Jay's List (What's Goin' On?) — November '24

What's happening in Montreal this month?

Here’s a list of what’s going on in Montreal in the lit world in October 2024 (these events are principally anglo, but if you’ve got a foot in the franco scene we’d love to do a parallel French list).

If we’re missing something, message @discordia.review on Instagram to propose an inclusion.

To navigate this list, you can click the bar on the left to see all the dates and navigate around said dates. This list will change and expand with time.

2 NOVEMBER (SAT)

YOLK VOL. 4.1
What: Hot local mag Yolk putting out an issue.
Where: De Stiil Bookstore.
When: 7pm until 11pm.
Who: Ian Cockfield, Irena Darcu-Romano, Aris Keshav, Shannan Mann, Sadie McCarney, Renée M. Sgroi, and some others.
How Much: $7.50, or $20 with a copy of the magazine.

3 NOVEMBER (SUN)

ACCENT: VOL. 102 — “SILLY”
What: Popular weekly bilingual open mic. The theme this week is “silly.”
Where: La Marche a Cote.
When: 7pm until 10pm.
Who: Whoever has the balls, along with special guests Loch Bailie and Ashley Fish Robertson.
How Much: Free.

7 NOVEMBER (THURS)

LAMPLIT
What: A reading. It says so on the box.
Where: 170 Jean-Talon Ouest, Unit #401
When: 7pm until 10pm.
Who: Bianca Bernstein, Prudence Gendron, Rickie Leach, and Joshua Marquis.
How Much: $5 or PWYC.

ONE LONG ONE, A READING
What: A reading. It says so on the box.
Where: Centre Clark.
When: Doors at 6pm, reading from 6:30pm until 8:30pm.
Who: Haley Mlotek, Alexei Perry Cox, Viola Chen, Rhiannon Ng Cheng Hin, Nicky Taylor, and one other.
How Much: Free? Didn’t say on the poster.

MCSWAY WORKSHOP: HIBERNATION
What: The Mcsway Poetry Collective’s weekly workshop, this time on the theme of “unconventionality.” Dude it took me like a whole two minutes to parse that word, look at this font:

Where: 651 Rue Sherbrooke O. (Building 21).
When: 5:30pm.
Who: Whoever.
How Much: Free.

8 NOVEMBER (FRI)

DEADLINE TO APPLY TO EXPOZINE
What: This is the latest you can submit to show your ware’s at Expozine, weekend of November 23th-24th (see below).
Where: Online.
When: Midnight.
Who: You?
How Much: $100 to register for both days, $50 for an individual day.

10 NOVEMBER (SUN)

ENSEMBLE SCHOLASTICA: MCGILL’S SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
What: Only marginally a literary event, but I’m counting it anyway. Ensemble Scholastica is going to be performing medieval compositions transcribed in manuscripts found in McGill’s Special Collections—much of it obscure and fragmentary. As standard musical notation was only really formalized in Europe in the early medieval period, these represent some of its earliest examples. This might be the event I’m most looking forward to, to tell the truth.
Where: Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours.
When: 7pm doors, 7:30pm show.
Who: Ensemble Scholastica, and a bunch of dead medieval musical scribes.
How Much: $31.14 for general admission, with student pricing at $26.15. You can buy tickets here.

LAUNCH: JIM JOHNSTONE, KLARA DU PLESSIS, & KATHERINE ALEXANDRA HARVEY
What: The aforementioned names, celebrating three launches, respectively: The Anstruther Reader (of which Johnstone is editor), Post-Mortem of the Event, and Let Me Evaporate.
Where: Librairie Paragraphe Bookstore.
When: 2pm until 4pm.
Who: The aforementioned authors, organized by Palimpsest Press.
How Much: Free.

11 NOVEMBER (MON)

WRITERS READ: ALEXIS PAULINE GUMBS
What: Celebrating Gumbs’ release of Survival is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde.
Where: Concordia SGW Campus, John Molson Building, Room MB9 - ABCD.
When: 7pm until 8:30pm.
Who: The aforementioned Gumbs with support from Amber Rose Johnson.
How Much: Free.

LAUNCH: LINZEY CORRIDON, WEST OF WEST INDIAN
What: Celebrating the release of the aforementioned book by the aforementioned author, with discussion with H. Nigel Thomas.
Where: Argo Bookshop.
When: 7pm.
Who: The aforementioned Corridon and H. Nigel Thomas.
How Much: Free, but you need to RSVP, which you can do here.

12 NOVEMBER (TUES)

QWF AWARDS GALA 2024
What: The aforementioned awards gala, themed this year as “Reflecting on the Future” (I think that was the theme of my grade 12 yearbook).
Where: Cabaret Lion d'Or.
When: 6:30pm until 10:30pm.
Who: The Quebec Writers Federation, hosted by Ali Hassan, host of Canada Reads.
How Much: Varies from $12 to $65, you can see it the prices here.

14 NOVEMBER (THURS)

LAUNCH: OSANA AVASILICHIOAEI, CHAMBERSONIC & STEPHEN COLLIS, THE MIDDLE
What: Celebrating the launch of the aforementioned books by the aforementioned authors.
Where: Librairie Le Port de tête.
When: 3pm.
Who: The aforementioned authors.
How Much: Free.

MCSWAY WORKSHOP: CLIMATE CHANGE
What: The Mcsway Poetry Collective’s weekly workshop, this time on the theme of “climate change.”
Where: 651 Rue Sherbrooke O. (Building 21).
When: 5:30pm.
Who: Whoever.
How Much: Free.

21 NOVEMBER (THURS)

MCSWAY WORKSHOP: HIBERNATION
What: The Mcsway Poetry Collective’s weekly workshop, this time on the theme of “hibernation.”
Where: 651 Rue Sherbrooke O. (Building 21).
When: 5:30pm.
Who: Whoever.
How Much: Free.

23-24 NOVEMBER (SAT-SUN)

EXPOZINE
What: Canada’s largest zine fair and one of the largest in North America.
Where: Église Saint-Arsène de Montréal.
When: Programming TBD, but 12pm to 7pm on day one, 12:30pm to 7pm on day two.
Who: Organized by arcmtl and featuring countless zine-hakwers.
How Much: Free for guests. You can apply (before November 8th) to set up shop also, which costs $100 for both days or $50 for just one day.

26 NOVEMBER (TUES)

MCSWAY’S OPEN MIC
What: The Mcsway Poetry Collective’s open mic.
Where: Bar Milton-Parc.
When: 7pm.
Who: Whoever has the balls, with the feature poet being Alana Dunlop.
How Much: Free.

28 NOVEMBER (THURS)

LAUNCH: BOOK*HUG PRESS FALL 2024 NEW TRANSLATIONS
What: Celebrating the launch of the English translations of Natasha Kanapé Fontaine’s Nauetakuan (trans. Howard Scott), Hélène Dorion (trans. Jonathan Kaplansky), and Fanny Britt’s Sugaring Off (trans. Susan Ouriou), all originally in French. The translators of the first two, Scott and Kaplansky, will be there with the author of the third, Fanny Britt.
Where: Librairie Saint-Henri Books.
When: 3pm.
Who: The aforementioned Scott, Kaplansky, and Britt, organized by The Book Press Formerly Known As BookThug.
How Much: Free, but you can RSVP here.