I am not a spring-enjoyer. 

I love summer for the festivals, autumn for the When Harry Met Sally sweaters, and winter for the complaining about winter. Spring in Montreal is all about the revealing of dog poop in ice-melt gutter-rivers and slipping on secret ice hidden under slush. 

There’s nothing good about spring. Or, there wouldn’t be if we weren’t so fun and clever here.

Montrealers have come up with several life-saving maneuvers to wade through the season and keep morale at a survivable level. Because of the general unpleasantness intrinsic to a Montreal spring, we emerge as soon as temperatures are higher than -12°, simply pretending being outside isn’t painful, and we gear up for the smorgasbord of summer happenings by having a smaller, more tasteful buffet of events to whet our appetites. The literary community is no exception: we are out there, organizing indoor gatherings, picking out our favourite turtlenecks and opening our doors to writers and book-lovers alike. 

Book people, rejoice. You will be seeing us all in our light jackets and oddly cropped sweaters very soon. But you’ll have to know where to find us:

Festivals & Conference

Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival: You may have seen the call for submissions to their writing contest, “Planet, My Love.” The winner (whoever that may be) is set to read at the festival, which takes place April 23-26. Blue Met puts on live interviews, roundtable discussions, readings, debates, workshops, and performances; it sounds like there will be over 100 invited authors in attendance from across the world. It’s a Big Festival. Most events are free, and those requiring tickets range from $8-$30. The main space is HOTEL10 (10 Sherbrooke Street West), with some events happening offsite throughout the month of April. 

They’ll be announcing the full roster of events and headlining authors at their press conference on March 18. Stick around afterwards for the Montreal Review of Books Spring 2026 launch – more information below under “Readings & Book Launches”!

Montreal Mystery Book Festival:  On May 29-30 we have this wonderful little bite. Do you love whodunnits? A fan of Noir? Have you read an Agatha Christie novel in one sitting in the bath until the water was cold and you didn’t notice because you needed to finish before you could move? The full ticket gives you access to 10 panels featuring over 20 authors. It’s also extremely bilingual and their website is very proud of that fact. 

Open Books, Open Minds Conference: This is a professional development conference run by the Association of English-language Publishers of Quebec (AELAQ); it will take place at the Centre culturel Georges-Vanier on April 23.  Expect a series of speakers, panels, and workshops to help you become the writer/publisher/big-book-lover/chic turtleneck-wearer you were meant to be. More information is forthcoming on their website to see exactly which events appeal to your sensibilities.  

Montreal Comic Arts Festival: This festival does it up right every year. They shut down St Denis from May 15-17 and set up tables covered in graphic novels, zines, snacks, and prints that you can leisurely peruse. The Comic Arts Festival is another free event that I always (somehow) forget about (even though I put it in my calendar) and then I magically end up there when the sun is at its height and everyone still has their art available for me to buy. What I’m trying to say is the universe always wants me to be there, and I’m sure it wants you to be there as well. Let’s try to take the burden off the universe and show up on our own steam this time. 

Queer Reader Fest: This is a brand new festival from a true range of brilliant minds across Montreal. From May 14-24 all I will be doing is reading Queer books in English, Spanish, and French over ten days. At least eleven book meetings are in the works; the idea is that we don’t read everything, but instead we get a little sample of what this beautiful literary city has to offer. We will probably also meet some nice and extremely literate people along the way. Some of the book meet-ups include: The History of a Difficult Child by Mihret Sibhat (Sapphic Arts & Letters; Violet Hour Book Club), Il faut beaucoup aimer les femmes qui pleurent par Martine Delvaux (Lucioles et morilles), Prince Faggot by Jordan Tannahill (Gay Writes, Pulp Books & Café),Les passions du samedi par André Roy (Mes pants de queer), Jack the Modernist by Robert Glück (Librairie Saint-Henri Books), Firebugs by Nino Bulling (Librairie Drawn & Quarterly’s Graphic Novel Book Club), The Good Arabs by Eli Tareq El-Bechelany Lynch (Argo Bookshop; Violet Hour Book Club), and Gender Trash from Hell edited by Mirha-Soleil Ross (Dicks Lending Library). I’m very excited. 

Launches, Readings & Workshops

Spring 2026 Montreal Review of Books Launch: Following the Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival’s programming announcement, the Montreal Review of Books will launch their Spring 2026 issue. Come raise a glass with us at 5:15 p.m., and stick around for readings at 6 p.m. from Francine Pelletier (Dream Interrupted), Karine Rosso (Between the Island and the Turtle, translated by Anita Anand) and Marianne Ackerman (Oyster).  More information here! 

Metatron Press has TWO book launches this spring. The first launch will be for All the Time by Xiaoxuan Huang on May 23 from 2-4 p.m. Alongside the author, the event will feature poetry by Klara du Plessis and tunes from GRHM BVRL.

The second launch will be for Kawai Shen’s Wavering Futures on June 7 at Parquette from 2-5 p.m., presented in partnership with Toronto’s own MOOD Magazine. The MOOD people are SO NICE their main mood seems to be “kind and welcoming.” Go and mingle and have fun! You might be peer pressured into buying the book or subscribing to the magazine, but isn’t that kind of the point? We should all be so lucky to be peer pressured into further literacy. More details to come, be sure to check back on Metatron’s event page!

 Yolk Literary:  You know, the Poetry, Fiction, Visual Arts, Non-Fiction, etc etc etc publisher is hosting their six (6!!) year anniversary party at Parquette on April 9!  If you keep an eye out, a little bird (the lovely person who runs their Instagram) tells me that they will be hosting their extremely cozy Two Readers and Music events throughout the spring. You’ll have to message them to see where and when because these readings are free but have limited attendance—they’re hosted in someone’s impeccably decorated apartment and are a great way to mainline a full dose of music and literature in one night.

Dick’s Lending Library has two events coming up: a community cataloguing workshop on March 15 at articule (3283 Rue St Hubert), and a virtual event on March 26 from 68 p.m. on “Zines and Literatura de Cordels: Exploring the multi-national history of zines and paradoxes in self-publishing.” That one will be facilitated by Tosin Jerugba and it sounds extremely cool. I’ll be there.

Have you heard of Dick’s Lending Library before? You may have seen their little shelf in Librairie Drawn & Quarterly—they’re a community-run library dedicated to trans, non-binary, and Two-Spirit authors. All their events are great, they make great zines, and they are also one of the few groups who are still requiring K/N95s at in-person events! Which is great news for everyone who is sick of getting sick all the time.

Book Clubs

Argo Bookstore is hosting their Japan Book Club on March 26 at 7 p.m. The book is one I’ve read! The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa takes place on an island where items, people, and memories regularly disappear, and those who can’t forget are targeted and controlled by the Memory Police. THE BOOK IS GOOD. Discussion will take place online and in-person. 

Librairie St Henri Books is giving us Deep Cuts Book Club w/ David: We Always Treat Women Too Well coming up on March 10 at 6:30 p.m. Then, because they never slow down, Book Club with Casey: The Brittle Age by Donatella Di Pietrantonio on March 12 at 6:30 p.m. 

Oh, you thought they were done? Once we get some serious rent-control in Montreal I am moving to St Henri so I can go to all of these, because there is another book club this spring, and that’s Women on the Run Book Club w/ Iva – The Summer Book on March 18 at 6:30 p.m.. 

Librairie Drawn & Quarterly will be hosting their famous D+Q Cooks! Cookbook Club. The March 29 edition of the club will focus on Good Things by the love of my life, Samin Nosrat, author of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. This event round-up is dedicated to you Samin Nosrat, a woman I probably will never meet. Every halfway decent meal I’ve ever cooked, I owe to you. Thank you.

Regular Open Mics

Whether you write secret poetry in your notes app or you’re applying for grants for your next chapbook, it’s good to test your work out on a real, live audience. Or how about several? Tour your work across the city or just hit the one closest to you:
Accent Open Mic is a bimonthly reading for poetry and prose! I want to hear more short stories at these so hey, write one for me, won’t you?

Chimera Open Mic is super welcoming. The events are hosted out of Phoenix Books in NDG and you don’t have to reserve a spot in advance. Show up unwilling to put yourself out there, change your mind 4-10 times, and then leave with a new coping mechanism: having a room full of strangers clap for you. It’s really great.

