BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Read Quebec - ECPv6.18.3.1//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:Read Quebec X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://readquebec.ca X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Read Quebec REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Toronto BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20230312T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20231105T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20240310T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20241103T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20250309T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20251102T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20260308T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20261101T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20270314T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20271107T060000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20241208T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20241208T140000 DTSTAMP:20241112T202838Z CREATED:20241112T202838Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241112T202838Z UID:7496-1733662800-1733666400@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:Postcards to the Future! DESCRIPTION:Mail a message to your older self. We’ll be designing with words and pictures a double sided postcard with a message you’d like your future self to know. It could be serious or playful or both\, you decide what the adult version of you should know! For kids 10 and up.\n\nVasilios Billy Mavreas is an artist & writer making mostly book works\, drawings\, comics\, visual poetry and collage. He designs and leads bilingual workshops and speaks publicly on creative process\, collecting\, zines and self-publishing\, hybrid literature\, found objects and paper ephemera. URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/postcards-to-the-future-2/ LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 rue Jean Talon est\, Montreal\, QC\, H2R 1T6\, Canada ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/RQBF_KidsWorkshop02_Banner_Web_v1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20241208T140000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20241208T150000 DTSTAMP:20241112T200945Z CREATED:20241112T200945Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241112T200945Z UID:7484-1733666400-1733670000@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:Comic Book Confessions: Montreal Cartoonists Tell All DESCRIPTION:Montreal has emerged as one of the most vibrant comic book scenes in the world\, with a remarkable range of local creators producing weird\, wild\, and wonderful work that crosses over genres\, generations\, and languages. Join superstar cartoonists Walter Scott (Wendy)\, Éloïse Marseille (Naked: The Confessions of a Normal Woman)\, and Chris Oliveros (Are You Willing to Die for the Cause?) for a candid discussion about creating stories in pictures and words\, finding humor in everyday life\, and contemplating what could be next for Montreal’s thriving comic arts scene. Moderated by François Vigneault. URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/comic-book-confessions-montreal-cartoonists-tell-all/ LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 rue Jean Talon est\, Montreal\, QC\, H2R 1T6\, Canada ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/RQBF_Comics_Banner_Web_v1-scaled.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20241208T140000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20241208T150000 DTSTAMP:20241112T203249Z CREATED:20241112T202955Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241112T203249Z UID:7499-1733666400-1733670000@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:Cards for Peace DESCRIPTION:We’ll create holiday greeting cards with drawings and writing for family and friends around the themes of peace\, gratitude and light! Every tradition welcome!\n\nVasilios Billy Mavreas is an artist & writer making mostly book works\, drawings\, comics\, visual poetry and collage. He designs and leads bilingual workshops and speaks publicly on creative process\, collecting\, zines and self-publishing\, hybrid literature\, found objects and paper ephemera. URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/cards-for-peace/ LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 rue Jean Talon est\, Montreal\, QC\, H2R 1T6\, Canada ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/RQBF_KidsWorkshop03_Banner_Web_v1-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20241208T153000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20241208T163000 DTSTAMP:20241112T200837Z CREATED:20241112T200813Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241112T200837Z UID:7487-1733671800-1733675400@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:Ian Ferrier Spoken Word Prize Showcase DESCRIPTION:The Quebec Writers’ Federation’s Ian Ferrier Spoken Word Prize Showcase will once again display the creative talents of the finalists for the Ian Ferrier Spoken Word Prize. \nMoe Clark “committing a dream / pawâkan Palestine”\nLucia De Luca “Congratulations”\nEmilia Malpica-Iruegas “twenty-one”\nRoger Sinha “Hater’s n Baiters: The Culture Collision”\nMac van den Hoeven “Memory Justice” URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/ian-ferrier-spoken-word-prize-showcase/ LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 rue Jean Talon est\, Montreal\, QC\, H2R 1T6\, Canada ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/RQBF_IanFerrier_Banner_Web_v1-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20250801T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20250831T170000 DTSTAMP:20260817T163842Z CREATED:20250709T210917Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260817T163842Z UID:8292-1754035200-1756659600@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:Women in Translation Month 2025 DESCRIPTION:August is Women in Translation Month! Founded by Meytal Radzinski in 2014\, Women in Translation Month celebrates writing by women in languages other than English. \nHere in Quebec\, we are grateful for the care and labour of translators who bring important stories to English-speaking audiences around the world. \nCheck out some featured titles below\, translated from French\, Spanish\, Korean and more! \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Featured Books\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n As the Andes DisappearedFiction Caroline Dawson\, translated by Anita Anand Baldwin\, Styron and MeMemoir\, Nonfiction Mélikah Abdelmoumen\, translated by Catherine Khorduc Between the Island and the TurtleFiction Karine Rosso\, trans. Anita Anand Beware Her FuryGraphic novel Mirion Malle Blood BoundFiction Marie-Josée Poisson Club MicrobeKids Elise Gravel\, translated by Montana Kane Dandelion DaughterFiction Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay\, translated by Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch EmFiction Kim Thúy\, translated by Sheila Fischman Floating IslandsFiction Joyce Mansour\, trans. by Emilie Moorhouse Fragile Like a BombFiction Catherine Fred Lavarenne\, trans. by Natalia Hero Fruit SaladGraphic novel Cathon Hekla and LakiKids Marine Schneider\, translated by Nick Frost and Catherine Ostiguy HorseflyFiction Mireille Gagné\, translated by Pablo Strauss JournalMemoir Marie Uguay\, translated by Jennifer Moxley Land of MirrorsFiction\, Graphic novel Maria Medem\, translated by Aleshia Jensen and Daniela Ortiz MetadoggozGraphic novel Bérénice Motais de Narbonne\, trans. Montana Kane My Friend Kim Jong UnGraphic novel\, Nonfiction Keum Suk Gendry-Kim trans. Janet Hong Nauetakuan\, a Silence for a NoiseFiction Natasha Kanapé Fontaine\, translated by Howard Scott Nights Too Short to DanceFiction Marie-Claire Blais\, translated by Katia Grubisic Pale ShadowsFiction Dominique Fortier\, translated by Rhonda Mullins PragueFiction Maude Veilleux\, translated by Aleshia Jensen and Aimee Wall Republic of GlassFiction Catherine Leroux\, trans. Katia Grubisic Sailors Can’t SwimFiction Dominique Scali\, trans. Jessica Moore School for GirlsFiction Ariane Lessard\, translated by Frances Pope So Long Sad LoveFiction\, Graphic novel Mirion Malle\, translated by Aleshia Jensen Songs for AngelFiction Marie-Claire Blais\, translated by Katia Grubisic Sugaring OffFiction Fanny Britt\, translated by Susan Ouriou The BigamistFiction Felicia Mihali\, translated by Linda Leith The FutureFiction Catherine Leroux\, translated by Susan Ouriou The JellyfishGraphic novel Boum\, translated by Robin Lang and Helge Dascher The Love of ManFiction Hélène Rioux\, translated by Jonathan Kaplansky The MongooseGraphic novel Joana Mosi The Old Man and the ChildKids Gabrielle Roy\, translated by Katherine Sehl The Price of SilverFiction\, Graphic novel Sophie Bédard\, trans. Robin Lang The WaitingGraphic novel Keum Suk Gendry-Kim\, translated by Janet Hong This Radiant LifePoetry Chantal Neveu\, translated by Erín Moure Together by the SeaFiction Marie-Claire Blais\, translated by Katia Grubisic ValidFiction Chris Bergeron\, translated by Natalia Hero youPoetry Chantal Neveu\, translated by Erín Moure No results found. URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/women-in-translation-month/ LOCATION:QC ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Discover-a-Book-from-Here-1.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250812 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250813 DTSTAMP:20250811T191253Z CREATED:20250708T191510Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250811T191253Z UID:8285-1754956800-1755043199@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:On August 12th\, I'm Buying a Quebecois Book! DESCRIPTION:This #12aout\, discover a book from here! \nAugust 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. \nHere 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.  \nHead 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! \n\n\n: ReadQuebec.ca/Books\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n RSVP on Facebook\n \n Staff Recommendations\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Featured Books\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Are You Willing to Die for the Cause? (Paperback)Graphic novel\, Nonfiction Chris Oliveros As the Andes DisappearedFiction Caroline Dawson\, translated by Anita Anand At Beckett’s GravePoetry Robin Durnford Back to Beer … and Hockey: The Story of Eric MolsonNonfiction Helen Antoniou Baldwin\, Styron and MeMemoir\, Nonfiction Mélikah Abdelmoumen\, translated by Catherine Khorduc Batten DownPoetry Sue Croll BeckoningPoetry Hollie Adams Beothuk: How Story Made a People (Almost) DisappearNonfiction Christopher Aylward BetasFiction\, Graphic novel Nick Maandag Between the Island and the TurtleFiction Karine Rosso\, trans. Anita Anand Beware Her FuryGraphic novel Mirion Malle Beyond Ken DrydenMemoir\, Nonfiction Oren Safdie No results found. URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/on-august-12th-im-buying-a-quebecois-book-2/ LOCATION:QC ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Quebec-Book-Day-August-12-Facebook-Cover-6.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20251030T183000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20251030T210000 DTSTAMP:20251007T213111Z CREATED:20251007T204427Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251007T213111Z UID:9493-1761849000-1761858000@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:mRb Fall 2025 Issue Launch DESCRIPTION:The Montreal Review of Books launches its Fall 2025 issue on Thursday\, October 30 at P’tit Ours (5589 Park Ave)! Join us for readings by Stephanie Bolster (Long Exposure\, Palimpsest Press)\, Veena Gokhale (Annapurna’s Bounty\, Dundurn Press) and Andreas Kessaris (The Grand Tour of Park Ex\, Guernica Editions). The authors will be available to sign books after the readings. Admission is free.\n Doors at 6:30 Readings at 7:00\nFor those unable to attend in person\, readings will be live-streamed on our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@aelaq.\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Featured Books\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Annapurna’s BountyFiction Veena Gokhale Long ExposurePoetry Stephanie Bolster The Grand Tour of Park ExMemoir Andreas Kessaris No results found. URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/mrb-fall-2025-issue-launch/ LOCATION:P’tit Ours\, 5589 Park Ave\, Montreal\, QC\, H2V 4H2\, Canada ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1005-1920-x-1080-px-1.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20251206T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20251207T170000 DTSTAMP:20260929T164334Z CREATED:20250915T153633Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260929T164334Z UID:9255-1765018800-1765126800@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:2025 Read Quebec Book Fair DESCRIPTION:The Read Quebec Book Fair turns 10! Celebrate this milestone year on December 6–7 at Casa d’Italia\, with special events\, author signings\, and the latest releases from Canadian writers and publishers. \nProduced by the Association of English-language Publishers of Quebec (AELAQ)\, the Fair celebrates the vibrancy of English-language writing\, publishing\, and translation in Quebec. In honour of the tenth anniversary\, this year’s Fair will\, for the first time\, welcome publishers from across Canada.  \nTaking place in the historic Casa d’Italia\, the Fair will present a full weekend of programming\, including a discussion between Heather and Arizona O’Neill about their new collaborative book Valentine in Montreal. Comic fans and those looking to discover the city’s beloved bédéistes will enjoy Art and Life in Graphic Novels with Juli Delporte\, Pascal Girard and D. Boyd. Meanwhile\, find your next dinner table discussion topic at our non-fiction lightning round\, where authors such as Francine Pelletier will demystify their research and share the passion inspiring their work. For writers looking to pitch a book idea\, we’re hosting the fair’s first ever speed-dating event for writers and editors\, where up-and-coming and seasoned wordsmiths will have the opportunity to deliver their pitches directly to publishers. \nThe Fair will offer plenty of fun for young booklovers in a cozy\, book-filled Kids’ Nook both days\, and a special reading and guided yoga practice for children with author Marlee Kostiner on Saturday afternoon. Other programming highlights include a panel discussion hosted by Italian community archivist Nancy Marrelli\, and a showcase of publisher Guernica Editions’ latest Quebec authors and releases.  \nStick around for our 5 à 7 opening cocktail on Saturday for delicious hors d’oeuvres and a chance to connect with Montreal’s vibrant literary community\, with a special 10th Anniversary High Fidelity DJ set with local journalist and author Brendan Kelly. \nCasa d’Italia is located at 505 Jean-Talon East\, and is fully accessible to wheelchairs and strollers. The fair takes place on the second floor\, accessible via stairs or elevator. Take the entrance on Berri Street\, across the street from Jean-Talon metro (exit Jean-Talon Nord). \nVisit readquebec.ca for all the details. \n \n Author Signing Schedule\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Event Schedule \nSaturday December 6\, 2025\n\n\nNew Knowledge: Nonfiction Lightning Round\nDecember 6\, 2025 at 12 pm – 1 p.m.Main Stage\, Salle des célébrations \n\nNathalie Cooke\nMartha Langford\nValérie Lefebvre-Faucher\nStephen Monteiro\nFrancine Pelletier\nCatherine Richardson\nAlex R. Tipei\nThomas Waugh\nAndrei Zanescu\n\nModerated by Ryan Van Huijstee \nOften\, fiction gets the limelight\, poetry gets the prestige. But nonfiction books are published every day that help illuminate\, preserve and create the world around us. Join local authors as they share the passions that led them to investigate a single subject in depth and then write an entire book about it. \nNathalie Cooke is an English professor at McGill University and a specialist in literary food studies and material culture. Her research uncovers the hidden stories told by menus\, textiles\, and other everyday artefacts\, revealing how their forms\, codes\, and designs shape what we remember\, and how we read. \nCatherine Richardson Kineweskwêw is a Métis therapist\, family therapist\, researcher and academic working at Concordia University. Her maternal relatives come from Fort Chipewyan and have ties to Red River. She holds a research Chair in Indigenous Healing Knowledges and teaches in First Peoples Studies and Creative Arts Therapies. She is a co-founder of the Centre for Response-Based Practice where she and her colleagues advance dignity-centered approaches to violence. Cathy is also interested in the broader and multi-dimensional aspects of healing\, such as the person as whole being\, a spirit in a body with emotions\, intelligence\, physicality and in relation to all beings in the natural world.  \nShe has taught in various counselling and social work programs and is the former director of the First Peoples Studies program at Concordia University. She explores various approaches to well- being on her substack podcast\, where she speaks with healers\, activists and response-based therapists. She is a student of shamanic practice and the mother of three amazing adult children. \nMartha Langford\, FRSC\, is the author of A History of Photography in Canada. The first of three volumes\, Anticipation to Participation\, 1839 1918 has just appeared. Beautifully produced\, the book is both lively and comprehensive\, with over 400 illustrations. Langford is a distinguished professor emeriti of Concordia University in Montreal. She is the former research chair and director of the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art. In prior lives\, she was the founding director of the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography\, an affiliate of the National Gallery of Canada\, and before that\, Executive Producer of the Still Photography Division of the National Film Board of Canada. She has organized photographic exhibitions for museums and festivals in Canada\, the UK\, and Europe. \nValérie Lefebvre-Faucher is editor-in-chief of Liberté. She has worked as an editor at both Remue-ménage and Écosociété\, with a focus on environmental\, anti-capitalist\, and feminist work. In addition to having collaborated with numerous collectives\, blogs\, and magazines\, she published Procès Verbal and Promenade sur Marx\, published in English under the title Jenny\, Eleanor\, and Laura\, et al.\, translated by Mélissa Bull. \nStephen Monteiro teaches and researches media and culture at Concordia University. He has written or edited several books\, including Needy Media\, The Fabric of Interface\, and The Screen Media Reader. He has contributed as an expert on contemporary technology to CBC Radio and the Toronto Star\, among other media outlets.  \nWell-known journalist\, documentary filmmaker\, teacher and broadcaster\, Francine Pelletier\, formerly of CBC’s the fifth estate\, is the author of three books: Second début: Cendres et renaissance du féminisme\, Atelier 10\, (2015)\, a short personal history of feminism in Quebec; : L’Art de se mouiller : Chroniques pour nourrir le débat\,  Écosociété (2022)\, a selection of her columns in Le Devoir from 2013-22; and Dream Interrupted : the Rise and Fall of Quebec Nationalism\, Sutherland House (2025). \nA transnational historian\, primarily focused on Southeast Europe and France\, Alex R. Tipei is professor of history and international studies at the Université de Montréal. MQUP published her book\, Unintended Nations: France’s Empire of Civilization\, Southeast Europe\, and the Post-Napoleonic World. Alex’s research has received funding from SSHRC\, the Fulbright Program\, and the American Council of Learned Societies. She has taught and researched at McGill and Princeton Universities as well as the Universities of Bucharest and Illinois. Alex is also a team leader on the European Research Council funded project Transnational Histories of Corruption in South-East-Central Europe based at New Europe College/Institute for Advanced Study in Bucharest. \nRyan Van Huijstee is the director of Concordia University Press. He previously held a range of roles at University of Toronto Press and McGill-Queen’s University Press. \nThomas Waugh is a writer\, programmer\, and activist who taught film studies and sexuality at Concordia University from 1976 to 2017. He is the author of The Romance of Transgression in Canada: Queering Sexualities\, Nations\, Cinema; and fourteen other books. \n\n\nValentine in December! With Heather and Arizona O’Neill\nDecember 6\, 2025\, 2–3 pmMain Stage\, Salle des célébrations \nThe duo will take to the stage to discuss their collaboration Valentine in Montreal. The novel\, written by Heather with illustrations by Arizona\, is a sweet Montreal adventure in which our famous metro plays a starring role. The O’Neills will sign copies after their onstage appearance. \nHeather O’Neill is a novelist\, short-story writer and essayist. Her most recent novel is Valentine in Montreal. Her previous works include Capital of Dreams and When We Lost Our Heads\, a #1 national bestseller and finalist for the Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal. 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. Lullabies for Little Criminals\, The Girl Who Was Saturday Night\, and Daydreams of Angels were 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. O’Neill has also won CBC’s Canada Reads and the Danuta Gleed Award. Born and raised in Montreal\, she lives there today. \nArizona O’Neill is a Montreal-based author and illustrator. Her illustrations appear in Valentine in Montreal. She is the author of Est-ce qu’un artiste peut être heureux ?\, a collection of graphic interviews\, and illustrated Nelly Arcan’s L’enfant dans le miroir. Her comics have appeared in Hazlitt\, Exclaim!\, the Montreal Gazette and mRb. She has created animated videos for many outlets\, including CBC. She is a regular contributor to Radio-Canada’s Il restera toujours la culture\, and is one half of the bookstagram page @ONeillReads. She is currently working on a graphic memoir.  \n\n\nGuernica Editions Showcase\nDecember 6\, 2025\, 3:30 – 5 pmRotunda \nAn event celebrating Guernica Editions’ longstanding presence in Quebec\, featuring readings by authors with new releases this year\, including fiction\, memoir\, and poetry. With the purchase of a book\, guests will be entered into a raffle to win a selection of Guernica titles. \n\nMichael Carin\, Edisson & Jeremiah\nAnn Cavlovic\, Count on Me\nJonathan Kaplansky and Francis Catalano\, The Origin of the Future\nAndreas Kessaris\, The Grand Tour of Park Ex\nBunmi Oyinsan\, A Ladder of Bones\nMeryem Yildiz\, Backbone\nContributors from The Nuances of Love\n\nMichael Carin trained as a political theorist at McGill University\, where he also studied under the godfather of Canadian literature\, Hugh MacLennan. He is the author of several novels\, including Five Hundred Keys\, The Kremlin Papers\, and the work of alternate history Churchill at Munich. His non-fiction response to the Holocaust\, The Future Jew\, won him wide recognition as a provocative secular humanist. Mr. Carin lives in Montreal. \nPoet\, novelist\, short story writer and essayist born in Montreal\, Francis Catalano won the Quebecor Prize of the Trois-Rivières International Poetry Festival for Qu’une lueur des lieux (2010) and the La Métropole Prize of Excellence for Climax (2022). As a translator of Italian poetry\, he won the John Glassco Prize in 2006 for Instructions pour la lecture d’un journal de Valerio Magrelli. \nAnn Cavlovic’s fiction and creative non-fiction have appeared in Canadian literary magazines and news media\, such as Event\, The Fiddlehead\, Grain\, PRISM International\, The Globe & Mail\, and CBC. She lives in Western Quebec.  \nConnie Guzzo McParland\, president and co-director of Guernica Editions\, holds a BA in Italian Literature and a master’s degree in Creative Writing from Concordia University. She is the author of The Girls of Piazza D’amore (2013)\, The Women of Saturn (2017)\, Le Donne di Saturno (2019)\, An opera in 3 Acts/Un opéra en trois actes (2021)\, and The Twelfth Room\, a translation of La Dodicesima Stanza. \nJonathan Kaplansky is a literary translator of French in Montreal. He won a French Voices Award to translate Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux’s Things Seen and was shortlisted for the David Booth Award for Jonathan Bécotte’s Like a Hurricane. He has also translated works by Hélène Dorion\, Lise Gauvin\, Louis- Philippe Hébert\, Hélène Rioux and Lise Tremblay. \nAndreas Kessaris grew up in Montreal’s Park Extension district\, the son of Greek immigrants. He graduated from Dawson College and Concordia University\, earning a BA in Communications & English. His column\, Read On! with Andreas Kessaris\, was a popular feature in the West-End community paper The Local Herald. His writing has also appeared on Suite101.com\, in the literary journal The Write Place\, on the Montreal entertainment website Curtainsup.tv\, The Miramichi Reader\, and The Montreal Review of Books. His first book\, The Butcher of Park Ex & Other Semi-Truthful Tales\, was released in 2020 to great acclaim. \nBunmi Oyinsan is a Nigerian/Canadian writer. From novels to scripts for radio\, television\, and the theatre\, she has contributed to both the nonfiction and fiction canons of African literature. Oyinsan gained her MA focusing on orature and literature from Saint Mary’s University and a Ph.D. from York University. She is the writer\, producer\, and presenter for the Sankofa Pan African Series\, which has over 100K subscribers and over 5 million views. She is a winner of the Matatu Prize for her YA novel Fabulous Four and has been nominated for THEMA’s Best Film Script. Her novel Three Women was nominated for the Flora Nwapa Prize for Women’s Literature in 2006. Born in Lagos\, she lives in Bowmanville\, Ontario. \nMeryem Yildiz is a Turkish-Canadian poet from Tiohtià:ke (Montreal). Her poems have appeared in journals across the country\, including Arc Poetry Magazine\, The Ex-Puritan\, PRISM International\, The Fiddlehead\, and yolk\, among others. In 2022\, she won The Malahat Review’s Far Horizons Award for Poetry as well as the Quebec Writers’ Federation’s carte blanche Prize. She’s also a poetry editor at LBRNTH\, a queer literature and arts magazine\, which she co-edits with Misha Solomon. In her debut collection\, Backbone\, Meryem explores the complexities of identity across geographies\, and reveals how friendship and memory shape the search for home. \n\n\nNaMOOste Yoga for Kids \nDecember 6\, 2025\, 3:30 – 4:30 pmMain Stage\, Salle des célébrations \nAuthor Marlee Kostiner never fails to get kids giggling as she reads all the ways animals say “Namaste” with their animal sounds (the cow says naMOOste\, the chick says namaSQUEEK). After an engaging reading\, Marlee guides the kids through yoga poses they learned in the book\, ending with a relaxing moment of silence (yes\, the kids are quiet!). NaMOOste features 13 beautiful watercolour animals practising authentic yoga poses\, and shows young readers ways to care for their bodies and minds. For kids ages 3–9. \nMarlee Kostiner is an award-winning journalist\, writer\, editor\, and the author of NaMOOste\, a playful yoga book that helps kids build social-emotional skills. A passionate advocate for neurodiversity and mental health\, Marlee brings these values into all her creative work. In 2021\, she founded Garden Wolf Publishing House to help fellow purpose-driven experts\, organizations and non-profits turn their ideas into meaningful children’s books. She lives in Montreal with her two sons\, her husband\, and their grumpy cat. \n\n\nOpening Cocktail\nDecember 6\, 2025\, 5 – 7 pmSalle des mémoires \nJoin us for a special 10th anniversary edition of the Read Quebec Book Fair’s 5 à 7 featuring a DJ set by journalist and author of Habs Nation Brendan Kelly\, known for his popular High Fidelity in the Park events. New wave\, old-school disco and you. Open to all!   \nBorn in Glasgow\, raised in Montreal and a fan of the Canadiens for longer than he can remember\, Brendan Kelly was one of the founders of the late great alternative weekly the Montreal Mirror. He worked at the Montreal Daily News in the late ‘80s and had a weekly music column on CBC Radio for over 30 years. His Montreal Gazette column What the Puck is a controversial contrarian hot take on the Canadiens that elicits much hate and even more love. He has written for the Gazette since 1996. He also frequently contributes to various Radio-Canada cultural shows. He has published two books on the Montreal Canadiens – Le CH et son people (2024)\, and Habs Nation: A People’s History of the Montreal Canadiens (2025). \n\nSunday December 7\, 2025\n \nArchives Out Loud: Italian-Canadian Literature\nDecember 7\, 2025\, 11:30 am – 12:30 pmMain Stage\, Salle des célébrations \n\nLicia Canton\nMary di Michele\nCarmine Starnino\n\nModerated by Nancy Marrelli \nThere is a significant body of excellent Italian-Canadian literature available from a variety of sources in English\, French\, and Italian. The panel will discuss some established works as well as new voices emerging from the next generation. This session is part of the Archives Out Loud series organized by the Italian-Canadian Archives of Quebec. The panel will be followed by a reception in the office of the Italian-Canadian Community Archives of Quebec\, in the basement level of Casa d’Italia. \nLicia Canton has published short stories\, nonfiction and poetry in English\, French\, Italian and a Venetian dialect. She has been translator-in-residence at the University of Hull\, UK\, and Writer-in-Residence at Università della Calabria\, Italy. She is co-founder of Accenti Magazine and co-director of the Queer Italian-Canadian Artists Research Project (U of Toronto). She is the director of the documentary film Creative Spaces: Queer and Italian Canadian (2021). She mentors emerging writers through the Quebec Writers’ Federation Hire-a-Writer directory. For her work in culture\, she was awarded the Italy in the World Prize (2018). She holds a Ph.D. from Université de Montréal and an M.A. from McGill University. \nBorn in Italy and immigrated to Canada in 1955\, Mary di Michele is an award-winning\, internationally published writer. She is the author of more than twelve books\, including the collection of poems Stranger in You and the novel Tenor of Love. Her last collection of poetry\, Bicycle Thieves (ECW 2017)\, was short-listed for the Pat Lowther Award. She is active in the collaborative writing group Yoko’s Dogs. Now retired from teaching at Concordia University\, she continues to live in Montreal. \nNancy Marrelli is Director of the Italian-Canadian Archives of Quebec at the Casa d’Italia\, and Archivist Emerita\, Concordia University. She is also co-publisher of Véhicule Press. Her family left Italy and settled in Montreal in 1909. \nCarmine Starnino is the Editor in Chief of The Walrus. He is the author of eight books\, including Dirty Words: Selected Poems 1997–2016.  \n\n\nAcquiring Editors at Work\nDecember 7\, 2025\, 1 – 2 pmMain Stage\, Salle des célébrations \n\nLeila Marshy\, Baraka Books\nCurtis John McRae\, Véhicule Press\nYashaswi Kesanakurthy\, Simon & Schuster Canada\n\nModerated by Tawhida Tanya Evanson \nWho gets to choose which books will be published – and how do they do it? Editors from three publishers will discuss how they decide what to publish\, and how writers can improve their chances. Simon & Schuster children’s book editor Yashaswi Kesanakurthy\, Baraka Books’ fiction and nonfiction editor Leila Marshy\, and Curtis McRae\, fiction editor at Véhicule Press\, will give us the inside scoop on what acquisitions editors really do. \nYashaswi Kesanakurthy [yush-us-we kay-sah-nah-koor-thi] is the Children’s Editor at Simon & Schuster Canada. She is a graduate of the University of British Columbia’s MA program in Children’s Literature and Toronto Metropolitan University’s publishing program. Her publishing career began as Publishing Assistant at Tundra Books\, PRHC. She then joined HarperCollins Canada as Associate Editor where she developed a vibrant list including The Garden of Lost Socks by Esi Edugyan and Amélie Dubois\, The Hockey Skates by Karl Subban and Maggie Zeng\, and Mortified by Kristy Jackson and Rhael McGregor. At Simon & Schuster Canada\, she remains focused on publishing marginalized\, Canadian voices that tell entertaining and transformative stories. Yash lives in Toronto with a magical\, if unruly\, library that just keeps growing. \nLeila Marshy is the author of The Philistine (LLP\, 2018) and My Thievery of the People (Baraka Books\, 2025)\, and is editor of the anthology Razing Palestine: Punishing Solidarity and Dissent in Canada (Baraka Books\, 2025). Daughter of a Palestinian refugee\, Marshy lived in Cairo during the First Intifada and worked for the Palestinian Red Crescent and the Palestinian Mental Health Association. She has been a community and political organizer\, including founding a dialogue group with the Hasidic community in her local neighbourhood\, helping elect the first Hasidic woman to public office in the world. Marshy is Editor at Baraka Books and lives in Montreal. \nCurtis John McRae is the fiction editor at Véhicule Press and the Co-Founder/Editor-in-Chief of yolk literary journal. He is the author of Quietly\, Loving Everyone (Vehicule Press\, 2025). His fiction has appeared in The New Quarterly\, Prairie Fire\, and others. He won the 2021/22 David McKeen Award\, was longlisted for the 2025 DISQUIET Literary Fiction Contest\, received an honourable mention in the 2024 Peter Hinchcliffe award\, and was a finalist in the 2019 Quebec Writers’ Federation contest for emerging young writers. Curtis teaches English literature at John Abbott College and formerly served as a board member for the Quebec Writers’ Federation. \nTawhida Tanya Evanson is a poet\, novelist\, artist and Ashiq. Her work blends poetry\, orality\, music\, movement and film around themes of African diasporic identity\, Sufi spirituality and resistance to Western values. Born and based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal\, she has roots in Antigua\, West Indies. Evanson’s novels include the French Livre des ailes (Marchand de feuilles 2023)\, and the award-winning Book of Wings (Véhicule 2021); her two poetry collections are Nouveau Griot (Frontenac 2018) and Bothism (Ekstasis 2017). She has an extensive history of spoken word performance\, audio recordings and films including the multi-award-winning Afrofuturist concert film CYANO SUN SUITE (2024). Evanson’s work has travelled to festivals across Africa\, Asia\, Australia\, Europe\, and North America. She is past director of the Banff Centre Spoken Word Program; past president of the Quebec Writers’ Federation; and 2025 Poet Ambassador in Residence at the League of Canadian Poets. She moonlights as a whirling dervish. \n\n \nSpeed Dating for Writers and Publishers!