register if you plan to attend in person. You can, however, RSVP below so that we have a rough idea of how many people to expect.

About the Participants

Crystal Chan is the vice-president of the Quebec Writers’ Federation. As both a writer and a digital designer, her specialty is merging storytelling and technology. Chan is a professor in the Creative Writing Department of the University of British Columbia and an editor at UBC Press for RavenSpace Publishing, an innovative program for Indigenous authors. In 2022-23, she was an artist-in-residence at the Banff Centre in Computational Writing, exhibited algorithmically-generated literature at BBAM! Gallery, and taught AI writing to undergraduate students. Her latest new media production is CBC/Stitch Media’s Eighty Thousand Steps, coming this September.

Sean Michaels is the author of Do You Remember Being Born?, a novel of AI and poetry, as well as the books Us Conductors and The Wagers. His non-fiction has appeared in The Guardian, McSweeney’s, Pitchfork and The New Yorker. Sean is a recipient of the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the QWF Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize, the Grand Prix Numix, and the Prix Nouvelles Écritures, and he has been nominated for the Dublin Literary Award, the Kirkus Prize and a 2023 Peabody Award. He lives in Montreal.

Andrew Piper is Professor and William Dawson Scholar in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at McGill University. He uses the tools of data science and AI to study human storytelling. He is the director of .txtlab and author of Enumerations: Data and Literary Study (2018).

Julian Sher is an award-winning investigative journalist—a veteran TV documentary writer and director as well as an accomplished newsroom trainer and the author of seven books. He has been an investigative the Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail. His film Ghosts of Afghanistan won the top Canadian Screen Award for Best Documentary. He was also the Senior Producer of CBC’s The Fifth Estate, Canada’s premier investigative TV program, for five years. Julian’s latest book tells the little-known story of Canada’s role in the American Civil War. The North Star: Canada and the Civil War Plots against Lincoln, was published by Penguin Random House in April and became an Amazon bestseller. Julian is also active in media and human rights issues. He is a Senior Fellow with the Centre for Free Expression at Toronto’s Metropolitan University and works with Journalists for Human Rights.

register to get the zoom link

Note about the venue: As this event will be taking place after the Atwater Library’s opening hours, please use the side entrance on Tupper Street (4023 Tupper Street) if the main entrance on Atwater Avenue is closed.

Shut Up & Write! with QWF
2023-09-16 10:00 - 12:30 | Quebec
Saturday, September 16, 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.

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.Note: RSVPs will close 24 hours before the event starts. If there is no option to RSVP, RSVPs are closed.

5 voix
2023-09-14 13:00 - 2023-09-19 20:00 | Quebec
Montreal writer Carolyn Marie Souaid will be presenting her latest poems in the form of abstract landscapes, September 14th to 19th (1 to 8 pm) at Galerie Espace, 4844, Boul. Saint-Laurent. Opening night is Thursday, September 14th at 5 pm. Souaid will be joined by visual artists Sylvie Lauzon, Jocelyne Aubry, Claire Bolduc and Lucie Arsenault.

Mona Awad launches Rouge with Heather O'Neill and a special No Joy solo set
2023-09-13 18:30 | La Sotteranea, 4848 Boulevard Saint-Laurent, Montreal, Quebec, H2T 1R5, Canada
Wednesday, Sept 13, 6:30 pm

On September 13th, Librairie Drawn and Quarterly will be hosting a captivating event for the launch of Mona Awad’s upcoming novel, Rouge, featuring Montreal’s coup de coeur Heather O’Neill as well as an experimental solo performance by a local shoegaze artist, No Joy.

The evening will take place at La Sotteranea at 4848 St Laurent Blvd H2T 1R5 on Wednesday, September 13th, and will feature a special No Joy solo set, a reading, a conversation, an audience Q&A, and a signing.

Doors: 6:30pmShow: 7:00pm

Tickets

Ticket deal! Free entry to the event with a purchase of Rouge!

Buy tickets here: https://www.venuepilot.co/events/81344/orders/new

Book + ticket purchasers can pick up their copy of Rouge at the launch. Tickets also available in store at Librairie Drawn & Quarterly.

Books will be on sale at the event and the author will be signing.

Ticket Giveaway

QWF is delighted to partner with Librairie Drawn & Quarterly to offer two free tickets to our members (one ticket each)!

To enter the giveaway, email John Wickham at john@qwf.org with your full name and with “Giveaway” in the subject line.

The deadline to enter is Sunday, September 10. The names of the winners will be drawn on Monday, September 11.

About Rouge

From the critically acclaimed author of Bunny comes a horror-tinted, gothic fairy tale about a lonely dress shop clerk whose mother’s unexpected death sends her down a treacherous path in pursuit of youth and beauty. Can she escape her mother’s fate—and find a connection that is more than skin deep?