JRG Lit Open Mic runs out of L’Hémisphère Gauche. Get a little weird here, get messy, this is the place for it. This is not the spot for your more cutesy work. The next event is March 12!

Margot Berner is another writer and artist who fled from the chill-vibes and high rent of the unceded territories of the Tsleil-Waututh, Stó:lō, Squamish, and Musqueam people (Vancouver, BC) and is now living large in Tiohtià:ke (Montreal, QC) where they enjoy combative vibes and slightly less high rent.

Illustration by Zoë Bourget.

The post Spring Literary Events to Destroy your Winter Blues appeared first on Read Quebec.

A year has passed since I finished writing Eyes Have Seen (Baraka Books). 

At the time, completion felt definitive. The manuscript was shaped, the scenes arranged, the facts checked as carefully as memory allows. I closed the file with the sense that the work had reached its natural end. What I did not anticipate was how insistently the book would continue to work on me. 

During the writing, I approached memory as evidence. I believed the task was to retrieve experience, order it, and render it faithfully. Accuracy mattered–not only factual accuracy, but emotional  proportion. I was attentive to tone, wary of excess, and suspicious of sentimentality. I trusted that if I described events with sufficient  precision, meaning would emerge on its own. That faith gave the project coherence. It also gave me a sense of control over material that once felt volatile. 

Time has unsettled that belief.

One year later, I understand memory less as a repository than as a living process. It does not preserve experience so much as it revisits, revises, and renegotiates its meaning. Writing Eyes Have Seen did not stabilize the past; it disturbed it. Scenes I believed were complete returned with altered emotional weight. Moments I thought I understood began to loosen, revealing dimensions I had either overlooked or deliberately bracketed in the interest of narrative clarity. 

The act of writing produced understanding. Time produced reconsideration. 

I titled the memoir Eyes Have Seen because sight felt authoritative. To see was to know; to know was to testify. That assumption shaped the book’s voice. It allowed me to speak with conviction and move forward without paralysis. Distance, however, has complicated the authority I once granted to sight alone. Seeing, I learned, is only the first stage of understanding. The eyes register quickly; interpretation arrives later, shaped by context, reflection, and emotional readiness. What I once recorded as certainty now reads as an early draft of comprehension. 

After publication, the book entered a public life I could not control. Readers encountered the narrative through their own histories. They recognized themselves in moments I had considered singular. They responded not to my intentions, but to what the work made possible for them. In that exchange, the memoir shifted from testimony to shared artifact. Meaning multiplied. Ownership thinned.  

This is one of the enduring tensions of memoir: the more precisely a  writer renders a personal account, the more broadly it circulates. 

What begins as individual witnessing becomes communal reference.  The book no longer belongs entirely to the life that produced it. What followed was not relief, but a quiet I had not anticipated. During the writing years, the work imposed structure and urgency. There was always another revision, another decision. When that labor ended, I was left with the echo of what I had said. In that silence, the ethical dimensions of the project sharpened. Writing the truth required courage. Living alongside the written truth required patience. 

With distance, I began to notice how the self on the page differed from the self-remembered. Not inaccurately–rather, selectively. The voice I gave my earlier self was composed, articulate, resilient. What time revealed was how often restraint stood in for tenderness, how frequently control substituted for vulnerability. This was not a failure of honesty, but a reflection of readiness. At the time of writing, I told the story I was capable of telling. 

Time has continued to revise the narrative. Events I framed as endings now appear as thresholds. Hardships I rendered with controlled distance have softened into ongoing lessons rather than fixed wounds. Achievements I once treated as conclusions now feel provisional, asking to be inhabited more fully through living. The page preserved experience. Time returned it to motion. 

This has altered how I understand revision itself. Revision on the page is finite; revision in life is not. No amount of craft can anticipate what distance will disclose. The memoir captured a particular alignment of memory, language, and self-understanding. It could not account for what would be learned later. 

As a result, my understanding of truth in nonfiction has shifted. 

I once believed truth resided primarily in accuracy and  completeness. I now believe it also resides in acknowledgement of limitations–in recognizing what a narrative cannot hold. Eyes Have Seen was never meant to resolve a life. It was meant to mark a moment of recognition. 

If I were to write the book now, some passages would open differently. I would allow more silence where I once pressed for explanation. I would trust ambiguity where I once insisted on clarity. This does not diminish the work. It confirms its honesty. Truth does not stand still; it matures. 

I carry the memoir with me now not as a monument, but as a reference point–a record of who I was able to be at a particular moment. It reminds me that seeing is not a single act but a practice, one that deepens with time, reflection, and restraint. The eyes have seen. The work, it turns out, continues.

Fred Anderson is a writer of creative nonfiction whose work explores memory, testimony, and the ethical life of narrative. His memoir Eyes Have Seen examines personal history as cultural record. The book was shortlisted for the Quebec Writers’ Federation Concordia University First Book Prize (2025). He lives in Montreal.

Illustration by Yann Pariot.

Featured Books

Eyes Have Seen: From Mississippi to Montreal

Memoir, Nonfiction

Fred Anderson

No results found.

The post One Year After <i>Eyes Have Seen</i> appeared first on Read Quebec.

Books to make your commute a little creepy

By Shakiya Williams

Spooky season is upon us, and during this time Montreal hums with its own weird, haunting vibes. If you’re anything like me, your fall to-be-read list is already taking shape.

This year, I went on the hunt for new horror by BIPOC and LGBTQ+ writers from Montreal and Quebec—and came up short. I went from bookstore to bookstore, searched online, and even posted on social media asking for recommendations, but couldn’t find enough to build the list I wanted. So, I did what I always do: I went searching for the horror hiding in everything else.

My favourite reads during this season are the ones that evoke a feeling of the uncanny—a quiet dread that settles within me. I don’t need a book to be shelved as horror to feel haunted; in this weather, even thrillers, YA, and realist stories tilt a little darker. I still enjoy a well-timed jumpscare, a bit of gore, and a classic trope or two used with care. But what pulls me in most are the hauntings that reflect where and how we live, stories that I wish there were more of, by queer, Black, and other racialized writers, set in the places we move through every day: metros, bike paths, tunnels, and city squares. Horror, to me, captures something raw and truthful about the world we live in.

With this in mind, I have a few recs to add to your stacks that make everyday places in Montreal feel a little more haunted. If you’re into psychological dread, multiple points of view, crime, YA, or a quieter, slow-burn kind of haunting, I’ve got you. I’ve also paired each book with a location that might make you see the places on your commute a little differently.

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​Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram (Penguin Random House, 2025)

📍 The metro

For: Psychological horror readers

Content warning: suicide

Sofia Ajram, a queer Montreal writer, gives us the one book on this list that lives fully in the horror genre—and a recent release at that. Coup de Grâce follows Vicken, who plans to end his life by throwing himself into the St. Lawrence River. Instead, he falls asleep on the metro and wakes at an unfamiliar terminus. When he steps off, the station loops on itself. He searches for an exit through tight corridors and cavernous rooms, but none appear. The longer he wanders, the more it feels like the place wants him to stay. And he’s not alone.

It was hard to go into the metro after this read. I kept thinking about what it would mean to be trapped there with no way out. Tiles, tunnels, fluorescent lights—this book has amazing details, even a dépanneur, with all the snacks you could think of. If you’re into a bit of gore and want something with vivid scenes that paint clear, creepy pictures in your mind, this one is for you.

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Cycling to Asylum by Su J. Sokol (Deux Voiliers Publishing, 2014)

📍 The bike path

For: Fans of multiple perspectives and political dystopia

In Cycling to Asylum, writer and social activist Su J. Sokol imagines a (too) near-future as New York slides into authoritarian rule. History teacher, Laek, can no longer hide his radical past after a violent run-in with the NYPD. He flees with his partner, Janie, and their kids, Siri and Simon. They cross the border by bicycle into Quebec, posing as eco-tourists. In Montreal, they seek asylum and must convince the authorities to grant them refugee status so they can build a new life. The story unfolds through each family member’s point of view.

Despite being written over a decade ago, this book feels uncomfortably close to home. It makes our current political climate and its trajectory feel all too real. When I see bike paths now, I see them as potential escape routes for people. Cycling to Asylum reads like a true story rather than a work of fiction.

