Montreal writer and publisher Linda Leith was born in Northern Ireland and has lived in London, Basel, Paris, Budapest, and Ottawa.

Her most recent books are The Girl from Dream City: A Literary Life (University of Regina Press, 2021) the literary history Writing in the Time of Nationalism: From Two Solitudes to Blue Metropolis (Signature 2010), published in a French translation as Écrire au temps du nationalisme by Alain Roy (Leméac Éditeur, 2014).

Marrying Hungary is a memoir originally commissioned by Leméac and published in French as Épouser la Hongrie (2004, trans. Aline Apostolska), and then in Serbian (Rad, 2005, trans. Aleksandra Mancic) before publication in English (Signature 2008).

Leith is the author of three novels: Birds of Passage (Signature, 1993); The Tragedy Queen (Signature, 1995), translated into French as Un Amour de Salomé (XYZ Éditeur, 2003, trans. Agnès Guitard), winner of the 2004 Governor General's Award for Translation; and The Desert Lake (Signature, 2007).

Her translation into English of Louis Gauthier's Travels with an Umbrella: An Irish Journey (Signature 2000), was shortlisted for the Glassco Prize and the QWF Translation prize.

A former publisher and editor of Matrix magazine, she also has an academic background and is the founder of Blue Metropolis Foundation and was President and Artistic Director of the Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival from its inception in 1999 to 2010. She created Linda Leith Publishing / Linda Leith Éditions in June 2011, publishing literary fiction, trade non-fiction, and cartoons in print and electronic formats as well as online literary magazine Salon .ll. 

[Photo: Julian Gollner]