\nDecember 7\, 2025\, 2 – 3 pmArchives room\, basement level \nWriters\, bring your pitch and get ready to present it to a range of local publishers. Introduce yourselves\, and then you’ll have three minutes to tell your publisher “date” what your book is all about. Don’t forget to leave time for questions or a little discussion. When the bell dings\, move to the next available seat and do it again. Whether you find a home for your manuscript or not\, you’ll make contacts and gather information that may serve you now and in the future. Note that authors will be asked to sign up at the welcome table on Sunday in order to participate. \n\n\nDave Dufour\, Flame Arrow PublishingYashaswi Kesanakurthy\, Simon & Schuster Canada\nFiroze Manji\, Daraja Press\nLeila Marshy\, Baraka Books\nCurtis McRae\, Véhicule Press\nShannae Nitti\, Crackboom! Books\nModerated by Lori Schubert\, Quebec Writers’ Federation\n\nDave Dufour is the Founder & Publisher of Flame Arrow Publishing\, a bilingual speculative-fiction press based in British Columbia and Québec. He leads a growing catalogue of hopepunk\, fantasy\, and science fiction in both English and French\, and is dedicated to championing bold\, imaginative voices across Canada. With a professional background as an educator and linguist\, Dave brings a deep understanding of language\, culture\, and storytelling to his editorial vision. He also oversees Brins d’éternité\, one of Québec’s longest-running speculative-fiction magazines. \nYashaswi Kesanakurthy [yush-us-we kay-sah-nah-koor-thi] is the Children’s Editor at Simon & Schuster Canada. She is a graduate of the University of British Columbia’s MA program in Children’s Literature and Toronto Metropolitan University’s publishing program. Her publishing career began as Publishing Assistant at Tundra Books\, PRHC. She then joined HarperCollins Canada as Associate Editor where she developed a vibrant list including The Garden of Lost Socks by Esi Edugyan and Amélie Dubois\, The Hockey Skates by Karl Subban and Maggie Zeng\, and Mortified by Kristy Jackson and Rhael McGregor. At Simon & Schuster Canada\, she remains focused on publishing marginalized\, Canadian voices that tell entertaining and transformative stories. Yash lives in Toronto with a magical\, if unruly\, library that just keeps growing. \nFiroze Manji\, PhD\, is a Kenyan / Canadian\, resident in Québec. He has spent more than 50 years in international development\, health\, human rights and political activism. He is the publisher of Daraja Press and is an Adjunct Professor at the Institute of African Studies\, Carleton University\, Ottawa. He is the recipient of the 2021 Nicolás Cristóbal Guillén Batista Lifetime Achievement Award from the Caribbean Philosophical Association. \nLeila Marshy is the author of The Philistine (LLP\, 2018) and My Thievery of the People (Baraka Books\, 2025)\, and is editor of the anthology Razing Palestine: Punishing Solidarity and Dissent in Canada (Baraka Books\, 2025). Daughter of a Palestinian refugee\, Marshy lived in Cairo during the First Intifada and worked for the Palestinian Red Crescent and the Palestinian Mental Health Association. She has been a community and political organizer\, including founding a dialogue group with the Hasidic community in her local neighbourhood\, helping elect the first Hasidic woman to public office in the world. Marshy is editor at Baraka Books and lives in Montreal. \nCurtis John McRae is the fiction editor at Véhicule Press and the Co-Founder/Editor-in-Chief of yolk literary journal. He is the author of Quietly\, Loving Everyone (Vehicule Press\, 2025). His fiction has appeared in The New Quarterly\, Prairie Fire\, and others. He won the 2021/22 David McKeen Award\, was longlisted for the 2025 DISQUIET Literary Fiction Contest\, received an honourable mention in the 2024 Peter Hinchcliffe award\, and was a finalist in the 2019 Quebec Writers’ Federation contest for emerging young writers. Curtis teaches English literature at John Abbott College and formerly served as a board member for the Quebec Writers’ Federation. \nLori Schubert is the executive director of the Quebec Writers’ Federation\, where she has worked since 2003. From 1998 to 2017 she was also a member and general manager of VivaVoce\, a professional chamber choir. Prior to her work in arts management\, Lori was a singer and corporate communications trainer in the New York metropolitan area. She has taught written and oral communication at Columbia\, McGill and Concordia Universities. She was instrumental in the founding of Quebec’s English-language Arts Network (ELAN) and has served two terms on its board of directors. Through QWF\, Lori co-founded the National Juries and Awards Working Group in 2021. She has also served in an advisory capacity for YES Montreal\, the Blue Metropolis Foundation and the Atwater Writers’ Exhibition\, and currently chairs the Education and Skills Development Table for the Working Group on Arts and Culture.  \n\n\nArt and Life in Graphic Novels\nDecember 7\, 2025\, 3 – 4 pmMain Stage\, Salle des célébrations \n\nD. Boyd\nJuli Delporte\nPascal Girard \nModerated by François Vigneault\n\nThree of Quebec’s most distinctive voices in contemporary comics come together to explore the intimate connections between art and autobiography. Juli Delporte (Portrait of a Body)\, D. Boyd (Denniveniquity)\, and Pascal Girard (Pastimes) draw from personal experience to craft stories that are tender\, funny\, and deeply human. Join them for a conversation about turning life into art\, the creative risks of vulnerability\, and the evolving landscape of autobiographical graphic novels. Moderated by François Vigneault. \nMontreal-based cartoonist D. Boyd hails from Saint John\, New Brunswick – the setting for Denniveniquity and her first graphic memoir\, Chicken Rising. Her work has appeared in the New Brunswick Chapbook Series (Frog Hollow Press)\, the Montreal Review of Books\, and in unique collaborations with some exciting Canadian writers. \nJuli Delporte is an author and multidisciplinary artist born in France in 1983. She now lives in Tiohtiá:ke/Montréal. She is the author of several graphic novels published by Drawn & Quarterly\, including This Woman’s Work and Portrait of a Body. She has also published children’s albums\, including the recent Grands oreilles (Éditions de la Pastèque)\, and a book of poems illustrated with etchings\, Décroissance sexuelle (L’Oie de Cravan). She occasionally writes literary essays\, produces illustrations for various magazines and publishing houses\, and collaborates on collective publications. Alongside all this\, Juli explores different printing techniques (serigraphy\, risography\, and etching)\, creates zines\, gives creative workshops\, and makes ceramic pieces. \nPascal Girard was born in Jonquière\, QC\, in 1981. He is a part-time cartoonist and part-time social worker. He is the award-winning author of several graphic novels\, including Rebecca and Lucie in the Case of the Missing Neighbor\, Nicolas\, Petty Theft\, and most recently the collection Pastimes. He lives in Montreal with his family. \nFrançois Vigneault is an American-born cartoonist living in Québec. He is the creator of the sci-fi graphic novel TITAN (Oni Press\, 2020 / Éditions Pow Pow\, 2017)\, the illustrator of books including Le gâteau empoisonée (Éditions de la Pastèque\, 2025)\, Extraordinary Eyeglasses (Helvetiq\, 2024)\, and Orcs in Space (Oni Press 2021-22)\, and also works as a translator and designer. \nThank you to our generous funders and sponsors! URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/2025-read-quebec-book-fair/ LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 rue Jean Talon est\, Montreal\, QC\, H2R 1T6\, Canada ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/RQBF_2025_Web_Banners_Facebook_Event.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20251206T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20251206T130000 DTSTAMP:20251105T164812Z CREATED:20251105T164648Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251105T164812Z UID:9756-1765022400-1765026000@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:New Knowledge: Nonfiction Lightning Round DESCRIPTION:December 6\, 2025 at 12 pm – 1 p.m.\nMain Stage\, Salle des célébrations \n\nNathalie Cooke\nMartha Langford\nValérie Lefebvre-Faucher\nStephen Monteiro\nFrancine Pelletier\nCatherine Richardson\nAlex R. Tipei\nThomas Waugh\nAndrei Zanescu\n\nModerated by Ryan Van Huistjee \nOften\, fiction gets the limelight\, poetry gets the prestige. But nonfiction books are published every day that help illuminate\, preserve and create the world around us. Join local authors as they share the passions that led them to investigate a single subject in depth and then write an entire book about it. \nNathalie Cooke is an English professor at McGill University and a specialist in literary food studies and material culture. Her research uncovers the hidden stories told by menus\, textiles\, and other everyday artefacts\, revealing how their forms\, codes\, and designs shape what we remember\, and how we read. \nCatherine Richardson Kineweskwêw is a Métis therapist\, family therapist\, researcher and academic working at Concordia University. Her maternal relatives come from Fort Chipewyan and have ties to Red River. She holds a research Chair in Indigenous Healing Knowledges and teaches in First Peoples Studies and Creative Arts Therapies. She is a co-founder of the Centre for Response-Based Practice where she and her colleagues advance dignity-centered approaches to violence. Cathy is also interested in the broader and multi-dimensional aspects of healing\, such as the person as whole being\, a spirit in a body with emotions\, intelligence\, physicality and in relation to all beings in the natural world. \nShe has taught in various counselling and social work programs and is the former director of the First Peoples Studies program at Concordia University. She explores various approaches to well- being on her substack podcast\, where she speaks with healers\, activists and response-based therapists. She is a student of shamanic practice and the mother of three amazing adult children. \nMartha Langford\, FRSC\, is the author of A History of Photography in Canada. The first of three volumes\, Anticipation to Participation\, 1839 1918 has just appeared. Beautifully produced\, the book is both lively and comprehensive\, with over 400 illustrations. Langford is a distinguished professor emeriti of Concordia University in Montreal. She is the former research chair and director of the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art. In prior lives\, she was the founding director of the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography\, an affiliate of the National Gallery of Canada\, and before that\, Executive Producer of the Still Photography Division of the National Film Board of Canada. She has organized photographic exhibitions for museums and festivals in Canada\, the UK\, and Europe. \nValérie Lefebvre-Faucher is editor-in-chief of Liberté. She has worked as an editor at both Remue-ménage and Écosociété\, with a focus on environmental\, anti-capitalist\, and feminist work. In addition to having collaborated with numerous collectives\, blogs\, and magazines\, she published Procès Verbal and Promenade sur Marx\, published in English under the title Jenny\, Eleanor\, and Laura\, et al.\, translated by Mélissa Bull. \nStephen Monteiro teaches and researches media and culture at Concordia University. He has written or edited several books\, including Needy Media\, The Fabric of Interface\, and The Screen Media Reader. He has contributed as an expert on contemporary technology to CBC Radio and the Toronto Star\, among other media outlets. \nWell-known journalist\, documentary filmmaker\, teacher and broadcaster\, Francine Pelletier\, formerly of CBC’s the fifth estate\, is the author of three books: Second début: Cendres et renaissance du féminisme\, Atelier 10\, (2015)\, a short personal history of feminism in Quebec; : L’Art de se mouiller : Chroniques pour nourrir le débat\,  Écosociété (2022)\, a selection of her columns in Le Devoir from 2013-22; and Dream Interrupted : the Rise and Fall of Quebec Nationalism\, Sutherland House (2025). \nA transnational historian\, primarily focused on Southeast Europe and France\, Alex R. Tipei is professor of history and international studies at the Université de Montréal. MQUP published her book\, Unintended Nations: France’s Empire of Civilization\, Southeast Europe\, and the Post-Napoleonic World. Alex’s research has received funding from SSHRC\, the Fulbright Program\, and the American Council of Learned Societies. She has taught and researched at McGill and Princeton Universities as well as the Universities of Bucharest and Illinois. Alex is also a team leader on the European Research Council funded project Transnational Histories of Corruption in South-East-Central Europe based at New Europe College/Institute for Advanced Study in Bucharest. \nRyan Van Huijstee is the director of Concordia University Press. He previously held a range of roles at University of Toronto Press and McGill-Queen’s University Press. \nThomas Waugh is a writer\, programmer\, and activist who taught film studies and sexuality at Concordia University from 1976 to 2017. He is the author of The Romance of Transgression in Canada: Queering Sexualities\, Nations\, Cinema; and fourteen other books. URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/new-knowledge-nonfiction-lightning-round/ LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 rue Jean Talon est\, Montreal\, QC\, H2R 1T6\, Canada ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/1-2.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20251206T140000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20251206T150000 DTSTAMP:20251105T174418Z CREATED:20251105T164934Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251105T174418Z UID:9759-1765029600-1765033200@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:Valentine in December! With Heather and Arizona O’Neill DESCRIPTION:December 6\, 2025\, 2–3 pm\nMain Stage\, Salle des célébrations \nThe duo will take to the stage to discuss their collaboration Valentine in Montreal. The novel\, written by Heather with illustrations by Arizona\, is a sweet Montreal adventure in which our famous metro plays a starring role. The O’Neills will sign copies after their onstage appearance. \nHeather O’Neill is a novelist\, short-story writer and essayist. Her most recent novel is Valentine in Montreal. Her previous works include Capital of Dreams and When We Lost Our Heads\, a #1 national bestseller and finalist for the Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal. 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. Lullabies for Little Criminals\, The Girl Who Was Saturday Night\, and Daydreams of Angels were 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. O’Neill has also won CBC’s Canada Reads and the Danuta Gleed Award. Born and raised in Montreal\, she lives there today. \nArizona O’Neill is a Montreal-based author and illustrator. Her illustrations appear in Valentine in Montreal. She is the author of Est-ce qu’un artiste peut être heureux ?\, a collection of graphic interviews\, and illustrated Nelly Arcan’s L’enfant dans le miroir. Her comics have appeared in Hazlitt\, Exclaim!\, the Montreal Gazette and mRb. She has created animated videos for many outlets\, including CBC. She is a regular contributor to Radio-Canada’s Il restera toujours la culture\, and is one half of the bookstagram page @ONeillReads. She is currently working on a graphic memoir.