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​The Dead of Winter by Peter Kirby (Linda Leith Publishing, 2013)

📍 Cabot Square

For: Crime and mystery buffs

Written by Peter Kirby, best known for his Luc Vanier crime series, The Dead of Winter grounds its mystery in the city’s real streets and systems. It opens on Christmas Eve, when Inspector Vanier is called to investigate the murders of five unhoused people in Montreal. The case drags him through church backrooms, corporate boardrooms, soup kitchens, and back alleys while Montreal gets colder and colder.

This isn’t an abstract fear. It happens, and it happens here. Cabot Square is a place where vulnerable people shelter and spend time, and reading about the fictional murders made the space feel different. The novel highlights the dangers that can arise for our community members when the city fails to protect them. Visibility is not security; a public park can place a target on you for simply existing. And with winter coming, it’s even scarier to know people will have to face the cold while also worrying about staying alive. 

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​The Haunting of Adrian Yates by Markus Harwood-Jones (Metonymy Press, 2023)

📍 Dorchester Square

For: YA lovers

Markus Harwood-Jones, a queer author and longtime advocate for trans representation in YA, delivers a ghost story that’s equal parts tender and unsettling. Adrian plans a low-key summer: Slurpees with his best friend, Zoomer, and trying not to argue with his dad. Then a ghost named Sorel shows up in the graveyard near his building. Sorel gets Adrian in a way no one else does, but his behaviour is unpredictable, and Zoomer is worried. One night, Adrian and Sorel experiment with consensual possession. Adrian is sure he can handle it, until he isn’t. Then Adrian’s summer gets a little less low-key.

We walk among ghosts every day; we just don’t know it. Dorchester Square looks like a simple shortcut through downtown, but it sits over the old Saint-Antoine Catholic cemetery, where thousands of 19th-century Montrealers were buried, including victims of the 1851 Cholera epidemic. Some remains were moved; many stories stayed. After Adrian Yates, the lawn feels thinner under my feet, like there’s more below the city. I catch myself wondering what it would be like if this place could borrow me for a moment, the way Sorel borrows a body, so it could see what Montreal has become. If you walk through quietly enough, you might feel a presence walking with you.

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​The Rage Letters by Val Bah, trans. Kama La Mackerel (Metonymy Press, 2024)

📍 Melrose Tunnel 

For: Fans of slow-burning horror

Val Bah, a Black queer Montreal writer, offers a stunning collection of short stories in The Rage Letters. Translated into English by Kama La Mackerel, a Mauritian-Canadian trans writer and translator, the book follows a circle of Black, queer, and trans friends through work, love, art, and the aftershocks of social violence. Characters recur and braid together; the voice stays intimate, wry, and simmering. In their translator’s note, La Mackerel describes the language itself as “haunted, as if a ghost was attempting to manifest itself in between the words.”

For me, the haunting here is recognition and connection. Many of us Black and queer folks know these quiet rages and survivals, the parts of daily life others never have to notice. That is why the Melrose Tunnel fits. You enter from one neighbourhood and step out in another. Inside, every sound doubles back; outside, the light is a real relief. The tunnel feels like code-switching, and the translation feels like that too: a bridge that carries meaning without smoothing away its edges. After reading The Rage Letters, the hauntings and traumas of colonialism still echo in me, as they do in Bah’s writing. They are a tunnel back to memory, and a tunnel forward to the future I want for us—one where those echoes are heard, held, and answered with care.

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This brings my spooky season book recs to a close. I didn’t find exactly what I was looking for, but I still found the horror I needed—the kind that hides in plain sight, that lingers in a city’s bones long after the story ends. The more I searched, the more Montreal haunted me. If you have recs by Black and other racialised writers in Montreal or Quebec working in horror, send them my way. Until then, I’ll keep finding the creepy in the everyday. Happy reading, and enjoy the season!

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Shakiya Williams (she/they) is an avid horror-intaker and fall lover. She is the publishing assistant at Linda Leith Publishing and sits on the board of ELAN. They’re trying to retire the word emerging from their writer bio and are at work on a horror short-story collection—hoping it makes it a little less hard to find BIPOC horror from Montreal.

Illustration by Katie MacLean.

The post Haunt Me, Montreal appeared first on Read Quebec.

Lush green becomes a warm yellow, sandals close their toes, and as its name suggests, the season finds itself falling into our laps. Montreal’s literary scene thrives during the autumn quiet, and opportunities abound to escape, adventure and take part in Montreal’s vibrant literary community!

Book Clubs 

Located in Mile End, Drawn & Quarterly is a bookstore  hosting numerous events throughout the year, including their own monthly book clubs. These clubs are open to all and cover fiction and non-fiction books alike, offering several different themed variations that are sure to satisfy anyone’s literary tastes. 

Their current book club cycle switches between their cookbook club – next on the menu  is a discussion of Matty Matheson’s Soups, Salada, Sandwiches on September 14th – and their graphic novel book club, focusing on Misery of Love by Yvan Alagbe on September 30th. Follow along with these and other upcoming events through their Instagram or online event calendar for further updates.

Another great book club to follow is the Violet Hour Book Club. Created by Christopher DiRaddo and hosted monthly at Espace des Possibles dans La Petite-Patrie, the Violet Hour centres discussions of LGBTQ+ literature. The first of these Fall sessions, taking place on September 20, will discuss Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo. The book is available to purchase at Montreal local bookstores such as Librairie Paragraphe Bookstore and Pulp Books & Cafe. The Violet Hour has both Instagram and Facebook pages to keep you updated, as well as a newsletter to keep you informed of scheduled sessions each month.

Argo Bookshop, which celebrates its 59th year in 2025, is the oldest English-language independent bookstore in Montreal and has hosted several book clubs over its long run. This year it offers three in particular: The Japan Book Club and the Literature in Translation Book Club (which meet every two months), and Book Club with the Author (which meets on a more intermittent basis). The Japan Book Club meets again in late September, focusing on The Master of Go by Kawabata Yasunari. To follow along with Argo’s events, email events@argobookshop.ca, or sign up for their newsletter.

Libraries

There’s no shortage of amazing bookstores in Montreal, but don’t sleep on its public libraries!

The fall is full of events at the Westmount Public Library, with two author talks in September. On September 16, journalist Ian Darragh will discuss his work on Holocaust survivor Walter W. Igersheimer’s memoir Blatant Injustice, published in 2024 by McGill-Queen’s University Press. On September 28,  professor  Nathalie Cooke will discuss her new book Tastes and Traditions, published this year by Reaktion Books.  

If documentaries are more your speed, the Westmount Library also hosts a documentary club running throughout the fall, the first screening being the 2024 film So Surreal: Behind The Masks on September 10th. There will be one screening of a new documentary each month, and all screenings and author events are free.

The Atwater Library is also hosting free events this fall, including their book club meeting once a month, as well as their Atwater Lunchtime Series, which brings in speakers and artists of all kinds. A full schedule is available on their website.

If you’re a writer who has found themselves with a case of writer’s block, Bibliothèque Mordecai-Richler is just the place to help you find some inspiration with their weekly writing workshops. Offering a slew of other events, Mordecai-Richler is a great place for both writers and readers alike to scratch their literary itch and indulge in their passions.

Festivals

To close off the season, three staples of the Montreal literary scene make their return: the Salon du livre de Montréal, Yolk Oktoberfest, and the Read Quebec Book fair.

Between activities onsite and throughout the city, the Salon du livre de Montréal fills the whole month of November with books! The Salon dans la ville portion begins on November 7 with activities throughout the city, culminating in the onsite festival at the Palais des congrès de Montréal from November 19-23. 

To cap off a fall full of books, the Read Quebec Book Fair will return  for its 10th anniversary edition!  Produced by the Association of English-language Publishers of Quebec (AELAQ), the Read Quebec Book Fair celebrates  English-language writers and publishers from here. This year’s fair is slated for December 6 and 7 at Casa d’Italia. Follow AELAQ on Instagram and Facebook for the latest updates, and keep an eye on ReadQuebec.ca for this year’s programming, as this is one milestone event you do not want to miss!

Reading Series

Is your Notes app being weighed down by poetry dying to be shared? These open mics might just be the perfect place for you.

