February 2012 Archives

Etgar Keret is an Israeli graphic novelist and author best known for his contemporary short stories that often border on the surreal. He is also a screenwriter whose credits include Wristcutters: A Love Story.

Listen to a reading of his story "Hat Trick" from his collection, The Girl on the Fridge.

Attention Montrealites readers and contributors! We are currently inviting members of the Montrealites community - meaning you guys - to submit entries for the short story/ personal essay competition. If you're interested, here are the guidelines:

• Word Count: Maximum 1000 words.
• Last Day for Submission: March 30, 2022 at 12:00 am.
• Winning Entry Prize: 100 $ CAN. (cha-ching!).
• Submit your Entry via e-mail to our fiction editor L. Edith Featherstone and title it "short story competition".

We're anticipating your entries and encourage everyone to go for it! Competition information may also be found on our twitter and facebook pages.
Good luck you talented lot!

It's the middle of December and the weather this morning is terrible--cold and windy with freezing rain. Thankfully, it's warm inside the headquarters of the Blue Metropolis Foundation, which hosts Montreal's largest annual multi-lingual literary festival. In fact, the St Henri office feels like the perfect place to curl up and read a book. Housed in a loft-style space, the office would seem something more of a shabby-chic apartment with its high ceilings and large, factory-style windows if it weren't for the staff who are already buzzing around the rooms and hard at work, despite the early hour.

 

For those who haven't attended the festival, the event is five days of intellectual food for your soul. Novelists, journalists, historians, poets, and industry experts from all over the world gather to participate in panel discussions, one-on-one interviews, readings, and lectures. Some past participants include Gore Vidal, Michel Tremblay, Paul Auster, Heather O'Neill, Norman Mailer, and Margaret Atwood, to name a few.

 

You don't have to be familiar with a particular author to have a great time, either; panel discussions are centered around an interesting theme, and the interviews are conducted by the industry's best, guaranteeing an engaging discussion. General topics change from year to year, but many events are focused on issues of interest to students, such as human rights and other political topics.

I stand to greet the foundation's new president and artistic director, William St-Hilaire, who ushers me into her office where the interview will take place.

 

" I don't consider myself a writer. I'm a passionate person who likes to DO things."

 

That's correct; William is a she. She gave herself the name William after being repeatedly looked over for jobs as a sailor in Quebec City. And she is just as creative and unorthodox as her name suggests.

 

Elegant, composed, tall, and slender, St-Hilaire is dressed in all-black and adorned with a heavy necklace and fashionable glasses, much like what you might expect an art gallery director to look like.