The Weight of Words: Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival
As the temperatures hesitantly begin to rise, the Montreal literary scene is flourishing. Starting April 24th, it’s time for the annual Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival! The event has been a space for forming connections across cultures since 1999, as one of many Blue Metropolis Foundation programs. According to their website, the not-for-profit prioritizes cultural and linguistic diversity, promoting reading among youths, international exposure, and social inclusion. Their programs aim to use reading and writing as tools, to improve emotional wellbeing, support academic goals, and to resist poverty and isolation. Blue Metropolis “is the city of the imagination, open to all, the city you want to live in”, according to their website.
As the largest multilingual literary event in North America, the festival runs from April 24th to 27th. The series of events will kick off Thursday, with an Opening Ceremony and Blue Met Talks taking place Friday afternoon. In-person events will mainly be held at Hotel 10, at 10 Sherbrooke St. West in Montreal. Last year’s “Dreams & Utopias” festival was a resounding success, and this year won’t be any different. The theme has been announced as “Time, the Tree, the Page.” This festival will be a space to question your relationship with time: how long does it take a tree to grow? Trees will be discussed and explored in connection with climate change, the act of witnessing, memory, the relationship between human and nature, and diversity. Festival Executive and Artistic Director William St.-Hilaire explains that “the idea of making the tree our guest of honour and then having it as a common thread between the authors, their novels or their pursuits, is inspiring.”
Starting on the 26th, you’ll have the opportunity to connect with over 160 guests, including authors and artists, in over 120 events. Esteemed guests will include Salman Rushdie, Peter Wohlleben, and Simon Sebag Montefiore. The festival consists of several types of events, such as panels, podcasts, readings, roundtables, and master classes. There will be a mixture of free and paid events, and more than eight languages will be featured throughout the festival. Canadian writer and broadcaster Eleanor Wachtel will be interviewing Salman Rushdie, Madeleine Thien, and Claire Messud as part of her prestigious interviews series. If you’re into humour (or philanthropy), this year’s Blue Metropolis Foundation fundraising event is called The Word for a Laugh, which will take place on April 24th. Their website describes it as “a night to laugh until it hurts.” Blue Metropolis awarded seven Literary Prize Winners this year, to both Canadian and foreign authors. Here’s the lineup of the 2025 Laureates:
Blue Metropolis International Literary Grand Prix: Salman Rushdie
Indian-British novelist Salman Rushdie, famous for Midnight’s Children and The Satanic Verses. He has received death threats since some Muslim leaders denounced the latter for blasphemy. When he was condemned to death by the Iranian government, Rushdie had to remain in seclusion for almost a decade. His latest book Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder ruminates on the aftermath of his stabbing at a literary event in 2022.
Blue Metropolis Planet Literature Prize: Peter Wohlleben
As a writer and forester, Peter Wohlleben writes nature's books for both adults and children, including The Secret Wisdom of Nature, Can You Hear the Trees Talking? and The Inner Life of Animals. The most recent project for the German author has been a graphic novel adaptation of his New York Times best seller, The Hidden Life of Trees.
Blue Metropolis Words to Change Prize: Simon Sebag Montefiore
British historian Simon Sebag Montefiore has published fifteen books, including both fiction and non-fiction texts. His work has included The Romanovs 1613-1918, Jerusalem: The Biography, and Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar. Montefiore’s 2022 book, The World: A Family History of Humanity, was named The Times History Book of the Year.
Blue Metropolis First Peoples Literary Prize International Edition: Stephen Graham Jones
New York Times best selling writer Stephen Graham Jones is known for horror novels, such as The Only Good Indians, My Heart Is a Chainsaw, and The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. The Blackfeet Indigenous author’s accolades include the Los Angeles Times Ray Bradbury Prize, four Bram Stoker awards, and three Shirley Jackson awards.
Blue Metropolis Violet Literary Prize: France Daigle
France Daigle is an Acadian writer who has written a dozen works since the 1980s, including nine novels and three plays. Beginning her career with Sans jamais parler du vent, she then wrote works such as Histoire de la maison qui brûle, La vraie vie, and Petit crayon pour faire mine. Her 2011 novel Pour sûr won a Governor General’s Literary Award. Daigle has also written as a columnist for L’Acadie nouvelle. She writes in French and uses Chiac in her dialogue.
Blue Metropolis Premio Metropolis Azul / Blue Metropolis Azul Prize: Cristina Rivera Garza
Cristina Rivera Garza is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, who won for her 2024 memoir Liliana’s Invincible Summer, which was originally published in Spanish. The Mexican author writes fiction and memoir, and is also a translator, as well as a critic. She is also known for Autobiographía del algodón and La cresta de Ilión (Also in English as The Iliac Crest).
Blue Metropolis Conseil des Arts de Montréal Prize: Stephie Mazunya
Stephie Mazunya is a Burundian-born Montreal actress and artist. S’enjailler is her first book, and it is a printed version of a play by the same name, centered around the story of Montrealers of African descent, exploring themes of racism, sexuality, the body, and feminism as the characters contend with these issues. Her writing draws on English, French slang, Haitian Creole, Quebec joual, Kirundi and Arabic.
The events with the laureats will include interviews, book signings and conversation-based formats, Along with these events, other esteemed guests include Eleanor Wachtel, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, and Anne Michaels. There will also be many other series of events taking place this weekend, including Queer Voices, Almemar, Women and Words, Literature and Indigenous Voices, Ecology and Literature, Peace and War, Romance, Fantasy and Other Imaginary, Azul, Bold and Creative and more. Another option is the Professional Day on Friday, where there will be several back-to-back events exploring the book industry, translation, and marketing, followed by a networking lunch. A full schedule can be found on their website.
This weekend, buy a ticket or stop by some of the free events! There will be plenty of local authors and poets wandering the halls of Hotel 10, and the opportunity to chat with them over coffee is a tempting motivation to attend. Book enthusiasts will exchange ideas and thoughts for the four days of the festival, with readers and writers alike exploring the theme thoroughly. Marie-Andrée Lamontagne, Director of Programming and Communications opines that “It is fascinating the way so many of us identify with trees.” Lamontagne further explains how “Ecology is a major human issue that has become inescapable,” and thus has become a significant part of the festival. What does “Time, the Tree, the Page” mean to you?
The Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival runs April 24 - 27, 2025, visit their website for more information.