If you’re someone who likes to pair your poetry with a pint, be sure to stop by La Marche à Côté on the first and third Sunday of each month for Accent Open Mic. Whether you’re a writer looking to share your work or a patron of the arts, Accent Open Mic is just as it is called, open to all. All of Accent’s reading themes for each event, as well as the invited readers are featured on their Facebook page, with their next installment on September 6th!

One last part of the blooming literary culture in Montreal stems from a grassroots organization, created by students at Concordia University, Union Sante Fe. USF welcomes writers and artists of all kinds for weekly open mics, the meetings being open for all to attend, with locations changing all over the city. Follow along with the union on instagram for updates on future events and their locations, as this particular club hosts several talented young voices.\

A city with a great love and passion for the literary arts is worth celebrating, and I hope that you choose to do so by engaging with at least one of these wonderful events. May your Chai lattes keep you warm as you fill your shelves with books!

Anna Dunlop (she/her) is a student of English Literature at Concordia University, as well as a writer and editor. She is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Montreal-based literary anthology, Tea and Oranges.

The post Sweater Weather Reads appeared first on Read Quebec.

Home is where the books are – this #12aout, discover a book from here!

By Read Quebec Staff

August 12 is Quebec Book Day, known in French as « Le 12 août, j’achète un livre québécois  ». Founded in 2014 by authors Patrice Cazeault & Amélie Dubé, August 12 has since become one of the highest-selling days for bookstores across the province.

Since last year’s celebration, our Quebec-based publishers have released new titles to widespread acclaim: Boum’s The Jellyfish (Pow Pow Press) swept the Eisner Award, Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize Honor Book, Doug Wright Nipper Award, Graphic Medicine Award, and more; Val Bah’s Subterrane (Véhicule Press) took home the Amazon First Novel Prize; and, at the time of writing, Drawn & Quarterly has two graphic novels up for Lambda Literary Awards. 

Here at Read Quebec, we’re excited to showcase the latest local literature with a special focus on English-language books published, written, and translated within Quebec. Beyond bestsellers and prizewinners, we’re also eager to share hidden gems and forthcoming titles that may just become your next pageturner. 

Head to ReadQuebec.ca/Books to discover our Fall catalogue, and share your recommendations by tagging us and using the hashtags #12aout  #12aoutjacheteunlivrequebecois and #QuebecBookDay. Looking for inspiration? Get started with some favourites from our team below, or pick up a copy of the new Montreal Review of Books to read about some of the latest releases!

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12 Books for August 12

Malcolm’s Picks

This Rare Earth by Jeremy Thomas Gilmer

Véhicule Press, 2025

From the publisher’s website:

“This Rare Earth is a graphic account of twenty-five years working for some of the largest mining  and engineering companies in the world. Much of this work was conducted in in conflict zones where Jeremy Gilmer supervised the construction of dams, mine tailings structures, and oil and gas facilities. Through personal stories and detailed observations, he brings to life the daily realities of those caught in the crossfire of progress—miners, villagers, and local leaders who grapple with the promises and perils of development.

Gilmer describes nerve-wracking situations dealing with corrupt authorities, natural disasters, and project failure. He writes about his time in Northern Angola at the end of a bloody civil war, discusses building a gold mine in cartel territory in Colombia, and looking for water in the windswept pampa of southern Argentina. He writes about crawling a kilometer into a pipe in the high Andes to inspect damage and about night shifts at a vast Arctic diamond mine. He has driven through a blazing jungle in Eastern Bolivian forest fires and survived tense standoffs with armed Pork-knockers, or South American itinerant miners.

Gilmer writes from a place rarely heard from in the debate: an industry linked not only to the environmental challenges we face as a species, but to the very systems our lives— and economy—depend on. This Rare Earth is an unsparing, thought-provoking, and frankly confessional dive into the unseen costs of our technological and industrial addictions.”

Buy this book

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Denniveniquity by D. Boyd

Conundrum Press, 2025

From the publisher’s website:

“A candid and personal exploration of junior high in the 1970s, with enough vulnerability to make readers squirm, laugh, and maybe even fall in love (but only for now).

From awkward first kisses to changing bodies with an agenda all their own, puberty is not for the faint of heart. But hitting puberty in a small Canadian city where your father knows everyone and your on-again-off-again boyfriend quite literally lives on “the wrong side of the tracks”? That comes with an extra set of super-charged emotions and embarrassing moments—and Dawn is no stranger to any of it.

Denniveniquity is a darkly humorous coming-of-age graphic memoir by D. Boyd, creator of the award-nominated Chicken Rising. For this new tale, Boyd mined her old diaries and brought her 1970s teen years back to life, rekindling the excitement, joy, and anguish of these formative life experiences.”

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Gesticulating Gentrification by Rick Trembles

Conundrum Press, 2025

From the publisher’s website:

“Cartoonist and musician Rick Trembles grew up in the suburbs of Montreal, in the house his father, Canadian Golden Age cartoonist Jack Tremblay (Crash Carson), paid for as a commercial illustrator. Encouraged by his father’s cartooning, inspired by underground comic artists like Robert Crumb, and propelled by the DIY ethos of the burgeoning punk scene, Rick gave in to his own natural drive to create and built a life full of art and music.

But the comics industry had changed since Jack Tremblay found success, and Rick followed his heart into alt-comics. Mainstream cartoonists were already making less money, and alt-comic artists were making even less from their art—if anything at all. When Rick first moved out, he couch-hopped from one messy band rehearsal space to another, finally settling on a small apartment above a pool hall, where he worked on zines and wrote music—until he wasn’t able to make rent. This is just the first stop in a series of insecure housing situations made worse by gentrification.

In Gesticulating Gentrification, Trembles provides a close and honest look at the challenges faced by people living in precarious housing, the constant threat of being forced out by gentrification, and the social and health problems that result from all of it. But this graphic memoir isn’t only about social issues—it also provides a rare glimpse at a bygone version of Montreal and the DIY culture that thrived there.”

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Priscilla’s Picks

Annapurna’s Bounty by Veena Gokhale

Dundurn Press, 2025

From the publisher’s website:

“Annapurna, the Indian Goddess of Nourishment, presides over a rich harvest of stories reimagined for the twenty-first-century palate. Here, food manifests as ploy, bargain, symbolic communication, a bone of contention, a lesson, as it weaves through the lives of a cast of characters — kings and commoners, witches and goddesses, gurus and bandits, refugees and travellers.

Each story is followed by a vegetarian recipe offered up by a character. Gathered from the four corners of India, there are well-known dishes like nourishing dal and irresistible mango lassi, novelties like avial and Bengali khichari, as well as a new twist on beloved foods, such as samosas with a peas and coconut filling.

Infused with humane values, expertly blending the timeless and the contemporary, the magical and the everyday, encompassing East, West, and the in-between, this fusion of fiction and food will delight and inspire.”

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All Kidding Aside by Jean-Christophe Réhel

QC Fiction, 2025

From the publisher’s website:

“Louis, a young queer man, lives in Pointe-aux-Trembles, in Montreal’s east end, with his rap-obsessed, schizophrenic brother and their terminally ill father. While working at a Tim Horton’s, Louis dreams of becoming a stand-up comedian. Delivered in short, addictive chapters, All Kidding Aside deftly juggles themes of love, class, and grief with poetic mockery and spare, electric banter.”

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A Different Hurricane by H. Nigel Thomas

Dundurn Press, 2025

From the publisher’s website:

“Two gay men with a lifetime of secrets face their insular, homophobic island’s rancour.

Growing up in neighbouring villages on the tiny island nation of St Vincent, teenage best friends Gordon and Allen are secret lovers until they are forced apart their community’s traditional expectations and their fear of how others will react. They each complete their university studies abroad, encountering worlds where there is less hostility toward LGBTQ+ people. Tempted to stay, both men ultimately return home, hiding who they are.

Their secret lives come at the expense of others, and Gordon’s wife, Maureen, is the first to be irreparably harmed. She has confided her secrets to an accusatory journal, and it is now up to Gordon to keep it from the local media and the unforgiving eyes of the authorities. If the truth is revealed, he and Allan will be the next victims.”

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Alexandra’s Picks

Horsefly by Mireille Gagné, translated by Pablo Strauss

Coach House Books, 2025

From the publisher’s website:

“In 1942, a young entomologist, Thomas, is sent to a remote island to work on biological weapons for the Allied military. The scientists live like prisoners while they produce anthrax and look for the perfect virus carrier among the island’s many insects.