\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Featured Books\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Valentine in MontrealFiction Heather O'Neill No results found. URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/valentine-in-december-with-heather-and-arizona-oneill/ LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 rue Jean Talon est\, Montreal\, QC\, H2R 1T6\, Canada ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/2.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20251206T153000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20251206T163000 DTSTAMP:20251105T180249Z CREATED:20251105T165426Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251105T180249Z UID:9763-1765035000-1765038600@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:NaMOOste Yoga for Kids DESCRIPTION:December 6\, 2025\, 3:30 – 4:30 pm\nMain Stage\, Salle des célébrations \nAuthor Marlee Kostiner never fails to get kids giggling as she reads all the ways animals say “Namaste” with their animal sounds (the cow says naMOOste\, the chick says namaSQUEEK). After an engaging reading\, Marlee guides the kids through yoga poses they learned in the book\, ending with a relaxing moment of silence (yes\, the kids are quiet!). NaMOOste features 13 beautiful watercolour animals practising authentic yoga poses\, and shows young readers ways to care for their bodies and minds. For kids ages 3–9. \nMarlee Kostiner is an award-winning journalist\, writer\, editor\, and the author of NaMOOste\, a playful yoga book that helps kids build social-emotional skills. A passionate advocate for neurodiversity and mental health\, Marlee brings these values into all her creative work. In 2021\, she founded Garden Wolf Publishing House to help fellow purpose-driven experts\, organizations and non-profits turn their ideas into meaningful children’s books. She lives in Montreal with her two sons\, her husband\, and their grumpy cat.\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Featured Books\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n NaMOOsteKids Marlee Kostiner No results found. URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/namooste-yoga-for-kids/ LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 rue Jean Talon est\, Montreal\, QC\, H2R 1T6\, Canada ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/4.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20251206T153000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20251206T170000 DTSTAMP:20251105T165238Z CREATED:20251105T165238Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251105T165238Z UID:9761-1765035000-1765040400@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:Guernica Editions Showcase DESCRIPTION:December 6\, 2025\, 3:30 – 5 pm\nRotunda \nAn event celebrating Guernica Editions’ longstanding presence in Quebec\, featuring readings by authors with new releases this year\, including fiction\, memoir\, and poetry. With the purchase of a book\, guests will be entered into a raffle to win a selection of Guernica titles. \n\nMichael Carin\, Edisson & Jeremiah\nAnn Cavlovic\, Count on Me\nJonathan Kaplansky and Francis Catalano\, The Origin of the Future\nAndreas Kessaris\, The Grand Tour of Park Ex\nBunmi Oyinsan\, A Ladder of Bones\nMeryem Yildiz\, Backbone\nContributors from The Nuances of Love\n\nMichael Carin trained as a political theorist at McGill University\, where he also studied under the godfather of Canadian literature\, Hugh MacLennan. He is the author of several novels\, including Five Hundred Keys\, The Kremlin Papers\, and the work of alternate history Churchill at Munich. His non-fiction response to the Holocaust\, The Future Jew\, won him wide recognition as a provocative secular humanist. Mr. Carin lives in Montreal. \nPoet\, novelist\, short story writer and essayist born in Montreal\, Francis Catalano won the Quebecor Prize of the Trois-Rivières International Poetry Festival for Qu’une lueur des lieux (2010) and the La Métropole Prize of Excellence for Climax (2022). As a translator of Italian poetry\, he won the John Glassco Prize in 2006 for Instructions pour la lecture d’un journal de Valerio Magrelli. \nAnn Cavlovic’s fiction and creative non-fiction have appeared in Canadian literary magazines and news media\, such as Event\, The Fiddlehead\, Grain\, PRISM International\, The Globe & Mail\, and CBC. She lives in Western Quebec. \nConnie Guzzo McParland\, president and co-director of Guernica Editions\, holds a BA in Italian Literature and a master’s degree in Creative Writing from Concordia University. She is the author of The Girls of Piazza D’amore (2013)\, The Women of Saturn (2017)\, Le Donne di Saturno (2019)\, An opera in 3 Acts/Un opéra en trois actes (2021)\, and The Twelfth Room\, a translation of La Dodicesima Stanza. \nJonathan Kaplansky is a literary translator of French in Montreal. He won a French Voices Award to translate Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux’s Things Seen and was shortlisted for the David Booth Award for Jonathan Bécotte’s Like a Hurricane. He has also translated works by Hélène Dorion\, Lise Gauvin\, Louis- Philippe Hébert\, Hélène Rioux and Lise Tremblay. \nAndreas Kessaris grew up in Montreal’s Park Extension district\, the son of Greek immigrants. He graduated from Dawson College and Concordia University\, earning a BA in Communications & English. His column\, Read On! with Andreas Kessaris\, was a popular feature in the West-End community paper The Local Herald. His writing has also appeared on Suite101.com\, in the literary journal The Write Place\, on the Montreal entertainment website Curtainsup.tv\, The Miramichi Reader\, and The Montreal Review of Books. His first book\, The Butcher of Park Ex & Other Semi-Truthful Tales\, was released in 2020 to great acclaim. \nBunmi Oyinsan is a Nigerian/Canadian writer. From novels to scripts for radio\, television\, and the theatre\, she has contributed to both the nonfiction and fiction canons of African literature. Oyinsan gained her MA focusing on orature and literature from Saint Mary’s University and a Ph.D. from York University. She is the writer\, producer\, and presenter for the Sankofa Pan African Series\, which has over 100K subscribers and over 5 million views. She is a winner of the Matatu Prize for her YA novel Fabulous Four and has been nominated for THEMA’s Best Film Script. Her novel Three Women was nominated for the Flora Nwapa Prize for Women’s Literature in 2006. Born in Lagos\, she lives in Bowmanville\, Ontario. \nMeryem Yildiz is a Turkish-Canadian poet from Tiohtià:ke (Montreal). Her poems have appeared in journals across the country\, including Arc Poetry Magazine\, The Ex-Puritan\, PRISM International\, The Fiddlehead\, and yolk\, among others. In 2022\, she won The Malahat Review’s Far Horizons Award for Poetry as well as the Quebec Writers’ Federation’s carte blanche Prize. She’s also a poetry editor at LBRNTH\, a queer literature and arts magazine\, which she co-edits with Misha Solomon. In her debut collection\, Backbone\, Meryem explores the complexities of identity across geographies\, and reveals how friendship and memory shape the search for home. URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/guernica-editions-showcase/ LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 rue Jean Talon est\, Montreal\, QC\, H2R 1T6\, Canada ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/3-2.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20251206T170000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20251206T190000 DTSTAMP:20251105T165534Z CREATED:20251105T165534Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251105T165534Z UID:9765-1765040400-1765047600@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:Opening Cocktail DESCRIPTION:December 6\, 2025\, 5 – 7 pm\nSalle des mémoires \nJoin us for a special 10th anniversary edition of the Read Quebec Book Fair’s 5 à 7 featuring a DJ set by journalist and author of Habs Nation Brendan Kelly\, known for his popular High Fidelity in the Park events. New wave\, old-school disco and you. Open to all! \nBorn in Glasgow\, raised in Montreal and a fan of the Canadiens for longer than he can remember\, Brendan Kelly was one of the founders of the late great alternative weekly the Montreal Mirror. He worked at the Montreal Daily News in the late ‘80s and had a weekly music column on CBC Radio for over 30 years. His Montreal Gazette column What the Puck is a controversial contrarian hot take on the Canadiens that elicits much hate and even more love. He has written for the Gazette since 1996. He also frequently contributes to various Radio-Canada cultural shows. He has published two books on the Montreal Canadiens – Le CH et son people (2024)\, and Habs Nation: A People’s History of the Montreal Canadiens (2025). URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/opening-cocktail-2/ LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 rue Jean Talon est\, Montreal\, QC\, H2R 1T6\, Canada ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/5.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20251207T113000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20251207T123000 DTSTAMP:20251202T155717Z CREATED:20251105T165707Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251202T155717Z UID:9767-1765107000-1765110600@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:Archives Out Loud: Italian-Canadian Literature DESCRIPTION:December 7\, 2025\, 11:30 am – 12:30 pm\nMain Stage\, Salle des célébrations \n\nLicia Canton\nMary di Michele\nCarmine Starnino\n\nModerated by Nancy Marrelli \nThere is a significant body of excellent Italian-Canadian literature available from a variety of sources in English\, French\, and Italian. The panel will discuss some established works as well as new voices emerging from the next generation. This session is part of the Archives Out Loud series organized by the Italian-Canadian Archives of Quebec. The panel will be followed by a reception in the office of the Italian-Canadian Community Archives of Quebec\, in the basement level of Casa d’Italia. \nLicia Canton has published short stories\, nonfiction and poetry in English\, French\, Italian and a Venetian dialect. She has been translator-in-residence at the University of Hull\, UK\, and Writer-in-Residence at Università della Calabria\, Italy. She is co-founder of Accenti Magazine and co-director of the Queer Italian-Canadian Artists Research Project (U of Toronto). She is the director of the documentary film Creative Spaces: Queer and Italian Canadian (2021). She mentors emerging writers through the Quebec Writers’ Federation Hire-a-Writer directory. For her work in culture\, she was awarded the Italy in the World Prize (2018). She holds a Ph.D. from Université de Montréal and an M.A. from McGill University. \nBorn in Italy and immigrated to Canada in 1955\, Mary di Michele is an award-winning\, internationally published writer. She is the author of more than twelve books\, including the collection of poems Stranger in You and the novel Tenor of Love. Her last collection of poetry\, Bicycle Thieves (ECW 2017)\, was short-listed for the Pat Lowther Award. She is active in the collaborative writing group Yoko’s Dogs. Now retired from teaching at Concordia University\, she continues to live in Montreal. \nNancy Marrelli is Director of the Italian-Canadian Archives of Quebec at the Casa d’Italia\, and Archivist Emerita\, Concordia University. She is also co-publisher of Véhicule Press. Her family left Italy and settled in Montreal in 1909. \nCarmine Starnino is the Editor in Chief of The Walrus. He is the author of eight books\, including Dirty Words: Selected Poems 1997–2016. URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/archives-out-loud-italian-canadian-literature/ LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 rue Jean Talon est\, Montreal\, QC\, H2R 1T6\, Canada ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/6.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20251207T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20251207T140000 DTSTAMP:20251114T191333Z CREATED:20251105T165830Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251114T191333Z UID:9769-1765112400-1765116000@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:Acquiring Editors at Work DESCRIPTION:December 7\, 2025\, 1 – 2 pm\nMain Stage\, Salle des célébrations \n\nLeila Marshy\, Baraka Books\nCurtis John McRae\, Véhicule Press\nYashaswi Kesanakurthy\, Simon & Schuster Canada\n\nModerated by Tawhida Tanya Evanson \nWho gets to choose which books will be published – and how do they do it? Editors from three publishers will discuss how they decide what to publish\, and how writers can improve their chances. Simon & Schuster children’s book editor Yashaswi Kesanakurthy\, Baraka Books’ fiction and nonfiction editor Leila Marshy\, and Curtis McRae\, fiction editor at Véhicule Press\, will give us the inside scoop on what acquisitions editors really do. \nYashaswi Kesanakurthy [yush-us-we kay-sah-nah-koor-thi] is the Children’s Editor at Simon & Schuster Canada. She is a graduate of the University of British Columbia’s MA program in Children’s Literature and Toronto Metropolitan University’s publishing program. Her publishing career began as Publishing Assistant at Tundra Books\, PRHC. She then joined HarperCollins Canada as Associate Editor where she developed a vibrant list including The Garden of Lost Socks by Esi Edugyan and Amélie Dubois\, The Hockey Skates by Karl Subban and Maggie Zeng\, and Mortified by Kristy Jackson and Rhael McGregor. At Simon & Schuster Canada\, she remains focused on publishing marginalized\, Canadian voices that tell entertaining and transformative stories. Yash lives in Toronto with a magical\, if unruly\, library that just keeps growing. \nLeila Marshy is the author of The Philistine (LLP\, 2018) and My Thievery of the People (Baraka Books\, 2025)\, and is editor of the anthology Razing Palestine: Punishing Solidarity and Dissent in Canada (Baraka Books\, 2025). Daughter of a Palestinian refugee\, Marshy lived in Cairo during the First Intifada and worked for the Palestinian Red Crescent and the Palestinian Mental Health Association. She has been a community and political organizer\, including founding a dialogue group with the Hasidic community in her local neighbourhood\, helping elect the first Hasidic woman to public office in the world. Marshy is Editor at Baraka Books and lives in Montreal. \nCurtis John McRae is the fiction editor at Véhicule Press and the Co-Founder/Editor-in-Chief of yolk literary journal. He is the author of Quietly\, Loving Everyone (Vehicule Press\, 2025). His fiction has appeared in The New Quarterly\, Prairie Fire\, and others. He won the 2021/22 David McKeen Award\, was longlisted for the 2025 DISQUIET Literary Fiction Contest\, received an honourable mention in the 2024 Peter Hinchcliffe award\, and was a finalist in the 2019 Quebec Writers’ Federation contest for emerging young writers. Curtis teaches English literature at John Abbott College and formerly served as a board member for the Quebec Writers’ Federation. \nTawhida Tanya Evanson is a poet\, novelist\, artist and Ashiq. Her work blends poetry\, orality\, music\, movement and film around themes of African diasporic identity\, Sufi spirituality and resistance to Western values. Born and based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal\, she has roots in Antigua\, West Indies. Evanson’s novels include the French Livre des ailes (Marchand de feuilles 2023)\, and the award-winning Book of Wings (Véhicule 2021); her two poetry collections are Nouveau Griot (Frontenac 2018) and Bothism (Ekstasis 2017). She has an extensive history of spoken word performance\, audio recordings and films including the multi-award-winning Afrofuturist concert film CYANO SUN SUITE (2024). Evanson’s work has travelled to festivals across Africa\, Asia\, Australia\, Europe\, and North America. She is past director of the Banff Centre Spoken Word Program; past president of the Quebec Writers’ Federation; and 2025 Poet Ambassador in Residence at the League of Canadian Poets. She moonlights as a whirling dervish. URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/acquiring-editors-at-work/ LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 rue Jean Talon est\, Montreal\, QC\, H2R 1T6\, Canada ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/7-1.