Montreal Review of Books summer 2023 launch

The Montreal Review of Books launches its Summer 2023 issue Wednesday, July 5th, at Wills Bar (6729 Esplanade Ave). Join us for readings by Valérie Bah with translator Kama La Mackerel (The Rage Letters, Metonomy), Maxime Aurélien et Ted Rutland (Out To Defend Ourselves, Fernwood), and John Reibetanz (New Songs for Orpheus, McGill-Queen’s University Press).

Doors open at 6:00 p.m., with readings beginning at 7:00 pm. The authors will be available to sign books after the readings. Admission is free; please RSVP on the Facebook event.

For those unable to attend in person, readings will be live-streamed on our YouTube page.

We thank you for your continued support of the mRb, and look forward to seeing you there!

Valérie Bah est une cinéaste et écrivaine basée à Tiohtià:ke dont le travail explore des thèmes de traumatisme intergénérationnel et de guérison, ainsi que les actes de survie tant ordinaires que radicaux. Empreints de réalisme magique, les récits de Val s’inspirent de la pensée féministe noire et de l’expérience vécue.

Kama La Mackerel est un·e éducataire, artiste, performaire, écrivain·e et traductaire dont la pratique existe à l’intersection de l’anglais, du français et du kreol morisien. Iel est l’autaire du recueil de poésie de Kama La Mackerel est disponible à Maurice par l’intermédiaire de (Metonymy Press) and have translated works by Canadian writers Vivek Shraya and Kai Cheng Thom. They have lectured, performed and exhibited their work internationally.

Maxime Aurélien is the former leader of les Bélangers, Montreal’s first Haitian street gang. He is the owner of Cash Content, a pawn shop and barbershop in Montreal’s east end.

Ted Rutland is a professor at Concordia University. His research and activism focuses on the racial politics of urban planning and policing in Canadian cities. He is the author of Displacing Blackness: Planning, Power, and Race in Twentieth-Century Halifax.

John Reibetanz is an award-winning poet, fellow of Victoria College, and senior fellow at Massey College, Toronto. He has published fourteen full collections and two chapbooks, been shortlisted for the national ReLit Poetry Award, and won First Prize in the international Petra Kenney Poetry Competition.

Les versions originales en français de The Rage Letters (Les enragé.es, Éditions du remue-ménage, 2021) et Out to Defend Ourselves (Il fallait se défendre, Mémoire d’encrier, 2023) seront également à vendre sur place!