Sixty years later, in the same region of Quebec, a heat wave unleashes swarms of horseflies while humans fall prey to strange flights of rage. Theodore is living a simple life, working double shifts and drinking to forget, when a horsefly bite stirs him from his apathy. He impulsively kidnaps his grandfather, whose dementia has him living in the past on Grosse Île. 

The horseflies, meanwhile, know a few secrets…

Loosely based on historical fact, Horsefly is a terrifying tale about the ways in which we try to dominate nature, and how nature will, inevitably, wreak retribution upon us.”

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When the Pine Needles Fall by Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel

Between the Lines Books, 2024

From the publisher’s website:

“There have been many things written about Canada’s violent siege of Kanehsatà:ke and Kahnawà:ke in the summer of 1990, but When the Pine Needles Fall: Indigenous Acts of Resistance is the first book from the perspective of Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel, who was the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) spokesperson during the siege. When the Pine Needles Fall, written in a conversational style by Gabriel with historian Sean Carleton, offers an intimate look at Gabriel’s life leading up to the 1990 siege, her experiences as spokesperson for her community, and her work since then as an Indigenous land defender, human rights activist, and feminist leader.

More than just the memoir of an extraordinary individual, When the Pine Needles Fall offers insight into Indigenous language, history, and philosophy, reflections on our relationship with the land, and calls to action against both colonialism and capitalism as we face the climate crisis. Gabriel’s hopes for a decolonial future make clear why protecting Indigenous homelands is vital not only for the survival of Indigenous peoples, but for all who live on this planet.”

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The War You Don’t Hate by Blaise Ndala, translated by Dimitri Nasrallah

Véhicule Press, 2024

From the publisher’s website:

“In Blaise Ndala’s magnificent second novel, originally published as Sans Capote Ni Kalachnikov in 2017, the paths of a Canadian documentary filmmaker and two former rebel soldiers from the Congo collide in this searing revenge tale about those who profit from the misery of others.

Los Angeles, 2002. Véronique Quesnel accepts the Best Documentary Oscar for “Sona: Rape and Terror in the Heart of Darkness,” basking in the praise of her privileged audience. She has drawn attention to “the center of gravity that is Black tragedy,” which attracted her away from her life in Montreal, and to the harrowing story of Sona, a young woman who escaped sex slavery. But this lauded film has also shone a dangerous spotlight on Véronique herself. In the Great Lakes region of Africa, Master Corporal Red Ant and his cousin Baby Che are stalking the remnants of the Second Congo War – the deadliest conflict since World War II. In search of truth and vengeance, their obsession now has a name.”

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Rebecca’s Picks

Strangers Need Strange Moments Together: Designing Interaction for Public Spaces by Mouna Andraos & Melissa Mongiat

Set Margins, 2025

From the publisher’s website:

“Mouna Andraos and Melissa Mongiat—together with their team at Daily tous les jours—have been creating celebrated interactive art and narrative experiences for public spaces around the world for over 15 years. Their groundbreaking work is part of an emergent practice that combines technology, storytelling, performance, and placemaking to build a new infrastructure for the human spirit.

In Strangers Need Strange Moments Together, Andraos and Mongiat invite a broad range of readers—fellow practitioners, urbanists, policy makers, educators, and engaged citizens—to take a joyful approach to building resilient urban communities and re-enchanting public space. 

In times of unprecedented pace of urban growth, with increasing loneliness and division, they shed light on the importance of moving beyond purely data-driven urban planning methodologies—which prioritize productivity, efficiency, and automation—and forging new modes of public interaction. Cities must be spaces for the whimsical, unexpected, and weird, and for the wasted time and strange moments of serendipitous encounter. Andraos and Mongiat use the raw material of the “daily everyday” to propose new models of living together in the 21st century, and to foreground the dimensions of life that characterize what it means to be human in the first place. 

Building on the work of thinkers like Jane Jacobs, William H. Whyte, and Jan Gehl, whose writings on the dynamics and social life of public spaces put the focus back on humans, this book is a  journal, a series of case studies and engaging thinking.”

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The Third Solitude by Benjamin Libman

Published by Dundurn Press, 2025

From the publisher’s website:

“What is the past? How can we let it speak on its own terms, without forcing it into the categories of history? In The Third Solitude, Benjamin Libman gathers and weaves the threads of multiple pasts — of his community, of his family, and of himself — in an attempt to escape the inadequate narratives around Zionism that he grew up with, and to create nothing short of a new paradigm.

Across a series of interconnected memories, Libman leads us through the many fragments that make a life, unafraid to question deeply cherished beliefs about Jewish identity, and seeks to reconcile his own values with those inculcated in him. Along the way, he casts aside tired tropes and shores together the pieces of a new way of looking toward the future.”

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Sentence by Mikhail Iossel

Published by Linda Leith Publishing, 2025

From the publisher’s website:

“In Sentence, Mikhail Iossel performs a remarkable juggling act between genres and countries. Can you write a “Russian” sentence in English? The author has found a perfect syntactical solution to the opposition of past and present in this groundbreaking collection of one-sentence stories: everything is simultaneous, breathless, in a dizzying spin of memory and imagination. The past and the present are inseparable—but the sentence is here, as a celebration of linguistic freedom and virtuosity.”

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Featured Books

A Different Hurricane

Fiction

H. Nigel Thomas

All Kidding Aside

Fiction

Jean-Christophe Réhel, translated by Neil Smith

Annapurna’s Bounty

Fiction

Veena Gokhale

Denniveniquity

Graphic novel

D. Boyd

Gesticulating Gentrification

Graphic novel

Rick Trembles

Horsefly

Fiction

Mireille Gagné, translated by Pablo Strauss

Sentence

Fiction

Mikhail Iossel

Strangers Need Strange Moments Together

Nonfiction

Mouna Andraos & Melissa Mongiat

The Third Solitude

Memoir, Nonfiction

Benjamin Libman

The War You Don’t Hate

Fiction

Blaise Ndala

This Rare Earth

Nonfiction

Jeremy Thomas Gilmer

When the Pine Needles Fall: Indigenous Acts of Resistance

Nonfiction

Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel, with Sean Carleton

No results found.

The post On August 12, I’m Buying a Quebecois Book! appeared first on Read Quebec.

“Every spring, a move,” Gabrielle Roy wrote in her 1945 classic Bonheur d’occasion (The Tin Flute). She was referring to Moving Day, Quebec’s annual game of musical chairs but with homes, held on May 1 back then and July 1 since 1973.

Moving Day has been a tradition in Quebec longer than Canada has been a country. But now, Moving Day is dying. As rents surge and apartment vacancies plummet in Montreal and across Quebec, more and more people are opting to stay put and avoid the hunt for a new home. In 2018, 18.6 percent of apartments in Quebec changed hands. Last year, only 11.6 percent did, representing a nearly 40 percent decline.

I, for one, mourn the day’s diminishing presence. As a twenty-something in Montreal in the 2010s, I moved six times in five years, usually on or around Moving Day. Each time, my roommates and I ferried our belongings by foot and bus across downtown, the Plateau, or Mile End, bringing with us a bevy of rolling suitcases and as much furniture as we could carry in pursuit of a place that was cheaper, bigger, or closer to the metro. Moving on July 1 was always a mad circus. But it was also an opportunity: a chance to snag free furniture left on the street by past tenants, or a chance at new beginnings with a new permutation of roommates. Fondly, I look back on the chaos and camaraderie it inspired.

There is something to be said about the decline of such a distinctly Quebecois tradition, especially when it’s the result of a housing crisis fueled by decades of public neglect. While turning to fiction can’t solve the problem, it can inspire solutions. With that in mind, here are five books that explore the caprices of the housing market here, now, and into the future.

Our Lady of Mile End by Sarah Gilbert (Anvil Press, 2023)

May Our Joy Endure by Kev Lambert, translated by Donald Winkler (Biblioasis, 2024)

Quebec’s latest literary darling, Kev Lambert, released May Our Joy Endure to rave reviews here and abroad, winning France’s 2023 Prix Médicis. The novel’s premise? Architect-billionaire Céline Wachowski is on the cusp of realizing her crowning achievement: an architectural megaproject in the heart of her hometown of Montreal. But her aspirations soon run aground as public opinion turns against her for her disregard of the surrounding area’s social fabric, already frayed by years of gentrification. Brilliantly translated into English by Donald Winkler, this is a biting, incisive satire—at times hilarious, at others devastating, and always marked by Lambert’s unflinching gift for lyricism.

