The reverse of the world: Letter to Geneviève Brisac
Fanie Demeule, author of Lightness, addresses a letter to French author Geneviève Brisac, who also wrote a novel (Petite, 1994) based on her teenage years with an eating disorder.
This weekend sees the long-awaited Forum on Creative Writing in Quebec at Montreal’s Grande Bibliothèque.
Proceedings get under way on Friday May 6th with a welcome at 4 p.m. followed by the offical Opening and a tone-setting panel discussion on issues affecting creative writing today at 5.30 p.m. hosted by Marie-Andrée Lamontagne that features storyteller Jocelyn Bérubé, novelist Neil Bissoondath, poet and novelist Nicole Brossard and poet Jean Sioui. A reception follows at 7 p.m.
Saturday May 7th: 10 a.m. –
12.30 p.m.
Session
1 : The development of creative writing and digitalization, with
Daniel Canty, Jean-Yves Fréchette, and Caroline Georges. Host: Nicolas
Langelier.
Session 2 : Conditions for living as a creator today, with
José Acquelin, Paul Bélanger, Bertrand Gauthier, Hélène Messier, and Monique
Proulx. Host: Pierre Lavoie.
Session
3 : The challenges of the creative life, with Carole David, Peter
Dubé, and Pauline Vincent. Host: Guy Rodgers.
Saturday May 7th: 13.30 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Session 4 : How to improve the distribution
and circulation of creative writing in Quebec and abroad? With Christine
Bouchard, Isabelle Gagnon, Linda Leith, and Mélanie Vincelette. Host: Aline
Apostolska.
Session
5 : How to improve the distribution and circulation of spoken
literature in Quebec and abroad? With D. Kimm, Marc Laberge, Jean-Marc Massie,
Joujou Turenne. Host: Jacques Falquet.
Session 6 : The new spaces of literary practice, with Fortner Anderson, Simon Dumas, Christine Germain, and Mathieu Lippé. Host: Stéphane Lépine.
Sunday May 8: 10.30 – 12.30 p.m.
Plenary Session. Host: Marie-Andrée Lamontagne.
All sessions take place at
the Grande Bibliothèque, 475, boul. De Maisonneuve Est, Montréal (Québec) H2L
5C4
Métro Berri-UQAM
In French.
For further information on
the Forum: call 1 800 897-1707 and ask for Marie-Ève Vézina.
Most sessions are fully booked. If you wish to comment on Forum themes, you
are invited to do so by writing to forumlitt
@ calq.gouv.qc.ca. CALQ reserves the right to make such comments public.
The Forum is organized by the
Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec with the participation of Quebec’s
Ministère de la Culture, des Communications et de la Condition féminine, the
Canada Council for the Arts, the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du
Québec, and the Conseil des arts de Montréal.
Posted on Globe Books In Other Words on May 5, 2010.
Linda Leith
.ll.
Fanie Demeule, author of Lightness, addresses a letter to French author Geneviève Brisac, who also wrote a novel (Petite, 1994) based on her teenage years with an eating disorder.
"Well, here you are at last. We've been puzzled about you for so long;
although you left behind much love and devotion, you bequeathed us very
few facts." -- Nathalie Babel, 1964
The family feel comes from the vivid sense of a movement, even quite literally of clubbiness that comes from the "Club" where artists and hangers-on congregated in a loft on East Eighth Street. Individual as they were and very different as is their work, they also knew each other and were keenly aware of themselves as a group.
[And the side? Edward Burtynsky's stunning "Oil," at the ROM.]
Contributing editor Marie-Andrée Lamontagne’s introductory text for the French online Salon .ll. argues that literature has never thrived as much as it does today, when it has all but disappeared from sight.
Translation by Jonathan Kaplansky.
Contributing editors Felicia Mihali, Marie-Andrée Lamontagne, and Annabelle Moreau planning the
literary salon, October 2011.