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20251207T140000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20251207T150000 DTSTAMP:20251202T194850Z CREATED:20251105T170017Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251202T194850Z UID:9771-1765116000-1765119600@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:Speed Dating for Writers and Publishers! DESCRIPTION:December 7\, 2025\, 2 – 3 pm\nArchives room\, basement level \nWriters\, bring your pitch and get ready to present it to a range of local publishers. Introduce yourselves\, and then you’ll have three minutes to tell your publisher “date” what your book is all about. Don’t forget to leave time for questions or a little discussion. When the bell dings\, move to the next available seat and do it again. Whether you find a home for your manuscript or not\, you’ll make contacts and gather information that may serve you now and in the future. Note that authors will be asked to sign-up at the welcome table on Sunday in order to participate. \n\nDave Dufour\, Flame Arrow Publishing\nYashaswi Kesanakurthy\, Simon & Schuster Canada\nFiroze Manji\, Daraja Press\nLeila Marshy\, Baraka Books\nCurtis McRae\, Véhicule Press\nShannae Nitti\, Crackboom! Books\nModerated by Lori Schubert\, Quebec Writers’ Federation\n\nWant to perfect your pitch? Check out our tips for writers. \nDave Dufour is the Founder & Publisher of Flame Arrow Publishing\, a bilingual speculative-fiction press based in British Columbia and Québec. He leads a growing catalogue of hopepunk\, fantasy\, and science fiction in both English and French\, and is dedicated to championing bold\, imaginative voices across Canada. With a professional background as an educator and linguist\, Dave brings a deep understanding of language\, culture\, and storytelling to his editorial vision. He also oversees Brins d’éternité\, one of Québec’s longest-running speculative-fiction magazines. \nYashaswi Kesanakurthy [yush-us-we kay-sah-nah-koor-thi] is the Children’s Editor at Simon & Schuster Canada. She is a graduate of the University of British Columbia’s MA program in Children’s Literature and Toronto Metropolitan University’s publishing program. Her publishing career began as Publishing Assistant at Tundra Books\, PRHC. She then joined HarperCollins Canada as Associate Editor where she developed a vibrant list including The Garden of Lost Socks by Esi Edugyan and Amélie Dubois\, The Hockey Skates by Karl Subban and Maggie Zeng\, and Mortified by Kristy Jackson and Rhael McGregor. At Simon & Schuster Canada\, she remains focused on publishing marginalized\, Canadian voices that tell entertaining and transformative stories. Yash lives in Toronto with a magical\, if unruly\, library that just keeps growing. \nFiroze Manji\, PhD\, is a Kenyan / Canadian\, resident in Québec. He has spent more than 50 years in international development\, health\, human rights and political activism. He is the publisher of Daraja Press and is an Adjunct Professor at the Institute of African Studies\, Carleton University\, Ottawa. He is the recipient of the 2021 Nicolás Cristóbal Guillén Batista Lifetime Achievement Award from the Caribbean Philosophical Association. \nLeila Marshy is the author of The Philistine (LLP\, 2018) and My Thievery of the People (Baraka Books\, 2025)\, and is editor of the anthology Razing Palestine: Punishing Solidarity and Dissent in Canada (Baraka Books\, 2025). Daughter of a Palestinian refugee\, Marshy lived in Cairo during the First Intifada and worked for the Palestinian Red Crescent and the Palestinian Mental Health Association. She has been a community and political organizer\, including founding a dialogue group with the Hasidic community in her local neighbourhood\, helping elect the first Hasidic woman to public office in the world. Marshy is editor at Baraka Books and lives in Montreal. \nCurtis John McRae is the fiction editor at Véhicule Press and the Co-Founder/Editor-in-Chief of yolk literary journal. He is the author of Quietly\, Loving Everyone (Vehicule Press\, 2025). His fiction has appeared in The New Quarterly\, Prairie Fire\, and others. He won the 2021/22 David McKeen Award\, was longlisted for the 2025 DISQUIET Literary Fiction Contest\, received an honourable mention in the 2024 Peter Hinchcliffe award\, and was a finalist in the 2019 Quebec Writers’ Federation contest for emerging young writers. Curtis teaches English literature at John Abbott College and formerly served as a board member for the Quebec Writers’ Federation. \nLori Schubert is the executive director of the Quebec Writers’ Federation\, where she has worked since 2003. From 1998 to 2017 she was also a member and general manager of VivaVoce\, a professional chamber choir. Prior to her work in arts management\, Lori was a singer and corporate communications trainer in the New York metropolitan area. She has taught written and oral communication at Columbia\, McGill and Concordia Universities. She was instrumental in the founding of Quebec’s English-language Arts Network (ELAN) and has served two terms on its board of directors. Through QWF\, Lori co-founded the National Juries and Awards Working Group in 2021. She has also served in an advisory capacity for YES Montreal\, the Blue Metropolis Foundation and the Atwater Writers’ Exhibition\, and currently chairs the Education and Skills Development Table for the Working Group on Arts and Culture. URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/speed-dating-for-writers-and-publishers/ LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 rue Jean Talon est\, Montreal\, QC\, H2R 1T6\, Canada ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/8-2.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20251207T150000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20251207T150000 DTSTAMP:20251105T170147Z CREATED:20251105T170147Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251105T170147Z UID:9773-1765119600-1765119600@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:Art and Life in Graphic Novels DESCRIPTION:December 7\, 2025\, 3 – 4 pm\nMain Stage\, Salle des célébrations \n\nD. Boyd\nJuli Delporte\nPascal Girard\nModerated by François Vigneault\n\nThree of Quebec’s most distinctive voices in contemporary comics come together to explore the intimate connections between art and autobiography. Juli Delporte (Portrait of a Body)\, D. Boyd (Denniveniquity)\, and Pascal Girard (Pastimes) draw from personal experience to craft stories that are tender\, funny\, and deeply human. Join them for a conversation about turning life into art\, the creative risks of vulnerability\, and the evolving landscape of autobiographical graphic novels. Moderated by François Vigneault. \nMontreal-based cartoonist D. Boyd hails from Saint John\, New Brunswick – the setting for Denniveniquity and her first graphic memoir\, Chicken Rising. Her work has appeared in the New Brunswick Chapbook Series (Frog Hollow Press)\, the Montreal Review of Books\, and in unique collaborations with some exciting Canadian writers. \nJuli Delporte is an author and multidisciplinary artist born in France in 1983. She now lives in Tiohtiá:ke/Montréal. She is the author of several graphic novels published by Drawn & Quarterly\, including This Woman’s Work and Portrait of a Body. She has also published children’s albums\, including the recent Grands oreilles (Éditions de la Pastèque)\, and a book of poems illustrated with etchings\, Décroissance sexuelle (L’Oie de Cravan). She occasionally writes literary essays\, produces illustrations for various magazines and publishing houses\, and collaborates on collective publications. Alongside all this\, Juli explores different printing techniques (serigraphy\, risography\, and etching)\, creates zines\, gives creative workshops\, and makes ceramic pieces. \nPascal Girard was born in Jonquière\, QC\, in 1981. He is a part-time cartoonist and part-time social worker. He is the award-winning author of several graphic novels\, including Rebecca and Lucie in the Case of the Missing Neighbor\, Nicolas\, Petty Theft\, and most recently the collection Pastimes. He lives in Montreal with his family. \nFrançois Vigneault is an American-born cartoonist living in Québec. He is the creator of the sci-fi graphic novel TITAN (Oni Press\, 2020 / Éditions Pow Pow\, 2017)\, the illustrator of books including Le gâteau empoisonée (Éditions de la Pastèque\, 2025)\, Extraordinary Eyeglasses (Helvetiq\, 2024)\, and Orcs in Space (Oni Press 2021-22)\, and also works as a translator and designer. URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/art-and-life-in-graphic-novels/ LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 rue Jean Talon est\, Montreal\, QC\, H2R 1T6\, Canada ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/9.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260318T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260318T193000 DTSTAMP:20260310T204845Z CREATED:20260318T100043Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260310T204845Z UID:10099-1773856800-1773862200@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:Montreal Review of Books Spring 2026 Launch DESCRIPTION:The Montreal Review of Books launches its Spring 2026 issue on Wednesday\, March 18th at Hotel 10 (10 Sherbrooke Street West) in partnership with the Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival!\n\nFollowing the festival’s 2026 programming announcement\, join us in Espace Godin for refreshments and readings by Marianne Ackerman (Oyster\, Dundurn Press)\, Francine Pelletier (Dream Interrupted\, Sutherland House Press) and Karine Rosso (Between the Island and the Turtle\, QC Fiction).\n\nThe Blue Metropolis press conference will begin at 4:00 p.m.\, followed by a wine reception\, and mRb readings beginning at 6:00. The authors will be available to sign books after the readings. Admission is free.\n\n\nFor those unable to attend in person\, readings will be live-streamed on our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@aelaq URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/montreal-review-of-books-spring-2026-launch/ LOCATION:Hotel 10\, 10 Sherbrooke O\, Montreal\, QC\, H2X 2X3\, Canada ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Spring-2026-Launch-Banner-Facebook.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260702T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260702T193000 DTSTAMP:20260625T214719Z CREATED:20260615T191223Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260625T214719Z UID:10280-1783015200-1783020600@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:Summer 2026 mRb Launch DESCRIPTION:July 2\, 2026\nThe Backyard Theatre\, Teesri Duniya Theatre (251 Ave Pins)\n\nReadings at 6 pm.\n \n\n\nThe Montreal Review of Books launches its Summer 2026 issue on Thursday\, July 2 in the Grande Gallerie of Teesri Duniya Theatre (Cité-des-Hospitalières\, 251 Ave Pins). Please note that this is an outdoor venue with a covered roof\, with three to four steps leading to the seating area. There will be signage indicating the way.\n \nDoors open at 5:30 pm\, and mRb readings begin at 6:00 with featured authors Natalie Doonan (Eating the Urban Wild\, McGill-Queen’s University Press)\, Guy Rex Rodgers (What We Choose to Forget\, ELAN) and Chanel Sutherland (Layaway Child\, House of Anansi). The authors will be available to sign books after the readings. Admission is free.\n\n \nFor those unable to attend in person\, readings will be live-streamed on our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@aelaq\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue accessibility information:The Backyard Theatre is an outdoor\, covered event space adjoining the Cité-des-Hospitalières. Guests may enter from the gardens or from the building. The building is wheelchair accessible by ramp and elevator\, entrance to the left of the main doors at 251 Avenue des Pins Ouest. There is a short flight of steps leading to the landing where the readings will take place. Wheelchair accessible and gender neutral bathrooms are available.\n \nIllustration detail by Sara Prune.\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Featured Books\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n No results found.No results found. URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/summer-2026-mrb-launch/ LOCATION:The Backyard Theatre\, Teesri Duniya Theatre\, 251 Ave Pins\, Montreal\, QC\, H2W 1R6\, Canada ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Summer-Launch.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260801T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260831T170000 DTSTAMP:20261019T150807Z CREATED:20260817T175321Z LAST-MODIFIED:20261019T150807Z UID:10530-1785571200-1788195600@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:Women in Translation Month 2026 DESCRIPTION:August is Women in Translation Month! Founded by Meytal Radzinski in 2014\, Women in Translation Month celebrates writing by women in languages other than English. \nHere in Quebec\, we are grateful for the care and labour of translators who bring important stories to English-speaking audiences around the world. \nCheck out some featured titles below\, translated from French\, Spanish\, Korean and more! \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Featured Books\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Together by the SeaFiction Marie-Claire Blais\, translated by Katia Grubisic Sailors Can’t SwimFiction Dominique Scali\, trans. Jessica Moore My Friend Kim Jong UnGraphic novel\, Nonfiction Keum Suk Gendry-Kim trans. Janet Hong Republic of GlassFiction Catherine Leroux\, trans. Katia Grubisic The Price of SilverFiction\, Graphic novel Sophie Bédard\, trans. Robin Lang Floating IslandsFiction Joyce Mansour\, trans. by Emilie Moorhouse Fragile Like a BombFiction Catherine Fred Lavarenne\, trans. by Natalia Hero The MongooseGraphic novel Joana Mosi MetadoggozGraphic novel Bérénice Motais de Narbonne\, trans. Montana Kane Beware Her FuryGraphic novel Mirion Malle Fruit SaladGraphic novel Cathon Between the Island and the TurtleFiction Karine Rosso\, trans. Anita Anand Blood BoundFiction Marie-Josée Poisson The Love of ManFiction Hélène Rioux\, translated by Jonathan Kaplansky School for GirlsFiction Ariane Lessard\, translated by Frances Pope PragueFiction Maude Veilleux\, translated by Aleshia Jensen and Aimee Wall The Old Man and the ChildKids Gabrielle Roy\, translated by Katherine Sehl The WaitingGraphic novel Keum Suk Gendry-Kim\, translated by Janet Hong HorseflyFiction Mireille Gagné\, translated by Pablo Strauss Baldwin\, Styron and MeMemoir\, Nonfiction Mélikah Abdelmoumen\, translated by Catherine Khorduc The FutureFiction Catherine Leroux\, translated by Susan Ouriou This Radiant LifePoetry Chantal Neveu\, translated by Erín Moure So Long Sad LoveFiction\, Graphic novel Mirion Malle\, translated by Aleshia Jensen Land of MirrorsFiction\, Graphic novel Maria Medem\, translated by Aleshia Jensen and Daniela Ortiz The BigamistFiction Felicia Mihali\, translated by Linda Leith Sugaring OffFiction Fanny Britt\, translated by Susan Ouriou Hekla and LakiKids Marine Schneider\, translated by Nick Frost and Catherine Ostiguy JournalMemoir Marie Uguay\, translated by Jennifer Moxley Club MicrobeKids Elise Gravel\, translated by Montana Kane Pale ShadowsFiction Dominique Fortier\, translated by Rhonda Mullins The JellyfishGraphic novel Boum\, translated by Robin Lang and Helge Dascher Nauetakuan\, a Silence for a NoiseFiction Natasha Kanapé Fontaine\, translated by Howard Scott youPoetry Chantal Neveu\, translated by Erín Moure Nights Too Short to DanceFiction Marie-Claire Blais\, translated by Katia Grubisic ValidFiction Chris Bergeron\, translated by Natalia Hero As the Andes DisappearedFiction Caroline Dawson\, translated by Anita Anand Dandelion DaughterFiction Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay\, translated by Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch Songs for AngelFiction Marie-Claire Blais\, translated by Katia Grubisic EmFiction Kim Thúy\, translated by Sheila Fischman No results found. URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/women-in-translation-month-2026/ LOCATION:QC END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20261205T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20261206T170000 DTSTAMP:20261109T210828Z CREATED:20260721T210410Z LAST-MODIFIED:20261109T210828Z UID:10391-1796468400-1796576400@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:2026 Read Quebec Book Fair DESCRIPTION:The Read Quebec Book Fair returns to Casa d’Italia December 5-6\, 2026! Join us for special events\, author signings\, and the latest releases from Canadian writers and publishers.  \nProduced by the Association of English-language Publishers of Quebec (AELAQ)\, the Fair celebrates the vibrancy of English-language writing\, publishing\, and translation in Quebec.  \nTaking place in the historic Casa d’Italia\, the Fair will present a full weekend of programming\, including a Lightning Round with local poets\, an event with graphic novelists Lee Lai and Arizona O’Neill\, and a conversation with Everyday Reconciliation authors Derek Aronhie:nens Montour and Elin Sandberg Miller. We’ll also be hosting another edition of Speed-dating for Writers and Editors\, where up-and-coming and seasoned wordsmiths will have the opportunity to deliver their pitches directly to publishers\, as well as a panel discussion on publishing in translation. \nThe Fair will offer plenty of fun for young booklovers in the cozy\, book-filled Babar Kids’ Nook both days\, and a storytime reading with Gillian Sze. \nStick around for our 5 à 7 opening cocktail on Saturday for delicious hors d’oeuvres and a chance to connect with Montreal’s vibrant literary community. \nCasa d’Italia is located at 505 Jean-Talon East\, and is fully accessible to wheelchairs and strollers. The Fair takes place on the second floor\, accessible via stairs or elevator. Take the entrance on Berri Street\, across the street from Jean-Talon metro (exit Jean-Talon Nord). \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Apply to Exhibit\n \n \n \n \n \n *Please note tables for the 2026 Read Quebec Book Fair are currently at capacity! New applications will be added to the waitlist. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Schedule\nSaturday December 5\, 2026\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n December 5\, 202611:15 am – 12:15 pmRotunda \nLinda Leith Publishing Showcase \n\nWith:Toula Drimonis\nAlex Costa\nDon Macdonald\nRebecca Morris\nMichael Foy\nOren Safdie\nJanet Torge\nDavid Homel\nNatalie Southworth\n\nModerated by Linda Leith \nLinda Leith Publishing will present their local authors of the season\, along with some recent stars. Short readings from a variety of genres will be followed by mingling and book signing.  \nAlex Costa has degrees in biology and dentistry from McGill University. Born and raised in the neighbourhood of North Toronto\, she grew up near the ravines that inspired this story. She now lives in Montreal with her husband Mark\, also a dentist\, her two sons\, and a big shaggy dog named Rookie who has excellent teeth. The first in a planned trilogy\, The Roughling is her first novel. www.alexcosta.ca  \nThe author of the 2022 bestseller We\, the Others\, Toula Drimonis is a Montreal-based opinion columnist\, writer and news producer. A former news director for TC Media\, she has reported and written on politics\, social justice\, and women’s issues for national and international publications. She has worked in television\, radio\, and print in all three of her languages\, and has appeared on TV as both panelist and contributor to English and French-language current-affairs and cultural news shows.  \nMichael Foy was born and raised in Surrey\, British Columbia. He holds degrees in psychology and education from Simon Fraser University. His fiction has appeared in Grain Magazine\, The Nashwaak Review\, QWERTY\, Literally Stories\, Blank Spaces\, Canadian Shorts II\, and other journals and anthologies. His story “The Questions Run” received an Honourable Mention in the Riddle Fence Fiction Contest. He lives in Montreal with his wife and two daughters. www.michaelfoy.ca \nDavid Homel was born in Chicago in 1952 and left the city in 1970 for Paris\, living in Europe the next few years on odd jobs. He has published ten novels\, from Electrical Storms (1988) to The Teardown\, which won the Paragraph Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction in 2019\, and most recently\, Private Number (2025). He has also written young adult fiction with Marie-Louise Gay\, directed documentary films\, worked in TV production\, been a literary translator\, journalist\, and creative writing teacher. He has translated four books for Linda Leith Publishing: Bitter Rose (2015)\, The Last Bullet Is For You (2016)\, Nan Goldin: The Warrior Medusa (2017) and Taximan (2018). Lunging into the Underbrush (2021)\, also with LLP\, was his first book of non-fiction. He lives in Montreal. \nDon Macdonald worked for over 20 years as a journalist in Winnipeg\, Montreal and Quebec City. His first novel\, Omand’s Creek\, was an Amazon bestseller that the Montreal Gazette praised as “the best Canadian crime debut in recent memory.” He lives in Montreal. www.donmacdonald.ca \nOriginally from Guelph\, Rebecca Morris lives in Montreal. She earned an M.A. in French from Dalhousie\, had three children in three years and taught high school before turning to writing full time. Rebecca’s short stories have won several awards\, including the Malahat Review Open Season Award and the Humber Literary Review Emerging Writers Fiction contest. She is a Banff Centre alumna\, recipient of a Canada Council Arts grant and an active member of the Quebec Writers’ Federation\, where she has taught workshops on short fiction and narrative structure. Other Maps is her first novel. \nOren Safdie was born in Montreal where he attended St George’s School and Marianopolis College. Following graduate studies in Architecture and Creative Writing at Columbia University\, Oren has worked as a playwright\, screenwriter\, and professor of Dramatic Writing & Literature. Five of his plays were New York Times Critic’s Picks. Beyond Ken Dryden\, which is his first book\, was produced as a play in Montreal in 2024 and Toronto in 2025. He divides his time between LA and Montreal. \nNatalie Southworth’s award-winning stories have appeared in literary journals in Canada\, the UK and the US\, including The North American Review\, The Moth Magazine\, The New Quarterly\, Canadian Notes & Queries\, The Brooklyn Review and more. She lives in Montreal. \nJanet Torge lives in Montreal and is always looking for new adventures. She’s been a television documentary producer\, a prenatal teacher and Birth Doula\, an overnight talk-show host at CFCF Radio\, traffic reporter and Radio Noon host at CBC Montreal\, a columnist at the Montreal Gazette\, and co-founder of the first rape relief centre in Canada. She recently trained as a Death Doula and is also the author of Dear Sam\, a book about the death of her son. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n December 5\, 202612:30 pm – 1:30 pmRotunda \nEveryday Reconciliation with Derek Aronhie:nens Montour and Elin Sandberg Miller \nWith:Derek Aronhie:nens Montour Elin Sandberg Miller \nModerated by Lisa Byer-de Wever \nMany of us are committed to the idea of Reconciliation – but what can we do about it? Derek Montour is an Indigenous man who grew up on the Kahnawà:ke Kanien’kehá:ka Territory. Originally from Sweden and now based in Canada\, Elin Sandberg Miller\, brings a fresh perspective to the issues. Together they share their conversation between friends\, bringing warmth and insight on how Reconciliation can be part of our everyday lives. \nDerek Aronhie:nens Montour joined the armed services after high school—first the Canadian Royal Montreal Regiment and later the United States Marine Corps. After leaving the services\, he moved back to Kahnawà:ke to work with the Kahnawà:ke Shakotiia’takehnhas Community Services\, and today he is the organization’s executive director. He also serves on the board of directors for the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador Health and Social Services Commission and has assisted at the national level on the Child and Family Services Reform National Advisory Committee. He also served on the Minister of National Defence’s Advisory Panel on Systemic Racism and Discrimination\, which submitted their final report in December 2021. Derek grew up in Kahnawà:ke and has two children and a grandchild. \nBorn and raised in Tiotià:ke\, otherwise known as Montreal\, Lisa Byer-de Wever is a Diaconal Ministry in the United Church of Canada. As someone who has navigated the many worlds of colour\, culture\, gender\, religion\, spirituality and language her whole life\, she is passionate about creating space for dialogue\, learning and deep listening where everyone can share their authentic self.   \nShe identifies as having mixed West Indian and Indigenous heritage. She has served as the minister for Kahnawake United Church\, as the Executive Director to Saint Columba House\, and more recently Merging Waters United Church on the West Island of Montreal.  \nShe co-chairs the United Church’s Regional Right Relations Circle and has facilitated the Kairos Blanket Exercise for about 15 years. She has long been a social justice activist\, involved in issues around Indigenous and LGBTQ2sIA+ justice\, food insecurity and Gaza.    \nIn a world where siloed narratives and resistance to the “other” is the norm\, she believes we have the opportunity and responsibility to not only foster coexistence but co-resistance. Not only because our faith invites us to do so but our humanity compels us to.  \nElin Sandberg Miller hosted the podcast Everyday Reconciliation in 2021–22\, which she created and co-produced with the think tank Canada 2020. Her work has been published in various newspapers and magazines\, including the Montreal Gazette. She spent most of her working life in the Swedish Foreign Service and more recently at Global Affairs Canada\, working on issues of international law\, human rights\, gender equality\, conflict resolution and peacebuilding. She immigrated to Canada in 2008\, currently lives in Ottawa\, has three children and a grandchild\, and is a dual Swedish-Canadian citizen. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n December 5\, 20261:45 pm – 3 pmRotunda \nHow I(t) Work(s): Literary Translation \n\nWith:Chloé Savoie-Bernard\nRachel Martinez\nPablo Strauss\n\nModerated by Katia Grubisic \nQuebec is a hotbed of literary translation. Many of our best translators are also writers\, and many of our writers want to see their books translated\, wanting to reach their fellow Quebecers who read in the other official language. But how does it work? If you have a translation project in mind\, how do you get it onto the page? And how do you get your new book\, published in English\, translated and published in French? Winner of the Governor-General’s Literary Award for French-to-English Translation\, local poet and editor Katia Grubisic will lead a discussion with three established translators working from French to English (Pablo Strauss) and English to French (Rachel Martinez and Chloé Savoie-Bernard). Learn how both the business and the art of translation work. Bring your curiosity to the Q&A. \nKatia Grubisic is a writer\, editor\, and translator. Her work has won the Gerald Lampert award\, the Cole Foundation Prize for Translation\, and the Governor General’s Award for translation\, and been shortlisted for the A.M. Klein Prize. \nRachel Martinez worked for many years in the fields of arts and communications before devoting herself exclusively to translation. A polyglot\, she has translated (from English\, Spanish\, and Italian) more than 130 works in a variety of genres for renowned French-language publishers\, including novels\, short stories\, non-fiction\, arts catalogues\, biographies\, essays\, and children’s literature. She has organized events and served on numerous literary prize juries\, roundtables\, conferences\, and translation residencies both in Canada and abroad. Rachel Martinez represented the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada on the advisory committee of the Banff International Literary Translation Centre from 2018 until its dissolution in 2020. Among other awards and honors\, she was a two-time finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award in French Translation\, which she won for Glenn Gould\, une vie (Boréal) in 2005. \nChloé Savoie-Bernard occupe un poste de professeure de littérature à l’Université du Québec à Montréal. Chercheuse\, autrice et traductrice\, elle a entre autres\, publié Des femmes savantes (Triptyque\, 2016) et Sainte Chloé de l’amour (Hexagone\, 2021). Parmi ses traductions\, notons Voix/Éclairs/Tonnerres\, de Myriam Chancy (Remue-ménage\, 2023)\, de même que Sister Love\, une correspondance entre Audre Lorde et Pat Parker\, (Points\, 2024). Sa dernière traduction est la pièce de Ntozake Shange\, Aux filles de couleur qui ont déjà pensé au suicide (Payot\, 2026).  \nPablo Strauss’s many translations from Quebec include novels\, personal essays\, nonfiction\, and comics. He is a three-time finalist for the Governor General’s Award for translation\, and has published book reviews\, shorter translations\, and personal essays in Harpers\, Geist\, Granta\, and the Montreal Review of Books. Pablo grew up in Victoria\, B.C.\, and has now lived in Quebec City for two decades. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n December 5\, 20262:30 – 4 pmSalle des célébrations \nTomorrow\, but Tonight: Experiments in Flash Fiction  \nA 90-minute workshop for writers ages 14 to 20 with Jen DeLeskie\, fiction writer and Editor-in-Chief of Quist\, the youth literary journal of the Quebec Writers’ Federation. \nEven the shortest stories need a turn: a moment when something changes. Flash writers have tricky ways of getting there fast. Although technically a poem\, Laura Gilpin’s “The Two-headed Calf” pivots on “tomorrow” and “tonight” and shows one way to capture a full arc in a few lines. We’ll discuss Gilpin’s poem and a few other very short pieces\, borrow forms like recipes and lists\, and write our own flash fiction using prompts. No experience necessary! Bring a notebook or a laptop. You’ll leave with a draft\, some new tools for writing flash\, possibly some new friends\, and an invitation to submit your work to Quist. Limited to twelve participants. \nJen DeLeskie (she/her) is a writer based in Tiohtià:ke (Montréal). Her work\, which spans literary\, horror\, science fiction\, and fantasy\, has appeared in Prairie Fire\, The Globe and Mail\, Beneath Ceaseless Skies\, The Dalhousie Review\, and elsewhere. Her debut novel\, Everclear\, a YA adventure set in near-future northern Quebec\, was published by Flame Arrow in 2026. She edits Quist\, the Quebec Writers’ Federation youth literary journal. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n December 5\, 20264 pm – 5 pmRotunda \nGuernica Editions’ Montreal Book Launch 2026 \n\nWIth:Marie-Josée Poisson\, Blood Bound: Unlacing Secret Ties\nRobin Blackburn McBride\, River of Dreams\nJay Quint\, Village Dreams\nH. Nigel Thomas\, And Then Again Begin\nHélène Rioux / Jonathan Kaplansky\, The Love of Man\n\nModerated by Connie Guzzo-McParland \nA vibrant literary celebration and collaborative book launch of Guernica Editions’ Montreal-based authors and releases from the past year. Enjoy lively readings from authors\, browse and buy fresh new titles\, and enter the book‑bag raffle. After the readings\, join us for a friendly AELAQ‑ and QWF-sponsored cocktail\, where writers\, publishers\, and book lovers gather to mingle\, toast\, and celebrate Montreal’s literary scene. \nConnie Guzzo McParland\, President and Co-director of Guernica Editions\, holds a BA in Italian Literature and an MA in Creative Writing from Concordia University. She is the author of the novels The Girls of Piazza d’Amore (2013) and The Women of Saturn (2017)\, the latter translated into Italian as Le donne di Saturno (2019). Her nonfiction work includes the biography An Opera in 3 Acts\, translated into French as Un opéra en 3 actes (2021). She also translated The Twelfth Room\, the English edition of La Dodicesima Stanza. Her latest work\, Stitch by Stitch\, Punto per punto\, De fil à aiguille\, launching in March 2027\, is a collection of stories and testimonials about Italian immigrant women who laboured in the garment industry in Quebec.  \nHer writing has been recognized with numerous distinctions\, including the Concordia University David McKeen Award in Creative Writing (2008) for her thesis Girotondo; a shortlist nomination for the Quebec Writers’ Federation First Book Award for The Girls of Piazza d’Amore (2013). \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n December 5\, 2026 5 pm – 6 pmSalle des mémoires \nOpening Cocktail and Raffle \nIn partnership with the Quebec Writers’ Federation \nJoin us for a special edition of our annual Opening Cocktail\, celebrating longtime partner\, the Quebec Writers’ Federation\, where you’ll hear from new Executive Director Remy Attig and Director of Operations and Zac Remple. Stay for the raffle\, raising funds for the QWF’s Writers in the Community program\, supporting teens in partnership with schools\, community organizations\, and group facilities across Quebec. Prizes include theatre tickets\, bookstore gift certificates\, Raymond Biesinger prints\, and more!  