The Bigamist by Felicia Mihali, translated by Linda Leith (Linda Leith Publishing, 2025)

“In Bucharest,” writes Felicia Mihali, “an apartment would be furnished by successive generations, over a period of years. Here in Montreal, an apartment came together in days.” When The Bigamist’s unnamed narrator decides to move with her husband from Romania to Montreal to pursue a master’s in comparative literature, she finds her hopes dashed as she moves from one crummy apartment to another. Soon, she begins an affair with Roman, leaving her torn between two lovers and two countries to call home. Translated by Linda Leith, the English version expertly captures the dry humour of the narrator’s voice, as well as the deep sense of uprootedness at the heart of this and so many other immigrant stories.

Gesticulating Gentrification by Rick Trembles (Conundrum Press, 2025)

Rick Trembles’s graphic memoir Gesticulating Gentrification depicts an artist’s never-ending saga to keep his rent down and eke out a living. It chronicles his life over five homes in four areas: Saint-Henri, Saint-Lambert (where he moves briefly back in with his father), the Plateau, Saint-Henri again, and finally Parc-Ex, where he eventually resigns himself to accepting a higher-than-normal rent increase and becoming an “agent of gentrification.” Through it all, he faces myriad threats: house fires, cockroach and rat infestations, and shady landlords with shady practices. Written in a clipped, matter-of-fact style with Trembles’ signature punk aesthetic, this is a book that lays bare the ways in which urban revitalization efforts can fail those on the margins and empower those who exploit them. Trembles is an imperfect protagonist, but those imperfections help him avoid coming across as overly didactic, helping cast a bright light on a bleak subject.

Subterrane by Valérie Bah (Véhicule Press, 2024)

Winner of the 2025 Amazon Canada First Novel Award, Valérie Bah’s Subterrane explores life in New Stockholm, a city where the divide between rich and poor is taken to its extreme. The spotlight hangs over Cipher Falls, a polluted wasteland that’s one of New Stockholm’s last affordable neighbourhoods, home to struggling artists, activists, and working-class folks—all pushed further and further to the city’s margins by the forces of capital. In some respects, Subterrane is reminiscent of H. G. Wells’s sci-fi classic The Time Machine and its exploration of class division. Yet in others, this is a startlingly original book that interrogates the many forms structural violence can assume—classism, racism, homophobia, transphobia—through the Black and Queer characters to whom it lends a voice.

Will Moving Day become a thing of the past? It’s unlikely it will disappear completely. But it might evolve, as it has in the past. After all, this isn’t the first housing crisis Quebecers have endured. Like us, the characters in Gabrielle Roy’s Bonheur d’occasion felt the stress of finding a home amid an acute shortage. They, too, complained about the cost of rent: seventeen dollars a month for a family of twelve.

J.T. Wickham is a writer, communications officer of the Quebec Writers’ Federation, and the web designer for Quist, a literary journal for Quebec youth. He lives in Montreal.

Illustration by Oliver Gadoury.

Featured Books

Gesticulating Gentrification

Graphic novel

Rick Trembles

May Our Joy Endure

Fiction

Kevin Lambert, translated by Donald Winkler

Our Lady of Mile End

Fiction

Sarah Gilbert

Subterrane

Fiction

Valérie Bah

The Bigamist

Fiction

Felicia Mihali, translated by Linda Leith

No results found.

The post 5 Books to Mourn Moving Day’s Decline appeared first on Read Quebec.

The Montreal pools are officially open!

Whether you’re reading poolside or cooling off on the sidelines, here are some books featuring Montreal swim spots (and some parks) for you to read in situ. 

Swimming Studies by Leanne Shapton (reprinted by Picador, 2025)

Piscine du Vieux Cégep de Montréal

Water is elemental, it’s what we’re made of, what we can’t live within or without. Trying to define what swimming means to me is like looking at a shell sitting in a few feet of clear, still water. There it is, in sharp focus, but once I reach for it, breaking the surface, the ripples refract the shell. It becomes five shells, twenty-five shells, some smaller, some larger, and I blindly feel for what I saw perfectly before trying to grasp it.

Sun of a Distant Land by David Bouchet, translated by Claire Rothman (Véhicule Press, 2017)

Parc Pélican

Bus or bike up rue Masson to discover Parc Pelican, a hidden gem off of the metro line. While the pool itself famously features in Denis Villeneuve’s Incendies (based on the play of the same name by Lebanese-Canadian playwright Wadji Mouawad, translated into English as Scorched by Linda Gaboriau for Playwrights Canada Press), the park also features heavily in David Bouchet’s Sun of a Distant Land, written from the perspective of a young boy whose family has recently immigrated from Senegal.

We went to Pélican Park, a big park not far from our home with a hill and a swimming pool. There were children there. Mère didn’t want us to go to the pool alone, even though there were lifeguards, so sometimes we asked her to come with us, on Saturdays when she had some time. She stayed at the poolside, keeping an eye on how we behaved, because the lifeguards kept an eye on the swimming. Swimming pools don’t charge money in Montreal, so my parents couldn’t refuse.

Les noyades secondaires by Maxime Raymond Bock (Le cheval d’août, 2017)

Piscine Jean-Drapeau, Piscine Rosemont, Piscine Gadbois

For those looking to read in French, the stories in Maxime Raymond Bock’s 2017 collection share the common waters of various Montreal pools: piscine Gadbois, la piscine de l’île Sainte-Hélène, piscine Rosemont, and of course the pictured piscine du parc Jean-Drapeau. If you want an introduction to Bock’s works in English, check out this interview with Mélissa Bull, editor at QC Fiction and translator of several of Bock’s works into English. 

Je sentais mon pouls dans mon cuir chevelu. Je me suis assis sur un fauteuil, j’ai levé la tête pour dégager mon cou, et revu du fond de la piscine Rosemont la surface agitée par les vagues, un rectangle halogène où se stratifiaient les ombres et volaient des corps nus et gracieux qui s’enfonçaient lentement, un peu empêchés dans leurs mouvements par la résistance de l’eau, et qui descendaient jusqu’à moi avant de remonter inévitablement. C’était un de ces moments où les entraîneurs nous laissaient jouer plutôt que de nous faire suer comme à l’habitude.

My Neighbour’s Bikini by Jimmy Beaulieu, translated by Kerry Ann Cochrane (Conundrum Press, 2014)

Parc Laurier

A heat wave not unlike today’s causes a blackout in the Plateau. With the metro down, two neighbours head home on foot, and decide to spend the afternoon at the neighbourhood pool. A simple story told in pencil and grey wash, Jimmy Beaulieu’s My Neighbour’s Bikini is a feel-good and unpretentious meet-cute that captures the serendipity of Montreal summers. 

From My Neighbour’s Bikini.

Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O’Neill (HarperCollins, 2006)

Piscine Schubert

Heather O’Neill’s debut novel spans all corners of Montreal, so it’s no surprise that wayward protagonist Baby frequently finds herself at the city’s pools. Some clues in the novel suggest the indoor pool piscine Schubert, though through Baby’s eyes the city’s topography is much less straightforward. 

When we got to the pool, Theo refused to take his T-shirt off and just jumped in the water with it on. He did bombs off the side of the pool, trying to land on other people. He ripped this little kid’s goggles off his head and ran to the other side of the pool, laughing. He put them on while the kid cried and begged for them back. The little kid went and reported him to the lifeguard, who finally got down off his ladder and walked over to us.

Bonus: “Asana,” from the collection Black Tulips by Claire Rothman (Oberon Press, 1999)

Westmount YMCA

A short story you can read in the time it takes to dry off. Bodies of water appear across Claire Rothman’s fiction – the St. Lawrence, Lac Echo – but it’s the chlorinated waters of the Westmount Y in the short story “Asana” that put her 1999 collection Black Tulips on this list. 

