VIOLET SERIES
IN COLLABORATION WITH:
As part of the Blue Metropolis Festival, which is presented annually in Montreal, usually in April, the LGBTQ+ series presents 6 to 10 activities for general and LGBTQ+ publics, featuring a mix of English-language, French language and bilingual events.
For the 2024 edition, the Festival will begin online on April 14, whereas its in-person program will take place from April 25 to 28.
Each year, the Festival presents literary events that explore subjects particular to LGBTQ+ communities. However, the contributions of LGBTQ+ authors are also sought out for many other aspects of the Festival program, as is the case for other authors from marginalized communities. This more actively inclusive approach is one these authors appreciate, representing a richer participation in the Festival program on the whole, and as a result, a better opportunity for readers to discover their work. Moreover, note that 30% of the invitees Blue Metropolis welcomes to each edition of the Festival are from diverse and/or underrepresented backgrounds.
Discover or rediscover content and authors who invite us to change the way we look at the world.
BLUE METROPOLIS VIOLET PRIZE / PRIX LITTÉRAIRE VIOLET METROPOLIS BLEU
The Blue Metropolis Violet Prize is Canada’s first LGBTQ Literary Prize to be awarded to Canadian writer for their body of work. The $5,000 bursary will alternate each year between a francophone an anglophone writer.
THE WINNERS
2024
SKY GILBERT
2023
MICHEL MARC BOUCHARD
2022
TOMSON HIGHWAY
2021
ANDRÉ ROY
2019
DIONNE BRAND
2018
NICOLE BROSSARD
RELIVE SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR LGBTQ+ PROGRAMMING
INTERVIEW WITH SKY GILBERT, WINNER OF THE 2024 BLUE METROPOLIS VIOLET LITERARY PRIZE
Ahead of his participation in the 2024 edition of the Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival, poet, novelist, playwright, filmmaker and theatre director Sky Gilbert looks back on his work and talks about what it means to him to receive the Blue Metropolis Violet award.
INTERVIEW_ 15 MINUTES
Participant: Sky Gilbert
Interview: Christopher DiRaddo
English
ENTRETIEN AVEC MICHEL MARC BOUCHARD GAGNANT DU PRIX LITÉRAIRE VIOLET 2023
Short interview of Michel Marc Bouchard, winner of the 2023 Violet Literary Prize.
Participant: Michel Marc Bouchard
Host: Marie-Andrée Lamontagne
Language: French
MICHEL MARC BOUCHARD TO RECEIVE THE BLUE METROPOLIS VIOLET PRIZE
AVAILABLE ON FRIDAY, OCTOBRE 27, 2023, 5:30 PM
Internationally renowned theatre artist Michel Marc Bouchard, who made his name with the plays Lilies, The orphan muses, Tom at the farm, and more recently as the librettist of La Beauté du monde at the Opéra de Montréal, receives the 2032 Blue Metropolis Violet Literary Prize. That Prize is awarded to a Canadian LGBTQ writer for their body of work. The award ceremony will be followed by an onstage interview and book signing.
Participant: Michel Marc Bouchard
Host: Christopher DiRaddo
Interviewer : François Lévesque
Language: French
LIFE OF THE STORY:
TOMSON HIGHWAY AND EDEN ROBINSON
Two world-renowned Indigenous authors join us for an intimate, retrospective conversation. Tomson Highway, laureate of the 2022 Violet Prize, and Eden Robinson, laureate of the 2022 First Peoples Prize, will take the stage for a special encounter between mediums, between literatures and lives, mourning and joys, reminiscences and what lies ahead.
Participants: Tomson Highway, Eden Robinson
Host: Bimadoshka Pucan
Language: English
PRIX LITTÉRAIRE VIOLET METROPOLIS BLEU
ANDRÉ ROY
Né à Montréal en 1944, André Roy est écrivain, poète et critique de cinéma. Son œuvre poétique compte plus de trente titres, publiés aux Herbes Rouges. Parmi les plus récents, La très grande science des adieux du poète russe Ossip Mandelstan (2017), Quelque chose du paysage (2016) ou La très grande solitude de l’écrivain pragois Frank Kafka (2014). Il est également l’auteur d’essais sur le cinéma. Récompensée par plusieurs prix, sa poésie est traduite en plusieurs langues.
EN PARTENARIAT AVEC BANQ
Participant : André Roy
Animateur : Christopher DiRaddo
Intervieweur : Denis-Martin Chabot
Langue : Français
PRIX DE LA DIVERSITÉ METROPOLIS BLEU/CONSEIL DES ARTS DE MONTRÉAL NICHOLAS DAWSON
Né au Chili, Nicholas Dawson est écrivain, éditeur et doctorant en études et pratiques des arts (UQAM). Il reçoit le prix de la Diversité pour son récit, Désormais, ma demeure (Triptyque, 2020), texte, dans les mots de l’éditeur, «libre et libéré à propos de la dépression, dans lequel se contaminent magnifiquement la poésie en prose, l’essai littéraire, le récit de soi et la photographie». Nicholas Dawson a également publié La déposition des chemins (La Peuplade, 2010), Animitas (La Mèche, 2017). Aux éditions Triptyque, il dirige la collection «Poèmes». Il est, depuis 2021, le rédacteur en chef de la revue Mœbius.
EN PARTENARIAT AVEC BANQ
Participant : Nicholas Dawson
Animatrice : Marie-Andrée Lamontagne
Intervieweuse : Catherine Mavrikakis
Langue : Français
QUEER DREAMING: MATTILDA BERNSTEIN SYCAMORE & RANDA JARRAR
Writing toward the gaps between feeling and survival, pleasure and loss, connection and controversy, desire and joy? Acclaimed queer authors Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, author of The Freezer Door, and Randa Jarrar, author of Love Is an Ex-Country, delve into each other’s work in a one-on-one conversation.
Participants: Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, Randa Jarrar
Host: David Bradford
Language: English
LES ÉCRIVAINS MEURENT-ILS? VARIATIONS SUR HERVÉ GUIBERT AVEC MATHIEU LINDON
Jusqu’où les livres d’un écrivain peuvent-ils survivre à sa disparition ? De quoi la mémoire d’une œuvre est-elle faite ? Dans Hervelino, le romancier et critique littéraire Mathieu Lindon évoque son amitié et son séjour à la villa Medicis, à Rome, en 1988-1989, avec l’écrivain et journaliste Hervé Guibert, auteur du roman autobiographique À l’ami qui ne m’a pas sauvé la vie, œuvre marquante née des terribles années SIDA et qui l’a fait connaître du grand public avant sa mort en 1991.Avec le soutien du Consulat général de France à Québec
Participant : Mathieu Lindon
Animatrice : Claire Legendre
Langue : Français