Come for a drink\, an hors d’oeuvre\, and friendly conversation. \n \n \n \n \n \n Sunday December 6\, 2026\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n December 6\, 202611 am – 12:30 pmGallery \nSpeed Dating for Writers and Publishers! \nWriters\, bring your pitch and get ready to present it to a range of local publishers. This edition will feature be on poetry\, fiction and nonfiction. Introduce yourselves\, and then you’ll have three minutes to tell your publisher “date” what your book is all about. Don’t forget to leave time for questions or a little discussion. When the bell dings\, move to the next available seat and do it again. Whether you find a home for your manuscript or not\, you’ll make contacts and gather information that may serve you now and in the future. Limited number of participants\, preregistration is required and will open on November 23rd\, check readquebec.ca for updates. \n\n\n\nWith:Noelle Allen\, Wolsak & Wynn\nManahil Bandukwala\, Brick Books \nFiona Jeffries\, Fernwood Publishing\nLis McLoughlin\, NatureCulture\nConnie McParland or Michael Mirolla\, Guernica Editions\nModerated by Remy Attig\n\nRemy Attig\, PhD\, is the executive director of the Quebec Writers’ Federation. Prior to joining QWF\, Remy worked as an associate professor of sociolinguistics and translation\, where their research focused on minority/minoritized language communities. In a pre-academic life\, they worked as the senior director of operations at the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE)\, the operations manager of the David Suzuki Foundation\, and the executive director of Projet 10 / Project 10\, Montreal’s longest-running organization supporting 2SLGBTQIA+ youth. Through their research\, teaching\, writing\, and activism\, Remy demonstrates that the way people tell their stories\, and the language(s) they choose to use\, are often as important as the message they share with the world. \nNoelle Allen is the owner and publisher of Wolsak and Wynn. She has served on many boards and committees within the industry\, including as the Chair of the Literary Press Group\, the Co-chair of gritLit: Hamilton’s Readers and Writers Festival and as the Chair of the Literary Advisory Committee for the Hamilton Arts Council. Currently she is working with Supercrawl\, Hamilton’s Music and Arts Festival to organize the festival’s literary programming. She recently founded Sharp Words: Hamilton’s Winter Book Fair and in 2024 received the Arts Champion Award from the City of Hamilton. \nManahil Bandukwala is the author of Heliotropia (Brick Books 2024; shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Award\, the Raymond Souster Award\, and the Ottawa Book Award\, and winner of the Archibald Lampman Award) and MONUMENT (Brick Books 2022). She was selected as a Writer’s Trust of Canada Rising Star in 2023. She is currently Managing Editor for Brick Books. See her work at manahilbandukwala.com. \nConnie Guzzo McParland\, President and Co‑director of Guernica Editions\, holds a BA in Italian Literature and an MA in Creative Writing from Concordia University. She is the author of the novels The Girls of Piazza d’Amore (2013) and The Women of Saturn (2017)\, the latter translated into Italian as Le donne di Saturno (2019). Her nonfiction work includes the biography An Opera in 3 Acts\, translated into French as Un opéra en 3 actes (2021). She also translated The Twelfth Room\, the English edition of La Dodicesima Stanza. Her latest work\, Stitch by Stitch\, Punto per punto\, De fil à aiguille\, launching in March 2027\, is a collection of stories and testimonials about Italian immigrant women who laboured in the garment industry in Quebec. \nHer writing has been recognized with numerous distinctions\, including the Concordia University David McKeen Award in Creative Writing (2008) for her thesis Girotondo; a shortlist nomination for the Quebec Writers’ Federation First Book Award for The Girls of Piazza d’Amore (2013). \nFiona Jeffries (she/her) is an Acquisitions and Development editor at Fernwood Publishing\, a worker-run independent book publisher that focuses on critical perspectives across a range of subjects and voices. In keeping with Fernwood’s mission\, her editorial work is wide ranging and informed by her academic training and activist commitments. \nLis McLoughlin\, PhD is the founder and director of NatureCulture® www.nature-culture.net\, a publishing company through which she directs the Writing the Land® Project www.writingtheland.org\, which pairs poets with conserved lands\, and creates anthologies sold for land conservation. Lis has degrees in Civil Engineering\, Education\, and Science and Technology Studies. She lives off-grid in Northfield\, Massachusetts and part-time in Montréal\, Québec. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n December 6\, 202611:15 am – 12:15 pmRotunda \nSpace Cases: Alexandre Fontaine Rousseau and Francis Desharnais in Conversation \nModerated by François Vigneault \nTwo superpowers. Billions of dollars. One very confused dog. In The Conquest of the Cosmos\, writer Alexandre Fontaine Rousseau (Vampire Cousins) and artist Francis Desharnais (Little Russia) turn the Space Race into a rocket-fueled comedy of massive egos\, clashing ideologies\, and extremely questionable decisions. Join the duo for a conversation about finding the funny side of the Cold War\, the power of minimalism in art\, and the fact that bilious billionaires and international tensions keep this satirical graphic history surprisingly relevant. No scientific knowledge required! Featuring a full-cast reading from the book! Moderated by François Vigneault. \nFrancis Desharnais is one of the most prolific authors in Quebec’s growing comics scene\, with titles including Art Wars\, the Motel Galactic trilogy (with Pierre Bouchard)\, and Burquette\, which was adapted as an animated series by the National Film Board of Canada. His book Little Russia has won numerous awards\, including the prestigious Prix des libraires du Québec and the Grand prix de la ville de Québec for best graphic novel. Also active in animated film\, he won the Young Audience Award at the Annecy Festival in 2025 for his film The Great Annual Party of the Creatures of the Moon. \nAlexandre Fontaine Rousseau does not draw\, but he does write comic book scripts… Quite a lot of them\, in fact. His graphic novel collaborations include Vampire Cousins with Cathon\, The Conquest of the Cosmos and Les premiers aviateurs with Francis Desharnais\, and La pitoune et la poutine and Les canots de Satan with Xavier Cadieux. He is also the author of non-fiction books Musiques du diable and Vieille école. He lives and works in Montreal. \nFrançois Vigneault is an American-born cartoonist and illustrator living in Québec. His wide-ranging creative practice also encompasses book design\, lettering\, translation\, publishing\, curation\, and festival organization. He is notably the creator of the science-fiction graphic novel TITAN (Oni Press\, 2020/Éditions Pow Pow\, 2017) and the illustrator of books including Le Gâteau empoisonné by André Marois (Éditions de la Pastèque\, 2025) and Extraordinary Eyeglasses by Caroline Stevan (Helvetiq). His work has been nominated for numerous awards—and has even won a few of them. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n December 6\, 202612 pm – 1pmBabar Books Kids’ Nook \nAh-Ma’s Home with Gillian Sze \nPoet and children’s book author Gillian Sze will read her beautiful new book\, Ah Ma’s Home\, to kids of all ages in the Babar Kids’ Book Nook. The story of a child whose grandmother tells enchanting stories of her own childhood in China\, Ah Ma’s Home tenderly engages with immigration\, relationships bridging generations\, and the way a child’s imagination helps her understand how to fit into her world. Gillian will be available to sign books following the reading at the Babar Books table. \nGillian Sze is a poet and children’s writer. She is the recipient of the Pat Lowther Memorial Award for Quiet Night Think and the QWF’s A. M. Klein Poetry Prize for her latest book\, An Orange\, A Syllable. Her books for children have been shortlisted for the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards and CBC Kids Read. She teaches creative writing and literature at Concordia University. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n December 6\, 202612:30 pm – 1:30 pmRotunda \nPoetry Lightning Round \n\nWith:\n\nTanya Bellehumeur-Allatt\, The Hospitality of Trees\nAlexei Perry Cox\, Space \nRobin Durnford\, At Beckett’s Grave\nValerie Free\, On Occasion contributor\nLeigh Kotsilidis\, Some of Us May Live\nErín Moure\, On Occasion contributor\nSina Queyras\, On Occasion (ed.)\nNicole Rayiza Fong\, SUBTEXT\nSabyah Seyam\, On Occasion contributor\nMisha Solomon\, My Great-Grandfather Danced Ballet\nChanel Sutherland\, On Occasion contributor\n\nModerated by Jason Camlot \nLocal poets will share tasty snippets from their new books in a fun\, fast-paced and festive Lightning Round featuring  some of the most current Quebec poetry in English. Authors of new books and contributors to the anthology On Occasion will give you just enough to whet your appetite for more. Stay and get your new books signed after the event. \nTanya Bellehumeur-Allatt is the author of the critically acclaimed Carrying War (Dundurn\, 2026)\, featured in The Globe and Mail as one of the 36 Best Books of Summer. Her debut memoir\, Peacekeeper’s Daughter (Thistledown\, 2021)\, was a finalist for the Mavis Gallant Nonfiction Award. Tanya has two poetry collections: Chaos Theories of Goodness (Shoreline\, 2022) and The Hospitality of Trees (Shoreline\, 2025). She lives in North Hatley\, QC. \nJason Camlot is the author of five collections of poetry including The Animal Library (DC Books\, 2000)\, What The World Said (Mansfield\, 2013)\, and Vlarf (McGill Queen’s\, 2021)\, and most recently\, a constellation of chapbooks (released by Vallum\, Apartment 9\, above/ground\, No Press\, and Turret House Press) presenting sections from the Shooky sessions\, collaboratively composed by listening and writing\, with Stuart Ross. Jason’s critical works include Phonopoetics: The Making of Early Literary Recordings (Stanford\, 2019) and the co-edited collections\, Collection Thinking (Routledge\, 2024)\, Unpacking the Personal Library (Wilfrid Laurier UP\, 2023)\, and CanLit Across Media (McGill-Queen’s UP\, 2019). He is Professor of English at Concordia University. \nRobin Durnford has published poetry and prose in several Canadian literary magazines\, including The Antigonish Review\, Grain\, Vallum\, Canadian Literature\, and CV2. The author of four books of poetry\, her latest At Beckett’s Grave was a finalist for the 2026 Derek Walcott Poetry Prize. \nLeigh Kotsilidis has written two full-length collections of poetry\, Hypotheticals (2011) and Some of Us May Live (2026)\, both with Coach House Books. Her poems have also appeared in journals and magazines\, including The Malahat Review\, Prism international\, EVENT\, The Fiddlehead\, Prairie Fire\, and Hazlitt\, as well as being anthologized in The Best Canadian Poetry in English and IV Lounge Nights\, among others. She is also an intermedia artist. Kotsilidis lives and works in Tiohtiá:ke (Montreal). \nErín Moure is a poet and translator. She has published 19 books of poetry\, and translations of more than 25 books of poetry by others from Galician\, Spanish\, French\, and Portuguese (including Nicole Brossard\, Andrés Ajens\, Chantal Neveu\, Rosalia de Castro\, Chus Pato\, Fernando Pessoa). Her most recent book is Theophylline: a poetic migration via the modernisms of Rukeyser\, Bishop\, Grimké (Anansi\, 2023)\, and her most recent translation is of Galician poet Chus Pato’s Sonora (Veliz Books\, 2026).  \nSina Queyras is a Montreal/Tiohtià:ke-based writer\, professor\, editor\, and literary organizer. Recent work includes Rooms (2022)\, a blend of memoir\, poetry\, and criticism offering a peek into the defining spaces of the author as a young queer writer\, and My Ariel (2017)\, a collection riffing on Sylvia Plath’s Ariel\, reimagining\, queering\, and inhabiting its iconic poems. They are the author of multiple poetry collections\, including Lemon Hound\, which won the Pat Lowther and Lambda awards and Expressway\, nominated for a Governor General’s Award. Queyras was also a co-editor of Avant Desire: A Nicole Brossard Reader (2020)\, which traces the essential feminist poet’s innovation\, experimentation\, and activism across her body of work. They recently edited On Occasion: Poems for the People (Coach House Books 2026).  \nNicole Raziya Fong (they / she) is a poet\, editor\, and painter living in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal\, Québec\, Canada. They are the author of SUBTEXT (2026\, Talonbooks)\, ORACULE (2021\, Talonbooks)\, PERFACT (2019\, Talonbooks)\, and other works. Writing appears in journals including The Capilano Review\, carte blanche\, and Social Text. Their work has received support from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Canada Council for the Arts. Their work seeks to delimit and reconstruct immaterial ampoules of psychic experience\, coaxing the incorporeal into inhabiting a more muscular physique. \nValerie Free’s poetry has been published by CV2 and Canadian Woman Studies. “How to Construct a Vivarium” appears in the anthology On Occasion: Poetry for the People (Coach House Press\, Sina Queyras\, ed.). Her short stories appear online in Writers’ Hour Magazine Substack; Wild Greens; Agnes and True; and in the print anthology Short Stuff (Véhicule Press). An alumna of Sage Hill Writing’s Playwriting Lab\, Valerie received an Honourable Mention for Hiding in the House of Talents in Theatre BC’s 2023 Playwriting Competition. She lives in Tiohtià:ke / Montréal\, where Marina’s Candidacy for Motherhood with Key Witnesses was recently performed at Stage Fright (Moment Theatre Collective). @freewriterval \nSabyah Seyam is a Palestinian writer born and currently based in Tiohtià:ke (so-called Montreal). She holds a BA in Creative Writing from Concordia University\, where she is currently completing her MA in the same program. She was a poetry editor of Soliloquies Anthology. Her publications include Yolk\, Frontier Poetry\, The Malahat Review\, and Coach House’s 2026 anthology\, On Occasion: Poems for the People. Sabyah’s current writerly interests include colonized identities\, the working class\, the power of language\, and the power of privacy in a hyper-connected world. \nMisha Solomon is a homosexual poet in and of Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. His work has appeared in journals across Canada and has been anthologized in Best Canadian Poetry 2024\, 2026\, and 2027 (Biblioasis) and in On Occasion: Poems for the People (Coach House). He is a student in Concordia University’s Interdisciplinary Humanities PhD program. He is the author of three chapbooks and his full-length debut\, My Great-Grandfather Danced Ballet\, was released by Brick Books in March 2026.  \nChanel Sutherland is a Vincentian Canadian writer of fiction and creative nonfiction. She won the 2021 CBC Nonfiction Prize and the 2022 CBC Short Story Prize and was named one of CBC Books 30 Writers to Watch in 2022. Chanel is also the overall winner of the 2025 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. She has a BA in English literature from Concordia University and lives in Montreal\, Quebec. Her first collection of short stories\, titled Layaway Child\, is out now from House of Anansi. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \nDecember 6\, 20261:45-2:45 pmRotunda \nVéhicule Showcase: Who Gets Remembered? \nWith:Zeenat NagreeDavid HomelÉric Dupont \nModerated by Dimitri Nasrallah. \nWhat do a coming-of-age novel that takes place in Bombay\, a collection of essays on forgotten women jazz musicians\, and a novel that celebrates Montreal and a ghost have in common? All three books are amazing and entertaining acts of remembering or recovery. Come and meet Zeenat Nagree (My Summer Vacation)\, David Homel (translator of Black Satin by Stanley Péan)\, and Éric Dupont (The Colour of Time\, or the Incredible Story of Mary Gallagher) in conversation with Dimitri Nasrallah. \nZeenat Nagree is an independent writer and curator who grew up in Bombay and now divides her time between India and Canada. Having studied art history in Chicago\, she writes on contemporary art and curates exhibitions. My Summer Vacation is her first book. \nDavid Homel is the author of ten novels and a memoir\, as well as a series of books for younger readers co-written with Marie-Louise Gay. A prize-winning writer and translator\, he has worked in documentary film\, print and radio journalism. He lives in Montreal. \nBorn in Amqui\, Quebec\, Éric Dupont studied at Carleton University\, the Free University of Berlin\, the Université de Montréal and the University of Toronto. Dupont’s La fiancée américaine\, released in 2012\, won the Prix des libraires du Québec and the Prix littéraire des collégiens. Its English translation\, Songs for the Cold of Heart\, translated by Peter McCambridge\, was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2018 and subsequently published by HarperCollins outside of Canada as The American Fiancée. Éric Dupont lives in Montreal. \nDimitri Nasrallah is the author of four novels\, including Hotline\, a Canadian bestseller that was long-listed for the 2022 Giller Prize and was a 2023 finalist for Canada Reads. Nasrallah was born in Lebanon in 1977\, during the country’s civil war\, and moved to Canada in 1988. His previous books include The Bleeds (2018); Niko (2011)\, which won the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction; and Blackbodying (2005)\, which won Quebec’s McAuslan First Book Prize. His books have also been nominated for the Dublin Literary Award and the Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal. Nasrallah was the fiction editor of Esplanade Books from 2013 to 2025\, and currently teaches creative writing at Concordia University. He lives in Montreal. