Words for Understanding One Another
The Blue Metropolis Literary Festival Returns to Montreal
Calling lovers of books, publishing, and all things writing—the 2026 Blue Metropolis Literary Festival is well under way and is the perfect way to spend a warm Spring weekend in Montreal. Themed around “Words for Understanding One Another” and featuring over 150 authors and 110 events in nine languages, the twenty-eighth edition of the festival is happening this weekend, from April 23rd to April 26th, primarily at Hotel 10.
Montreal writer Linda Leith founded Blue Metropolis in 1997 as “a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing people from different cultures together to share the pleasures of reading and writing”, as their mission shares. One year prior, Leith, Ann Charney, and Mary Soderstrom—all members of the Writers Union of Canada—organized an event called “Write pour écrire” with the Union des écrivaines et des écrivains québécois (UNEQ). Write pour écrire became the Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival, whose name “was partially inspired by the philosophical essay “On Being Blue”, in which the American writer Wiliam H. Gass investigates the many different and contradictory connotations of the word ‘blue’. Blue Metropolis is the city of the imagination, open to all, the city you want to live in”, according to the Foundation’s website.
As the press release for this year’s festival boldly asks, “[in] such a noisy world—a world marked by wars, conflicts and divisions, dominated by speed, dizzied by overconsumption, assaulted by petty rumors circulating on social media, submerged in the constant flow of fact and falsehood—how can we come to understand each other?” Blue Metropolis is dedicated to offering international authors the opportunity to take a stab at answering the question, and Montreal residents are lucky enough to be at the heart of the setting for this discussion. Among the many writers worldwide attending the events lineup are several local authors who are active participants in the city’s literary community, such as Mikhail Iossel, Gabrielle Drolet, Andreas Kessaris, Curtis McRae, Tara McGowan-Ross, and Arizona and Heather O’Neill. The Quebec Writers’ Federation describes Blue Metropolis as “structured around several strong themes that bear testimony to a keen social awareness and to a passion for literature in all its richness”, and what better location to host this richness than Montreal?
Of this year’s “Words for Understanding One Another” festival, Blue Metropolis’ General Director of Programming, Marie-Andrée Lamontagne, says: “At a moment when all eyes are turned towards the courageous and pugnacious people of Iran and Ukraine, it becomes more necessary than ever to hear the first-hand accounts from Iranian essayist Azar Nafisi and the Ukrainian poet Lyuba Yakimchuk, both of whom will be present at the Festival.” Nafisi will feature in the event “The Power of Literature: Blue Metropolis Words to Change Prize to Azar Nafisi and Montreal Premiere of the Movie Reading Lolita in Tehran”, where she will be awarded The Blue Metropolis Words to Change Prize for her body of work; the ceremony will be held on Saturday, April 25th. The following day, Mattea Roach, host of CBC Bookends, will interview Nafisi live in a conversation recorded for the radio show at the “The Power of Great Books: Author Azar Nafisi in Conversation with CBC Bookends Host Mattea Roach” event. Yakimchuk will be featured in “From Kyiv, The Ukrainian Poet Lyuba Yakimchuk and the Apricots of Donbas” on Saturday, April 25th, where she will perform poems influenced by Russia’s attacks on Ukraine. She will later be in conversation with Haitian novelist Henry Kénol for “The Faces of War” and Ukrainian-Canadian novelist Maria Reva for “Ukrainian Voices: A Conversation Between Lyuba Yakimchuk and Maria Reva”.
This twenty-eighth edition of the event will feature events in English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Ukrainian, Japanese, Yiddish, and Cree, including multilingual events. From talks, panels, and interviews to workshops, readings, and award ceremonies, the weekend offers a litany of opportunities for everyone and anyone interested in the world of writing. The full events lineup can be found here. No matter your literary aspirations—whether you’re a student of literature, an emerging poet, looking to get your editorial foot in the stubborn door of the publishing world, writing the next great Canadian novel, a Booktokker, or plainly an avid reader—the festival organically creates a space in which all are welcome to meet, network, connect, and learn from one another.
For our readers in the mood for a shopping spree, the Festival Pass (which is valid all weekend) is only fifty dollars, and comes with a twenty-five-dollar voucher for the on-site bookstore, Paragraphe. If you swing by the Paragraphe stand at the right time, you might catch yours truly slinging books and reveling in a weekend dedicated entirely to the written word—what more could a girl ask for?
