Literary Oktoberfest 2024
Photo by Curtis John McRae
It was an unseasonably mild Wednesday evening in late October when writers, publishers, agents, and book-sellers from around the city gathered at Riverside St-Henri for Yolk Literary’s second annual installment of Literary Oktoberfest. Guests mingled over cocktail tables, drinks were served barside to ease any lingering diffidence, and warm ambient lighting set the scene aglow as eager local literary enthusiasts came together to celebrate Montreal’s flourishing literary scene.
The first thing I noticed as I entered the event space was a charged excitement in the air, and this only grew as more and more attendees piled in, exchanging the ticket stubs they received at the door for drinks and socialized amongst themselves. I had the pleasure of speaking with Yolk’s Editor-in-Chief, Curtis John McRae, to discuss the preparations for the evening and gain some insight into the journal’s motivations for hosting the celebration.
As Yolk’s Co-Founder, McRae reflects on the journal’s inception back in 2019. Born from a desire to bring writers together, he states Yolk’s founders “decided to start a literary journal basically as an excuse, at first, to host launches and events.” McRae shares: “Eventually, of course, the journals themselves became very important to our identity, and the vehicle through which we got to publish writers. But our sort of objectives and mission from the very jump (…) has been to bring people together, and to foster events, and that’s sort of caked in and baked into our (…) origins as a literary organization.”
The 2024 edition of Literary Oktoberfest was a clear testament to these efforts. It was a full house, with pre-sale tickets selling out and limited wiggle room to squeeze between guests. Tables lined the perimeter of the venue with various literary journals and publications setting up shop for representatives to share their work, discuss the ins and outs of working in the literary space in Montreal, and mingle with curious creatives. Participating organizations included Quebec Writers’ Federation, Concordia University Press, Headlight Anthology, Metatron Press, Soliloquies, and many more.
I was curious what the Yolk team had done differently from 2023’s inaugural edition of the event. “I think the big thing this year that’s different from last is the programming,” McRae considers. “Our primary focus was to gather (…), and to that effect we invited the publishers to each nominate a reader.” This, McRae goes on to explain, created a jam-packed itinerary for the night. “(…) We sort of forfeited control because we invited the publishers to invite the readers, whereas this year we wanted it to be more a curated program.”
This year’s programming featured three keynote speakers: Nour Abi-Nakhoul (Editor-in-Chief, Maisonneuve Magazine), Ashley Obscura (Founder & Managing Editor, Metatron Press), and Lori Schubert (Executive Director, Quebec Writers’ Federation). The evening concluded with readings by Montreal-based authors Liz Howard and Neil Smith. Each speech offered valuable insight into the world of writing and publishing, specifically through a lens unique to Montreal writers.
Photo by Curtis John McRae
Yolk Literary has, no doubt, played a vital role in the blossoming of Montreal’s literary community in recent years. Aside from Literary Oktoberfest, Yolk regularly hosts a slew of local events designed to bring writers across the city together, including monthly poetry pop-ups at Time Out Market, a monthly reading series titled “Two Readers and Music”, and monthly Writing Ateliers at Librairie Pulp Books & Café, to name a few. In regards to this surge in literary activity around Montreal, McRae says: “(…) Creating physical spaces for community is very important to us, and we’re one amongst many who are doing that in the city right now, and I think it shows. I think people are showing up for it, and there’s a thirst for it–which is why, as far as I’m concerned, we’re seeing a proliferation.”
And as for the future of Literary Oktoberfest? “The idea is to scale–we’d like to grow it,” McRae assures me. “The way that we would like to do that is to diversify the types of organizations in attendance–so bring in some agents, for instance–and to also broaden the scope of it. It might not be exclusively Montreal publishers and writers, but inviting some from Toronto, Halifax, maybe even across the border, bring in some New York City agents.” At its core, Literary Oktoberfest is designed to bring Montreal’s writers together, and McRae is confident that this will always be the case: “even if (…) we were to program organizations from different provinces and countries, I don’t think it loses its essence, in that it’s still beneficial to Montreal writers, because they’re the ones that are going to show up in attendance.”
As a closing remark, I asked McRae to try, in one sentence, to summarize what Yolk hopes to achieve in hosting Literary Oktoberfest–perhaps a cruel task to ask of a writer. After a moment of reflection, McRae thoughtfully concludes: “Montreal is already filled with multiple literary communities–plural–and I think it’s an important thing to have an event that bridges those multiple communities. We have a rich literary scene, and it’s slightly factioned, and I think bringing a lot of those organizers, players, publishers, and writers together is something of note.”
Visit Yolk Literary’s website to learn more about the journal, and follow their Instagram to hear about their ongoing events for writers in the city.
For more about Metatron and their work in Montreal’s literary scene, check out this feature on their 10th anniversary!