Three Events you Must See at Blue Met 2013!

In our annual survey each year, we ask our Festival-goers how many events they saw. The  majority see around three. So which three should be at the top of your list this year? (Note: this is HARD for me, they all feel like my children so, yes, I'm choosing my favorites!):

Grand Prize Event: an onstage interview with Eleanor Wachtel and 2013 Grand Literary Prize Winner, Colm Toibin. Thursday, April 25 at 6:30 p.m. at the Grande Bibliotheque (475 boulevard Maisonneuve East). $15 Tickets here.

A Tribute to Phyllis Lambert, readings from her new book, Building Seagram, and with Deni Y. Bechard as host, Eleanor Wachtel, Alan Shepard, Annemarie Adams, Linda Leith, Dimitri Roussopoulos, Cameron Charlebois and more! Sunday, April 28 at 5:00 p.m. at Hotel 10 (10 Sherbrooke St. West). $10 Tickets here.

Baseball and Beer: sit around a big table, beers in hand, and talk about baseball and literature with Molly O'Neill, The Gazette's Richard Burnett, Dave McGimpsey, and Chad Harbach (who will be there via Skype). A beer's included in the price! Saturday, April 27 at 3:00 p.m. at Hotel 10 (10 Sherbrooke Street West). $20 Tickets here.

None of these include sold out events (which are many, this year our pre-sales have been phenomenal) though it's likely all of these events above will sell out so it won't hurt to be safe and get your ticket early.

To download the entire PDF programme, click here.

Mothers Who Leave....Nancy Richler at Blue Met 2013

Nancy Richler's book, The Imposter Bride, got some great buzz going when it was nominated for the Giller Prize back in the fall. In all honesty, I had the book sitting on my bookshelf for months and didn't pick it up until well after her nomination and I have to say that I enjoyed it. I passed it around to some friends who all read it and raved about it. It's been a long time since a book by a Montreal was so well-received by boots-on-the-ground Montreal readers.

Here is a brief article I wrote on the book back in the fall.

Nancy Richler has two events at the Festival: one is a staged reading of her book produced by the Montreal Review of Books. This event is on Saturday, April 27 at 9pm. It'll be a great opportunity to meet Nancy and see a scene from her book performed by actors. $10

The other event is an event that is likely going to sell out. It's on Saturday afternoon at 1pm  and is called Mothers Who Leave, a round table with Shelley Pomerance (the host), Colm Toibin, Nancy, and Arnon Grunberg. $10

Blue Met Grand Prize: our short list

So every year our Grand Prize announcement is one of our biggest "ooh and aaah" moments. I remember clearly the murmur that went through the packed room last year at our Press Conference when we announced Joyce Carol Oates as our 2012 winner. And what a winner she was: her event at the Grande Bibliotheque was amazing (and sold out!).

In anticipation of our announcement next week, we release our short-list. It wasn't easy but this year our jury came back with three short-listed winners (we had a longer list that the short list was pulled from). They are:

Orhan Pamuk: Nobel Prize-winner (the first time we've short-listed a former Nobel Prize-winner though we have awarded the prize to someone who later won the Nobel Prize!), author of The Black Book, Snow and many other works, Pamuk, who hails from Turkey but lives in Istanbul and New York, is one of the best-known writers working today.


Colm Tóibín: Irish writer whose best-known works include The Master, Brooklyn and The Testament of Mary, his books are moving, haunting and full of a fierce intelligence and understanding of human nature. Personally he's been one of my favorite writers my entire adult life.



Rohinton Mistry: one of Canada's best-loved sons, Mistry has been nominated and/or won just about every major prize there is. His works shine with his finely crafted prose that he seems to work so diligently at since he doesn't publish every year like many writers do. The publication of a new Mistry work is celebrated and anticipated throughout the world. A Fine Balance is one of those works I can return to every few years and revel again in the world he creates.

One of these writers, it will be announced next week, has one our 2013 Grand Prize. The prize, awarded every year since the year 2000, has featured some of the world's best-loved writers: from Mavis Gallant (2002) to Carlos Fuentes (2005) to Norman Mailer (2001) to Joyce Carol Oates (2012), Margaret Atwood (2007) and Paul Auster (2004), the prize quite literally is one of the highlights of the spring season in Montreal...

Tune in to find out who wins for 2013: we announce our winner next week at our official launch and press  conference: Tuesday, March 26 at 10:00 a.m. at l'Espace Fontaine in Park Lafontaine.