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n December 6\, 20263 pm – 4 pmRotunda \nInfiniPRESS Showcase \nWith:Zach Fraser\, Whalefall (collaborator)Ashe Lang\, WhalefallRiley Wilson\, Whalefall (collaborator)Mohsen El Gharbi\, Omi MounaLeanna Brodie\, Omi Mouna (translator)Catherine Chabot\, Clean SlateJennie Herbin\, Clean Slate (translator) \nModerated by Zach Fraser. \nCome hear from InfiniPRESS\, Montreal’s young and dynamic publisher of playwrights’ new work originating in English and in translation.  \nLeanna Brodie is a leading translator of Québécois and Franco-Canadian playwrights. Recent productions: David Paquet’s The Weight of Ants and The Shoe (The Cherry Arts\, Ithaca NY) and Wildfire (Factory Theatre\, Toronto ON\, Talisman Theatre\, Montréal QC\, and Upstream Theater\, St. Louis MO); Catherine Léger’s Home Deliveries (Ruby Slippers Theatre/Jericho Arts Centre\, Vancouver); Fanny Britt’s Benevolence (GCTC\, Ottawa); Sébastien Harrisson’s From Alaska (Belfry Theatre\, Victoria)\, and Rébecca Déraspe’s I Am William (Stratford Festival). Brodie is currently translating Rébecca Déraspe’s Those Who Have Vanished (The Search Party) and River Ice\, Breaking (Talisman Theatre) and Nathalie Doummar’s Sissi (Ruby Slippers). Her translations have won two PGC Tom Hendry Awards and a Dora Mavor Moore Award. She is also an award-winning playwright and performer: Salesman in China (co-written with Jovanni Sy) was staged at the Stratford Festival and National Arts Centre in 2024\, winning the QWF Prize for Best New Play. Learn more about her work at www.leannabrodie.com. \nZach Fraser is a Montreal-based director\, performer\, puppet maker\, and Artistic Director of Infinithéâtre. He strives to create original works that are both socially poignant and artistically compelling. Originally from Nova Scotia\, Zach trained at Dalhousie University\, followed by extensive studies with the one-of-a-kind Philippe Gaulier in England and France\, as well as specialized puppetry studies at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Zach teaches in the Theatre Department at John Abbott College\, the National Theatre School of Canada\, UQÀM\, and is currently the president of the board for the Association québecoise des marionnettistes.  \nMohsen El Gharbi defines himself as a theatre craftsman — an approach shaped by his Lecoq training at Lassaad in Brussels\, where the actor is the author of his own work. Deeply committed to the solo form\, he has created six one-man shows exploring themes of violence\, identity\, and memory. As a writer and performer\, his work has toured across Canada and Europe. For his work on Omi Mouna – A Fantastic Encounter with My Great-Grandmother\, Mohsen was nominated in the category of Outstanding Lead Performance at the Montreal English Theatre Awards (METAs). His documentary Omi Mouna’s Secret travelled to festivals on three continents. He continues to write\, perform\, and create. \nAshe Lang is a Montreal-based multidisciplinary artist specializing in handcrafted props and accessories for film and live performance. Raised near the ocean in the Dominican Republic\, Ashe developed a deep reverence for the sea from an early age. Certified as a SCUBA diver at 11\, her firsthand encounters with both the breathtaking wonder of marine life and the stark impacts of human activity have continually drawn her back to ocean conservation. Over the past decade\, Ashe has honed her craft in design\, painting\, and detailed prop fabrication for major productions\, including Cirque du Soleil (Alegría\, Kà\, The Beatles LOVE)\, blockbuster films\, and local theatre. She is also a passionate writer whose short stories have earned multiple accolades. Whalefall is her first play to be produced and published. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n December 7\, 2025\, 3 – 4 pmMain Stage\, Salle des célébrations \nSeeing Things: Lee Lai and Arizona O’Neill in Conversation \nFrom spectral magpies to Frankenstein’s Monster (actually he much prefers “Frankie”)\, unsettling visions haunt the protagonists of Cannon and Opioids & Organs\, two of the most talked-about graphic narratives this year. Join Montreal authors Lee Lai and Arizona O’Neill for a freewheeling conversation about blurring the boundaries between the real and the imaginary\, tackling “intergenerational trauma shit” both obliquely and head-on\, and why the comic book medium is the ideal form for true stories\, invented tales\, and everything in between. Featuring short readings from both authors. Moderated by François Vigneault. \nArizona O’Neill is a Montreal author and illustrator. She is the illustrator of Nelly Arcan’s L’enfant dans le miroir and Heather O’Neill’s Valentine in Montreal. Her comics have appeared in Hazlitt\, Exclaim!\, Canadian Geographic\, and the Montreal Gazette. She has created animated videos for many outlets\, including CBC. Opioids and Organs is her debut graphic novel out with Drawn & Quarterly. \nLee Lai is an Australian cartoonist living in Tio’tia:ke (colonially Montreal). Her latest graphic novel Cannon is with Drawn & Quarterly\, Giramondo\, Sarbacane and other publishers. She lives with her two roommates and a cat called Pumpkin. \nFrançois Vigneault is an American-born cartoonist living in Québec. He is the creator of the sci-fi graphic novel TITAN (Oni Press\, 2020 / Éditions Pow Pow\, 2017)\, the illustrator of books including Le gâteau empoisonée (Éditions de la Pastèque\, 2025)\, Extraordinary Eyeglasses (Helvetiq\, 2024)\, and Orcs in Space (Oni Press 2021-22)\, and also works as a translator and designer. URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/2026-read-quebec-book-fair/ LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 rue Jean Talon est\, Montreal\, QC\, H2R 1T6\, Canada ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Copy-of-RQBF_2026_Web_Banners_V1_Web-scaled.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20261205T111500 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20261205T121500 DTSTAMP:20261110T191011Z CREATED:20261110T191000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20261110T191011Z UID:11017-1796469300-1796472900@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:Linda Leith Publishing Showcase DESCRIPTION:With: \n\nAlex Costa\nToula Drimonis \nMichael Foy\nDavid Homel\nDon Macdonald\nRebecca Morris\nOren Safdie\nNatalie Southworth\nJanet Torge\n\nModerated by Linda Leith \nLinda Leith Publishing will present their local authors of the season\, along with some recent stars. Short readings from a variety of genres will be followed by mingling and book signing. URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/linda-leith-publishing-showcase/ LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 rue Jean Talon est\, Montreal\, QC\, H2R 1T6\, Canada ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Linda-Leith-Showcase-1.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20261205T123000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20261205T133000 DTSTAMP:20261110T191403Z CREATED:20261110T191403Z LAST-MODIFIED:20261110T191403Z UID:11023-1796473800-1796477400@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:Everyday Reconciliation with Derek Aronhie:nens Montour and Elin Sandberg Miller DESCRIPTION:With: \n\nElin Sandberg Miller\nDerek Aronhie:nens Montour\n\nModerated by Lisa Byer-de Wever\n\nMany of us are committed to the idea of reconciliation – but what can we do about it? Derek Montour is an Indigenous man who grew up on the Kahnawà:ke Kanien’kehá:ka Territory. Originally from Sweden and now based in Canada\, Elin Sandberg Miller\, brings a fresh perspective to the issues. Together they share their conversation between friends\, bringing warmth and insight on how reconciliation can be part of our everyday lives. URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/everyday-reconciliation-with-derek-aronhienens-montour-and-elin-sandberg-miller/ LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 rue Jean Talon est\, Montreal\, QC\, H2R 1T6\, Canada ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Everyday-Reconciliation-2.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20261205T134500 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20261205T150000 DTSTAMP:20261110T192135Z CREATED:20261110T192135Z LAST-MODIFIED:20261110T192135Z UID:11026-1796478300-1796482800@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:How I(t) Work(s): Literary Translation DESCRIPTION:With:\n \n\nRachel Martinez\nChloé Savoie-Bernard\nPablo Strauss\n\nModerated by Katia Grubisic \nQuebec is a hotbed of literary translation. Many of our best translators are also writers\, and many of our writers want to see their books translated\, wanting to reach their fellow Quebecers who read in the other official language. But how does it work? If you have a translation project in mind\, how do you get it onto the page? And how do you get your new book\, published in English\, translated and published in French? Winner of the Governor-General’s Literary Award for French-to-English Translation\, local poet and editor Katia Grubisic will lead a discussion with three established translators working from French to English (Pablo Strauss) and English to French (Rachel Martinez and Chloé Savoie-Bernard). Learn how both the business and the art of translation work. Bring your curiosity to the Q&A. URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/how-it-works-literary-translation/ LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 rue Jean Talon est\, Montreal\, QC\, H2R 1T6\, Canada ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/How-It-Works-4.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20261205T143000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20261205T160000 DTSTAMP:20261110T201519Z CREATED:20261110T192431Z LAST-MODIFIED:20261110T201519Z UID:11029-1796481000-1796486400@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:Tomorrow\, but Tonight: Experiments in Flash Fiction DESCRIPTION:A workshop for writers aged 14 to 20 – come for 90 minutes\, leave with a very short story – or two! No experience necessary. Bring a notebook or a laptop. You’ll leave with a draft\, some new tools for writing flash fiction\, possibly some new friends\, and an invitation to submit your work to Quist\, the youth literary journal of the Quebec Writers’ Federation. Limited number of participants\, preregistration is required and will open on November 23rd\, check readquebec.ca for updates. With Jen DeLeskie\, fiction writer and Editor-in-Chief of Quist. URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/tomorrow-but-tonight-experiments-in-flash-fiction/ LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 rue Jean Talon est\, Montreal\, QC\, H2R 1T6\, Canada ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Tomorrow-But-Tonight.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20261205T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20261205T170000 DTSTAMP:20261110T192827Z CREATED:20261110T192749Z LAST-MODIFIED:20261110T192827Z UID:11032-1796486400-1796490000@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:Guernica Editions’ Montreal Book Launch 2026 DESCRIPTION:With:\n \n\nRobin Blackburn McBride\, River of Dreams\nMarie-Josée Poisson\, Blood Bound: Unlacing Secret Ties\nHélène Rioux and Jonathan Kaplansky\, The Love of Man\nH. Nigel Thomas\, And Then Again Begin\nJay Quint\, Village Dreams\n\nModerated by Connie Guzzo-McParland \nA vibrant literary celebration and collaborative book launch of Guernica Editions’ Montreal-based authors and releases from the past year. Enjoy lively readings from authors\, browse and buy fresh new titles\, and enter the book‑bag raffle. After the readings\, join us for a friendly AELAQ‑ and QWF-sponsored cocktail\, where writers\, publishers\, and book lovers gather to mingle\, toast\, and celebrate Montreal’s literary scene. URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/guernica-editions-montreal-book-launch-2026/ LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 rue Jean Talon est\, Montreal\, QC\, H2R 1T6\, Canada ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Guernica-Showcase-3.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20261205T170000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20261205T180000 DTSTAMP:20261110T194209Z CREATED:20261110T194209Z LAST-MODIFIED:20261110T194209Z UID:11036-1796490000-1796493600@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:Opening Cocktail and Raffle DESCRIPTION:Join us for a special edition of our annual Opening Cocktail\, celebrating longtime partner\, the Quebec Writers’ Federation\, with new Executive Director Remy Attig and Director of Operations Zac Remple. Stay for the raffle\, raising funds for the QWF’s Writers in the Community program\, supporting teens in partnership with schools\, community organizations\, and group facilities across Quebec. Prizes include theatre tickets\, bookstore gift certificates\, Raymond Biesinger prints\, and more! Come for a drink\, an hors d’oeuvre\, and friendly conversation. URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/opening-cocktail-and-raffle/ LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 rue Jean Talon est\, Montreal\, QC\, H2R 1T6\, Canada ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Opening-Cocktail-4.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20261206T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20261206T123000 DTSTAMP:20261110T194520Z CREATED:20261110T194520Z LAST-MODIFIED:20261110T194520Z UID:11040-1796554800-1796560200@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:Speed Dating for Writers and Publishers! DESCRIPTION:Writers\, bring your pitch and present it to local and out-of-province publishers of poetry\, adult fiction and nonfiction. Introduce yourselves\, and then you’ll have three minutes to tell your publisher “date” what your book is all about. Whether you find a home for your manuscript or not\, you’ll make contacts and gather information that may serve you now and in the future. Limited number of participants\, preregistration is required and will open on November 23rd\, check readquebec.ca for updates. URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/speed-dating-for-writers-and-publishers-2/ LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 rue Jean Talon est\, Montreal\, QC\, H2R 1T6\, Canada ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Speed-Dating-4.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20261206T111500 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20261206T111500 DTSTAMP:20261110T202123Z CREATED:20261110T202123Z LAST-MODIFIED:20261110T202123Z UID:11067-1796555700-1796555700@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:Space Cases: Alexandre Fontaine Rousseau and Francis Desharnais in Conversation DESCRIPTION:Two superpowers. Billions of dollars. One very confused dog. In The Conquest of the Cosmos\, writer Alexandre Fontaine Rousseau (Vampire Cousins) and artist Francis Desharnais (Little Russia) turn the Space Race into a rocket-fuelled comedy of massive egos\, clashing ideologies\, and extremely questionable decisions. Join the duo for a conversation about finding the funny side of the Cold War\, the power of minimalism in art\, and the fact that bilious billionaires and international tensions keep this satirical graphic history surprisingly relevant. No scientific knowledge required! Featuring a full-cast reading from the book! Moderated by François Vigneault. URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/space-cases-alexandre-fontaine-rousseau-and-francis-desharnais-in-conversation/ LOCATION:Casa d’Italia\, 505 rue Jean Talon est\, Montreal\, QC\, H2R 1T6\, Canada ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Space-Cases.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20261206T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20261206T130000 DTSTAMP:20261110T194756Z CREATED:20261110T194756Z LAST-MODIFIED:20261110T194756Z UID:11043-1796558400-1796562000@readquebec.ca SUMMARY:Ah-Ma’s Home with Gillian Sze DESCRIPTION:Poet and children’s book author Gillian Sze will read her beautiful new book\, Ah Ma’s Home\, to kids of all ages in the Babar Kids’ Book Nook. The story of a child whose grandmother tells enchanting stories of her own childhood in China\, Ah Ma’s Home tenderly engages with immigration\, relationships bridging generations\, and the way a child’s imagination helps her understand how to fit into her world. Gillian will be available to sign books following the reading at the Babar Books table. URL:https://readquebec.ca/event/ah-mas-home-with-gillian-sze/ LOCATION:QC ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://readquebec.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Gillian-Sze-1.png END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR