The Walrus Talks: more tickets made available!

Great news! The SOLD OUT Walrus Talks event has released ten more tickets to Blue Met, but you have to move quickly! The Walrus Talks this year features Alix Ohlin, Al Rae, Lisa Moore, George Elliot Clarke, Zoe Whittall, Josip Novakovich and Shelah ROgers. The them is State of Mind and the event as at McCord Museum on Sherbrooke Street at 2pm on Saturday, May 3. Get your tickets now and secure your spot! Click here to be directed to the buy now page at La Vitrine.

Newfoundland writer, Lisa Moore, at The Walrus Talks!

Marquez, Matthiessen, Macleod. And The Walrus Talks at Blue Met 2014

It's been a sad couple of literary weeks with the passing of Marquez and Alistair MacLeod. In all honesty, I wasn't terribly familiar with MacLeod's work though I've read much of Marquez's work. Neither had written anything new in years so I suppose their passings represented slow declines.

But the death of Peter Matthiessen was one that bummed me out. I only discovered him in earnest a few months ago, actually, when I read Nine-headed Dragon River. I was so fascinated with that book that I went out and found Snow Leopard. Both of these books made a deep impression on me both for the writing but also for the voice of Matthiessen, how his protagonists (though one was a journal, so it was really him) were "men of their time" at the same time looking at issues of universal significance. So they were both of their times but also in other ways timeless. I heard that he had a new work coming out and it seemed his new book came out at the same time they were announcing his death. I was in Vermont over the weekend and did see it in several shop windows, though I didn't get a copy for some reason (I am in book overload mode and can't bear to buy any more books until after the Festival is over, I supposed). But it's at the top of my summer reading list. Though he was in his late 80s, I love that Matthiessen was still working and did much of his best work well past his 50s and 60s.

At any rate, back to Festival promotion...

With one week left before the Festival starts, we have about 10 days before The Walrus Talks event. Last

year this event sold out before the Festival began and this year the tickets are going fast. But there are still 20-25 left. It's a great concept: novelists, poets, thinkers, journalists and (this year) even a comedian all come together and talk on a topic. This year the topic is States of Mind and the event features Alix Ohlin (Giller short-listed for her novel Inside), Lisa Moore, Madeleine Thien (Dogs at the Perimeter, one of my favorite novels of recent years), Al Rae, Shelagh Rogers, George Elliot Clarke, Zoe Whittall, and Josip Novakovich (short-listed Booker International nominee). This will be a fascinating afternoon with ideas we can take away and ponder. Several times over the last year, various people have said something about last year's Walrus Talk, something someone said, an idea brought up (the theme was Building Bridges which is an issue constantly on Montrealers' minds).  The Walrus Talks event is on Saturday, May 3 at 2pm at McCord Museum. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased here.

Jonathan Goldstein, Vincent Lam and other big names headline The Walrus Talks at Blue Met

This year, for the first time, Blue Met and The Walrus have joined forces to bring you one of their ever-popular Walrus Talks. This year the discussion centres around the theme of "Building Bridges" and will consist of several short (5-7 minutes each) talks by various writers and intellectuals with national and international reputation. This year, the talk will feature:

Jonathan Goldstein

Jonathan Goldstein: broadcaster, journalist, writer, contributor to This American Life, Goldstein's last event at Blue Met was standing room only.

Cameron Charlebois: Vice-President of Canada Lands and a trained architect, Charlebois will present his ideas of Building Bridges in a very real-world way given his role and also since bridges and Montreal are two subjects inextricably linked, particularly the last couple of years with talk of rebuilding the Champlain.

Alison Pick: writer of the really fantastic novel, Far to Go, Pick is a writer who I've been watching for a few years.

Vincent Lam: Giller Prize-winner and author of The Headmaster's Wager, Lam is a medical
doctor with a unique point of view given his background. And it's paid off: his books have been both critical and financial successes.

Pasha Malla

Saleema Nawaz: one of this year's "It" girls for the buzz surrounding her latest book (and first novel), Bone and Bread. Nawaz will, in fact, launch her book in Montreal tonight, Thursday, March 28, at Drawn & Quarterly Bookstore in Mile End, starting at 7p.m.

Pasha Malla: author of the collection of stories, The Withdrawal Method, Malla's new book, People Park, was short-listed for the Amazon.ca First Novel Award.

Will Straw: head of McGill University's Canada Institute, Straw is a good friend to Blue Met and has done several events with and for us in the previous years (including last year's much talked event, Montreal's Most Notorious Crimes and Criminals.

Saleema Nawaz

Henry Mintzberg: head of McGill University's business school, Mintzberg is an international expert on strategic planning.

Rachel Giese: writer and Senior Editor at The Walrus.

The event will be held Saturday, April 27 at 2pm at the McCord Museum. Seats are very limited and there is no doubt in my mind that this event is going to sell out very quickly so don't say I didn't warn you if you can't get tickets for waiting too long! Buy them now while we still have some left. More information at the Blue Met website.

This event is in association with The Walrus, Blue Met, McGill University, Canada Lands, Enbridge and the Segal Centre.

Come check out some of the most interesting, innovative and exciting voices in contemporary Canada...