Blue Metropolis (also known as Blue Met) is an international literary festival held annually in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
since 1999. Founded by Montreal writer
Linda Leith
Linda Jane Leith is a Montreal-based writer, translator, and publisher.
Biography
Leith was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, when her family was living in the linen town of Lisburn. After elementary and secondary schooling in London and Basel, ...
, it is one of the world's first multilingual literary festival. In early 2011, Leith departed, and a new president and a new director of programming were hired.
The festival is put on by Blue Metropolis Foundation, a
not-for-profit
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
organisation established in 1997. The foundation offers educational and social programs year-round, in classrooms and online.
History
Blue Metropolis was inspired by an earlier event. In 1996, three Montreal writers who were members of the Writer's Union of Canada (Linda Leith,
Ann Charney
Ann Charney (born 1940) is a Canadian novelist, short story writer and journalist.
Career
Her most recent novel, ''Life Class'' was published in 2013. It is a story of displacement and ambition played out in the art circles of Venice, New York a ...
, and
Mary Soderstrom Mary Soderstrom (born 1942) is a novelist, short story and nonfiction writer.
Career
Her novel, ''The Violets of Usambara'' (Cormorant Books, March 2008), was supported by a grant from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec which allowed h ...
) organized a new literary event in partnership with the Union des écrivaines et des écrivains québécois (UNEQ). Called 'Write pour écrire'.
In 1997, Leith went on to establish Blue Metropolis Foundation as uniquely 'created by writers and readers for writers and readers'.
The first Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival took place April 19 to 23, 1999. Its programming, which took place in French or English or both, included the first Blue Metropolis Translation Slam and literacy/community writing activities, as well as readings, on-stage interviews, and panel discussions.
After the event, the foundation was able to expand its scope beyond the festival and organize educational programmes for young people, from the primary school to cégep levels.
The name 'Blue Metropolis' was partially inspired by the philosophical essay 'On Being Blue', in which the American writer
William H. Gass
William Howard Gass (July 30, 1924 – December 6, 2017) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, critic, and philosophy professor. He wrote three novels, three collections of short stories, a collection of novellas, and seven vol ...
CBC Arts
CBC Arts (french: Radio-Canada Arts) is the division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that creates and curates written articles, short documentaries, non-fiction series and interactive projects that represent the excellence of Canada's div ...
Fugues
In music, a fugue () is a contrapuntal compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject (a musical theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches) and which recurs frequently in the c ...
'', April 19, 2018.
Awards
The festival presents a number of annual awards.
Blue Metropolis International Literary Grand Prize
*
Marie-Claire Blais
Marie-Claire Blais (5 October 1939 – 30 November 2021) was a Canadian writer, novelist, poet, and playwright from the province of Québec. In a career spanning seventy years, she wrote novels, plays, collections of poetry and fiction, newspa ...
(2000)
*
Norman Mailer
Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer ...
Maryse Condé
Maryse Condé (née Boucolon; February 11, 1937) is a French novelist, critic, and playwright from the French Overseas department and region of Guadeloupe. Condé is best known for her novel ''Ségou'' (1984–85).Condé, Maryse, and Richard P ...
(2003)
*
Paul Auster
Paul Benjamin Auster (born February 3, 1947) is an American writer and film director. His notable works include ''The New York Trilogy'' (1987), ''Moon Palace'' (1989), ''The Music of Chance'' (1990), ''The Book of Illusions'' (2002), ''The Broo ...
Michel Tremblay
Michel Tremblay (born 25 June 1942) is a French-Canadian novelist and playwright.
Tremblay was born in Montreal, Quebec, where he grew up in the French-speaking neighbourhood of Plateau Mont-Royal; at the time of his birth, a neighbourhood wit ...
(2006)
*
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, nin ...
(2007)
*
Daniel Pennac
Daniel Pennac (real name Daniel Pennacchioni, born 1 December 1944 in Casablanca, Morocco) is a French writer. He received the Prix Renaudot in 2007 for his essay '' Chagrin d'école''.
Daniel Pennacchioni is the fourth and last son of a Cors ...
(2008)
*
A. S. Byatt
Dame Antonia Susan Duffy ( Drabble; born 24 August 1936), known professionally by her former marriage name as A. S. Byatt ( ), is an English critic, novelist, poet and short story writer. Her books have been widely translated, into more than t ...
Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. Her novels '' Bla ...
(2012)
*
Colm Tóibín
Colm Tóibín (, approximately ; born 30 May 1955) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist, critic, playwright and poet.
His first novel, '' The South'', was published in 1990. '' The Blackwater Lightship'' was shortlis ...
Nancy Huston
Nancy Louise Huston, OC (born September 16, 1953) is a Canadian-born novelist and essayist who writes primarily in French and translates her own works into English.
Biography
Huston was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, the city in which she l ...
In 2013, the festival announced a new prize, the Premio Metropolis Azul. Given each year to an author from any country or region for a work of fiction written in Spanish, English, or French, the prize is awarded to works which explore some aspect of
Hispanophone
Hispanophone and Hispanic refers to anything relating to the Spanish language (the Hispanosphere).
In a cultural, rather than merely linguistic sense, the notion of "Hispanophone" goes further than the above definition. The Hispanic culture is th ...
culture or history. The prize is sponsored by
Ginny Stikeman
Virginia "Ginny" Stikeman is a Canadian filmmaker, director, producer and editor known for her documentary work. Stikeman had a 30-year career at the National Film Board of Canada, and led its women's unit, Studio D, from 1990 until its closure in ...