For as long as she can remember, Belle has been insidiously obsessed with her skin and skincare videos. When her estranged mother Noelle mysteriously dies, Belle finds herself back in Southern California, dealing with her mother’s considerable debts and grappling with lingering questions about her death. The stakes escalate when a strange woman in red appears at the funeral, offering a tantalizing clue about her mother’s demise, followed by a cryptic video about a transformative spa experience. With the help of a pair of red shoes, Belle is lured into the barbed embrace of La Maison de Méduse, the same lavish, culty spa to which her mother was devoted. There, Belle discovers the frightening secret behind her (and her mother’s) obsession with the mirror—and the great shimmering depths (and demons) that lurk on the other side of the glass.

Snow White meets Eyes Wide Shut in this surreal descent into the dark side of beauty, envy, grief, and the complicated love between mothers and daughters. With black humor and seductive horror, Rouge explores the cult-like nature of the beauty industry—as well as the danger of internalizing its pitiless gaze. Brimming with California sunshine and blood-red rose petals, Rouge holds up a warped mirror to our relationship with mortality, our collective fixation with the surface, and the wondrous, deep longing that might lie beneath.

Mona Awad is the author of Bunny, named a Best Book of 2019 by TIME, Vogue, and the New York Public Library. It was a finalist for the New England Book Award and a Goodreads Choice Award. It is currently optioned for film with Bad Robot Productions. Awad’s debut, 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, winner of the Colorado Book Award and the Amazon Canada First Novel Award. Her most recent novel, All’s Well, was longlisted for the International Dublin Award and a finalist for a Goodreads Choice Award for Best Horror. Rouge, her fourth novel, is forthcoming September 2023 with Simon & Schuster. She teaches fiction in the Creative Writing program at Syracuse University and is based in Boston.

Heather O’Neill is a novelist, short-story writer and essayist. Her 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.

Since first arriving on the scene in 2009 with blistering inversions of shoegaze, Montreal’s No Joy has always found formidable ways to reinvent itself. Now solely composed of musician Jasamine White-Gluz, No Joy has evolved over the course of four studio albums and five EPs, defying expectation and genre, and cementing itself as something rare: a band without a category.

Librairie Drawn & Quarterly would like to acknowledge that their events and bookstores are located on the unceded territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka. Many of us refer to Montreal as our home, but it is named Tiohtiá:ke. It has always been a gathering place for many First Nations and continues to be home to a diverse population of Indigenous peoples. We are grateful that creating and sharing stories has been a part of this land for thousands of years.

La Sotteranea is located in the basement down a flight of stairs (approximately 38 steps). There are gender neutral washrooms which are not wheelchair accessible. Anyone needing assistance accessing our space can contact the venue as they are more than happy to try and accommodate people to the best of their ability.

Double Book Launch: Sean Michaels & Catherine Leroux
2023-09-10 19:00 | Shakti Rock Gym, 175 rue Saint-Viateur Est, Montreal, Quebec, H2T 1B4, Canada
Sunday, Sept 10, 7 pmShakti Rock Gym (175 rue Saint-Viateur E., Montreal)

Join Sean Michaels and Catherine Leroux at Shakti Rock Gym at 175 St Viateur St. E H2T 1B4 at 7 pm on Sunday, September 10th for the double launch of Do You Remember Being Born? and The Future! The evening will feature readings, Q&A, and signings.

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

Scotiabank Giller Prize-winner Sean Michaels‘ luminous new novel takes readers on a lyrical joy ride—seven, epic days in Silicon Valley with a tall, formidable poet (inspired by the real-life Marianne Moore) and her unusual new collaborator, a digital mind just one month old. It’s both a love letter to and an aching examination of art-making, AI, family, identity and belonging.

Sean Michaels is the author of the novels Us Conductors, winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and The Wagers; his non-fiction has appeared in The Globe and Mail, The Guardian, Pitchfork and The New Yorker. He lives in Montreal.

In an alternate history of Detroit, the Motor City was never surrendered to the US. Its residents deal with pollution, poverty, and the legacy of racism—and strange and magical things are happening: children rule over their own kingdom in the trees and burned houses regenerate themselves. When Gloria arrives looking for answers and her missing granddaughters, at first she finds only a hungry mouse in the derelict home where her daughter was murdered. But the neighbours take pity on her and she turns to their resilience and impressive gardens for sustenance. When a strange intuition sends Gloria into the woods of Parc Rouge, where the city’s orphaned and abandoned children are rumored to have created their own society, she can’t imagine the strength she will find. A richly imagined story of community and a plea for persistence in the face of our uncertain future, The Future is a lyrical testament to the power we hold to protect the people and places we love—together.

Catherine Leroux is a Québec novelist, translator and editor born in 1979. Her novel Le mur mitoyen won the France-Quebec Prize and its English version, The Party Wall, was nominated for the 2016 Scotiabank Giller Prize. The Future received the Jacques-Brossard award for speculative fiction and was nominated for the Quebec Booksellers Prize. Catherine also won the 2019 Governor general award for her translation of Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien. She lives in Montreal with her two children.