Daniel was still undressing so she slipped into the water. It was colder than she’d imagined, perhaps in contrast to the stifling air, and she stood for a while letting her lower body acclimatize. After a minute, she moistened her goggles with her tongue, slipped them over her bathing cap and submerged herself completely. The pool bottom was turquoise and every time she went under she felt she was entering an entirely new and alien, clean world. 

Alexandra Sweny is associate publisher of the Montreal Review of Books. She likes baseball caps and mass market paperbacks.

Illustration by Sara Prune.

The post Dive Into Local Lit appeared first on Read Quebec.

By Brooke Lee

Back in the summer of 2014, in the wake of the now-defunct Queer Between the Covers book fair, Ashley Fortier and Oliver Fugler set out to establish a press that would not only respond to the need for more English-language queer books in Montreal, but one that would generate synergy as well as equitable collaboration between its authors, editors, and artists. Today, Metonymy Press, Montreal’s beloved queer and feminist indie publisher, is still going strong, with April 26th, 2025 marking the ten-year anniversary of its debut publication She Is Sitting in the Night: Re-visioning Thea’s Tarot by Oliver Pickle – the first of its seventeen books published to date. Fast forward a decade, and recent releases include Metonymy’s first anthology El Ghourabaa: A queer and trans collection of oddities edited by Samia Marshy and Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch, and Grace Kwan’s poetry debut The Sacred Heart Motel.

But what does metonymy mean? While the word comes from Ancient Greek, literally translating to “change of name,” there’s no better adage for a literary press than “the pen is mightier than the sword,” which uses “pen” and “sword” as metonyms (or symbols) for the written word’s triumph over violence or force. Likewise, Metonymy Press seeks to empower its authors by prioritizing their autonomy in the publishing process: Another reason behind the name Metonymy, as offered by Oliver’s partner Devon, was for its similarity to the very word autonomy. With this non-hierarchical and transparent method, a unique collaboration then emerges where authors are actively involved in editorial decisions (for example, choosing titles and cover art), and are supported each step of the way with a guided DIY approach.

Metonymy’s resulting catalogue is one that highlights diverse voices and empowers authors and artists who live in the margins by encouraging their agency and self-determination. It’s the press where Trish Salah (Lyric Sexology Vol. 1, 2017) and H Felix Chau Bradley (Personal Attention Roleplay, 2021) have paved the way for greater visibility of trans and non-binary authors in Canadian literature. It’s also where local artists create cover designs that add new dimensions with openness in collaboration, such as Shanice Nicole’s Dear Black Girls (2021) illustrated by multidisciplinary artist Kezna Dalz. And while Metonymy prioritizes first-time authors, many of its books have received significant acclaim: For instance, The Good Arabs (2021) by Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch won the 2022 Grand Prix du livre de Montréal, a particularly impressive feat considering that this was only the second time an English-language book won the prize since its inception in 1965.

Located in the Parc-Ex neighbourhood of Montreal – in the same building as the similarly socially-oriented organizations Brique par Brique and Agir Montréal – Metonymy continues to fulfill its mandate of intersectional solidarity, with a multidisciplinary approach to literature (many of its authors are also performance artists and musicians). But since indie presses tend to be more niche and experimental, thus taking on more literary risks, certain challenges emerge, such as achieving cultural cachet while maintaining authentic values. There is also the ever-present possibility of authors being approached with contracts from larger publishing houses, not to mention rising paper and shipping costs.

Nonetheless, queer, feminist values and accessibility remain at the forefront of Metonomy’s operations. Most of the press’ books are commercially available in PDF and EPUB formats, and digital access for select titles is also available through the National Network for Equitable Library Service (NNELS) and Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA). Additionally, Metonymy hosts the Unruly Writers Club, a collective fronted by disability justice advocate Aimee Louw, which provides writers with unstructured but guided writing sessions in a positive and supportive environment. In terms of cultural accessibility, Metonymy has even transcended international borders, selling books in the United States, United Kingdom, Mauritius, and Indonesia to name a few. Kai Cheng Thom’s Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars (2016) has been translated into French and Japanese, and has also been released by Young Zubaan, an imprint of the New Delhi-based independent feminist publishing house Zubaan. As well, the book (in English) caught the attention of Emma Watson, who selected it in 2019 for her feminist book club, Our Shared Shelf.

Though Metonymy currently works with four book distributors, for local deliveries one might still be able to spot co-founder Oliver Fugler biking books over to Montreal customers, true testament to the press’ DIY tradition.

Speaking of local happenings, as part of the Suoni Per Il Popolo festival, Metonymy will be throwing an anniversary party! Head to Casa del Popolo on Sunday, June 22 for 10 Years of Metonymy Press: A Cabaret (doors open at 7:30 pm and the show starts at 8 pm). Tickets are on sale now: $15 or PWYC, no one will be turned away. The show will be hosted by Kama La Mackerel and Kai Cheng Thom, featuring performances from H Felix Chau Bradley, Shanice Nicole, Trish Salah, Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch, and jiaqing wilson-yang. In addition to the cabaret, Metonymy is currently offering four thematic Anniversary Book Bundles with a selection of the press’ titles.

When it comes to social progress, no matter how much ground we gain, the fight for equality must persist. Especially during this tumultuous time of overt discrimination against the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, honouring ten years of Metonymy Press sends a message of resilience, solidarity, and courage. Metonymy’s achievements are proof that embracing a collective mindset does not mean compromising values for the sake of profit or longevity— that success and ethics can co-exist, and that the pen is truly more powerful than the sword.  

Brooke Lee (she/her) is a ​freelance writer and editor in Montreal​ who writes fiction under the pen name River Lee.​ For more info, visit her website at riverleewriter.ca.

Illustration by Keet Geniza.

The post Writes of Passage appeared first on Read Quebec.

By Mia Combey-Robertson

Pamela Hensley moved to Montreal in 2016, and it didn’t take long for her to establish herself within the local literary scene. As a creative writer, board member of the Quebec Writers’ Federation, and managing editor of yolk Literary Journal, Hensley has spent years cultivating a keen interest in literature and a great appreciation for the artists in her community. It is through her local community of writers that her podcast, How I Wrote This, came to fruition, seeking out literary communities across the world to find out “who’s making noise and why.”

In pursuit of the “story behind the stories,” Hensley engages authors in discussions about the (at times) arduous writing process and how published works came to be. Ranging across personal politics, literary philosophies, and anecdotal experiences, these conversations showcase familiar works in a new light.

Montreal author Sean Michaels in conversation with Hensley.

Each of the podcast’s three seasons are dedicated to exploring writers within a given city, with the first and second seasons situated in Montreal and Berlin respectively. Hensley’s methodology benefits from her experiences travelling and living abroad: As a former automotive engineer and management consultant in Germany, Japan, Canada, and the U.S., Hensley kept books as her constant travel companion. Travelling and living abroad greatly influenced Hensley’s literary interests, and even her approach to literature itself: She mentions that she categorizes her home library according to nationality, which reflects how the podcast is organized. This method allows Hensley to identify characteristics that connect works from a given place, highlighting how different cultural spaces produce their own unique literary flavours. 

Take, for instance, her conversation with Mikhail Iossel, an author teaching at Concordia University who grew up in the former Soviet Union. In their conversation in Season 1 of the podcast, Iossel highlights the paradigm shift in his writing style when he switched from writing in Russian to English. These cultural and linguistic differences appear prominent when comparing works from each season of How I Wrote This. While there are no obvious thematic links between authors or works within each season, they are all rooted within the common ground from which they write. 

L-R: Mikhail Iossel in studio; Hensley chatting with Berlin-based author Behzad Karim Khani.

While all writers in a given season work from a shared city, they all approach their craft differently, and this is the real focus of How I Wrote This. The intimate relationship between writer and subject grounds many of the interviews Hensley presents. She emphasizes the importance of conducting these interviews in person, approaching conversations with an openness that allows for candid, vulnerable, and raw discussion. When asked about how biographical information can impact the reading experience, Hensley says,“You can’t make assumptions that what you read on the page tells you more than what is actually true. Many people say fiction is autobiographical but of course that’s not always the case.”

Hensley notes how a writer’s life story can often bleed into their work, influencing how narratives are structured, explored, and resolved. These works function as extensions of the writer, as both symptoms and outcomes of their experiences. Hensley states that in preparation for each episode, she reads the entire body of work produced by the guest – not just the book at hand. She notes the transformative quality these interviews can have in their ability to deepen her understanding of the story: “It’s really about humanity… about asking the second, the third, the fourth question to really dive deep and get to the meat of things.”