.
*
Sergio Ramírez
Sergio Ramírez Mercado (; born 5 August 1942 in Masatepe, Nicaragua) is a Nicaraguan writer and intellectual who was a key figure in 1979 revolution, served in the leftist Government Junta of National Reconstruction and as vice president of t ...
, ''La fugitiva'' (2013)
*
Luis Alberto Urrea
Luis Alberto Urrea (born August 20, 1955 in Tijuana, Mexico) is a Mexican-American poet, novelist, and essayist.
Life
Luis Urrea is the son of Alberto Urrea Murray, of Rosario, Sinaloa, Mexico and Phyllis Dashiell, born in Staten Island, New Yor ...
Leila Guerriero
Leila Guerriero (born 17 February 1967) is an Argentine journalist and writer.
Career
Leila Guerriero graduated from the Colegio Nacional Normal Superior de Junín. She is of Syrian Christian and German descent. She studied tourism, a field in wh ...
(2018)
Blue Metropolis First Peoples Prize
The Blue Metropolis First Peoples Prize is awarded to a North American Indigenous writer for a work in any genre. Winners have included:
* Annharte (2015)
* Thomas King (2016)
*
David Treuer
David Treuer (born 1970) (Ojibwe) is an American writer, critic and academic. As of 2019, he had published seven books; his work published in 2006 was noted as among the best of the year by several major publications. He published a book of essays ...
(2017)
*
Lee Maracle
Bobbi Lee Maracle (born Marguerite Aline Carter; July 2, 1950November 11, 2021) was an Indigenous Canadian writer and academic of the Stó꞉lō nation. Born in North Vancouver, British Columbia, she left formal education after grade 8 to tr ...
(2018)
Blue Metropolis Words to Change Prize
The Blue Metropolis Words to Change Prize is awarded to a writer whose work connects communities, whether they be linguistic, religious, ethnic or other communities:
*
Gene Luen Yang
Gene Luen Yang (Chinese Traditional: 楊謹倫, Simplified: 杨谨伦, Pinyin: ''Yáng Jǐnlún''; born August 9, 1973) is an American cartoonist. He is a frequent lecturer on the subjects of graphic novels and comics, at comic book conventions a ...
Charif Majdalani
Charif Majdalani is a French-Lebanese writer. Born in Beirut in 1960, he is a novelist and professor at Saint Joseph University, where he was head of the Department of French Literature from 1999 to 2008. A member of the editorial board of L'Ori ...
(2018)
Literary Diversity Prize
In 2016 the festival announced a new prize in association with the Conseil des arts de Montréal. The work is awarded to a first or second generation migrant to Quebec, residing in Montreal, from a multi-cultural community, written in French or English, for a first publication in Quebec.
* Ghayas Hachem, ''Play Boys'' (2016)
*
Xue Yiwei
Xue Yiwei (, born in 1964) is a Chinese-born Canadian author.
His hometown is Changsha, Hunan, and his birthplace was Chenzhou in the same province. He attended the Beijing University of Aeronautics (now Beihang University) in a computer science ...
, ''Shenzheners'' (2017)
*
Alina A Dumitrescu
Alina is a female given name of European origin. It is particularly common in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. It may be derived from the name Adelina. Alina was one of the top 10 most popular names in Switzerland and one of the top 50 most p ...
Dionne Brand
Dionne Brand (born 7 January 1953) is a Canadian poet, novelist, essayist and documentarian. She was Toronto's third Poet Laureate from September 2009 to November 2012. She was admitted to the Order of Canada in 2017
(2019)
Blue Metropolis Al Majidi Ibn Dhaher Arab Literary Prize
The festival in the past also awarded the Blue Metropolis Al Majidi Ibn Dhaher Arab Literary Prize. Named after the 17th-century poet al-Majidi ibn Dhaher, the prize was initiated in 2007 and is worth CAD $5,000. The prize is sponsored by the
Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage
The Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture & Heritage (known colloquially as the ADACH) was a statutory body in the United Arab Emirates that administered cultural heritage in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.Issa J Boullata served as consultant for the prize and the jury is composed of an international roster of poets, novelists, and literary professionals. The prize is currently on hiatus.
Past winners of the Al Majidi Ibn Dhaher Prize are:
* Elias Khoury (2007)
* Saadi Youssef (2008)
*
Zakaria Tamer
Zakaria Tamer ( ar, زكريا تامر, Zakariyyā Tāmir; born January 2, 1931), also spelled Zakariya Tamir, is a Syrian short story writer.
He is one of the most important and widely read and translated short story writers in the Arab world ...
(2009)
*
Joumana Haddad
Joumana Haddad ( ar, جمانة حداد) ( Salloum; born December 6, 1970 in Beirut) is a Lebanese author, public speaker, journalist and human rights activist. She has been selected as one of the world’s 100 most powerful Arab women by Arabi ...
Ahdaf Soueif
Ahdaf Soueif ( ar, أهداف سويف; born 23 March 1950) is an Egyptian novelist and political and cultural commentator.
Early life
Soueif was born in Cairo, where she lives, and was educated in Egypt and England. She studied for a PhD in lin ...
Habib Selmi
Habib Selmi (Tunisian Arabic: حبيب السالمي) (born 31 January 1951) is a Tunisian novelist and short story writer.
Early life
He was born in Al-Ala near the historic city of Kairouan. To date, he has published eight novels and two sh ...