In the first episode of Season 1, Montreal author Heather O’Neill describes how her ideas often come from an image she forms in her head. For example, an image of a little girl in an open field was the narrative catalyst for her most recent novel, The Capital of Dreams. Hensley states that approaching the book with the knowledge of how it came to light will indubitably impact how it is interpreted, as readers gain insight into the intricacies of the author’s writing process. 

How I Wrote This is a space for readers as much as it is a space for authors. An avid reader herself, Hensley understands the intimate relationship one can form with the characters in a novel, and this podcast affords listeners the opportunity to understand the genesis of these characters on a more profound level. Instead of social media trends or algorithm-generated recommendations, Hensley favours suggestions from those in her shared circles for her next story. In this way, the podcast emphasizes the vital importance of cultivating discourse within literary spaces and communities, putting storytelling at the center both as subject and method. 

 Hensley in studio.

The third season of How I Wrote This, which came out on January 21 of this year, is set in Brooklyn, with American author Jennifer Egan as the guest of the first episode. Hensley describes the literary scene in Brooklyn as an artistic “mecca” of sorts, blending various literary styles, approaches, and backgrounds. Other writers interviewed this season include Daniel Allen Cox, Christina Cooke, and Joseph O’Neill.

Listeners looking to learn more can visit the How I Wrote This website, or stream episodes from wherever they get their podcasts. 

Mia Combey-Robertson is a freelance writer from Vancouver, BC. As a graduate from McGill University, Mia has a keen interest in the literary scene here in Montreal. She enjoys writing about cinema, culture, and literature.

Illustration by Nora Kelly.

The post Curating Community appeared first on Read Quebec.

by Jade Palmer

February 5th, 2025 is the fifteenth annual World Read Aloud Day, which promotes “the power of reading aloud to create community and amplify new stories, and to advocate for literacy as a foundational human right.” Montreal, with its vibrant history of reading series, strong literary community, and many avenues for innovation within these spaces, is the perfect place to participate and emphasize the importance of World Read Aloud Day’s mission.

Below, you’ll hear from four individuals with different perspectives on reading aloud and find out where you can enjoy the world beyond the written word. 

JASON CAMLOT: SPOKENWEB

Jason Camlot is an English professor at Concordia University and director of SpokenWeb Montreal, a research group based out of Concordia that preserves recordings of literary events and researches the ways we interpret sound and performance. He offers historical context for the practice of reading aloud: 

“In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as the study of modern literature was slowly becoming part of the university curriculum, reading aloud and listening were still integral to the practice of reading. Hundreds of books prescribing methods of elocutionary delivery, methods of recitation and oral interpretation were published, advising readers what they should be thinking and feeling when approaching a text to read aloud.

But that was then. As literary study became a legitimate discipline in its own right through the institutionalization of departments of English and other modern languages, new forms of criticism took hold that prioritized the reading of poems silently for the purpose of analysis in writing. So reading and listening to literature isn’t really part of the curriculum anymore, and we come to literary listening from a diverse range of positions, with little theory about how to do it, or preparation.”

The devaluation of reading aloud in our literary and educational lives is very much a product of the values of the current cultural moment. SpokenWeb puts the focus back on orality by presenting literary sound recordings on the SpokenWeb podcast and the CJLO radio show, Sonic Lit. Both of these projects are made for the general public, require no academic background, and aim to get everyone loving literature out loud again.

SUSAN GILLIS: QUEBEC WRITERS’ FEDERATION WORKSHOPS 

Each session of Susan Gillis’ workshop for the Quebec Writers’ Federation beganins with the workshopped poet reading their draft aloud to the group. Susan notes that this is a valuable part of the editing process both for the one vocalizing the work and those experiencing the work gain life off of the page:

“Hearing others read a poem can lead my attention to things I hadn’t noticed when reading silently, sometimes things that should have been obvious, and to nuances possibly only present at all in the heard words, through cadence and variation in emphasis.

Reading aloud, I’m engaged in a physical journey through a verbal landscape. This landscape may or may not align with other elements of the poem, a situation that may or may not generate tension, richness, and resonance. Involving the body, specifically the vocal apparatus and breath—breath itself—makes reading a poem a holistic experience, somatic as well as conceptual.”

The physical acts of producing and receiving sound attune workshop members to whether a poem is resonating or not—a perfect place from which to begin critiquing in a workshop! While the spring sessions are starting up in March, the fall round will open for registration in August. Watch the QWF website and Instagram for the announcement of the fall workshops so you can also experience how reading aloud helps bring your writing to the next level.

JM FRANCHETEAU: JRG OPEN MIC 

“Jay Ryan Gobuty was bored by nearly every poetry reading he ever attended,” recalls JM Francheteau, emcee of JRG Open Mic, “not out of antipathy towards poetry, though his real passion was theatre, but because the readings themselves were such staid affairs.” Fittingly named outrageous, the open mic series he co-hosted in Toronto with EJ Burns from 2012 to 2016 encouraged heckling, screaming, and exciting interdisciplinary performance. Jay passed away last year, but Francheteau has launched the JRG Open Mic (named for Gobuty’s initials) to put a literary spin on his eclectic legacy: 

“Despite the name I didn’t go into the first JRG gig planning to make the night explicitly ‘about’ Jay. It might feel like a bit of a bait and switch for the audience to think they are going into a regular show and discover they are at a stranger’s wake!

But some people were moved to speak about Jay’s passing in their performances because it’s what they’re writing about at the moment, and because it is important to them to talk and to remember . . . people tend to go to readings to feel things, to share in some sort of collective vulnerability. 

And if I might try to answer as Jay would, feelings and community are lovely, but it’s also about The Work. Writing is Work, but so is performing . . . JRG is about practice, thrilling practice.

Most forms of the written word thrive when spoken aloud. We honour our loved ones, we honour ourselves, and we honour the art when we present something publicly that makes others glad to have witnessed it. Jay believed art mattered—I can’t think of a better tribute than a space where people have fun getting better at theirs.”

The first JRG Open Mic provided Jay’s friends a place to openly and creatively grieve, hone the craft of reading aloud, and welcome others into the fold. If you want to experience the most not-boring open mic, the third installment of JRG will be held at Bar L’Hémisphère Gauche on March 6th, featured performers TBA.

CARLOS A. PITTELLA: AT HOME WITH LOVED ONES

For Carlos A. Pitella, previous co-editor-in-chief of Concordia’s English graduate literary journal, Headlight Anthology, and winner of a Forces Avenir prize for revamping the journal, reading aloud has always been a family affair: 

“As much as I love reading aloud, I love being read to even more—or taking turns, passing the book back and forth. With my father, over many breakfasts, we read Camus’s The Plague and Eça de Queirós’s The Legends of Saints—and I remember us crying at the end of both. With my love, we’ve read dozens of books together, normally a chapter before bed, and developed an intuition for which kinds of stories work well out loud. 

With our daughter, there has always been the bedtime story; now that she too can read, I love alternating pages with her, whether in Portuguese, English, or French. Though I enjoy podcasts and audiobooks, it’s never the same thing as a living being reading with you—someone to share the conjuring of a story and fall together into the magic trap of words.”

Experiencing a text with a loved one can bring up many emotions: everything from immense sadness to immense joy in connecting over a shared experience of the unreal. In the true spirit of World Read Aloud Day, Bibliotheque Benny in NDG sees the need for children to experience reading aloud, as they’re launching a preschool storytime beginning Saturday, February 22nd. 

It is a gift to fall in love with storytelling at such a young age—and to later take advantage of all other opportunities documented here.

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Jade Palmer (she/her) studied English and creative writing at Concordia University and is currently a poet and research assistant in Tiohti:àke/Montreal. Her work has won third place for the 2025 Foster Poetry Prize, been shortlisted for the 2024 Austin Clarke Prize, and won the 2024 Concordia Creative Writing Award. She is a poetry mentee in the QWF’s mentorship program, the managing editor of carte blanche, and a cohost for Accent Open Mic.

Illustration by Nina Drew.

The post Four Perspectives on Reading Aloud in Montreal appeared first on Read Quebec.