Monkey Bars in Banlieue!

Just arrived in Montreal for the Banlieue! exhibition opening tomorrow in Laval at the Maison des arts. The show is curated by Montreal poet and organizer of many things artful and literary Catherine Cormier. The theme of the exhibition is suburbia, and Catherine asked me to be one of two anglophone writers to write a piece on that subject. I wrote a multi-part tale of Bathurst Manor, the Toronto suburb where I grew up. The piece is called "Monkey Bars."

I am a bit terrified of this opening tomorrow because I don't speak French. On the other hand, it's very exciting that my text will appear in full in the exhibition catalogue, and a portion, translated into French by Catherine, will be on the wall in the gallery. There are a ton of artists involved in this show, and I'm excited to see all the different approaches to the subject that will be on display.

I like this link I have to Montreal, and especially to the francophone community. Winning that award in 2013 from l'Académie de la vie littéraire au tournant du 21ème siècle, which led to my co-translation, with Michelle Winters, of Marie-Ève Comtois' second poetry collection, with the English title My Planet of Kites. And now this. I mean, it's tenuous, but it's something anyway. Meanwhile, I am working on my French.

Here's the programme for the day's events.

Over and out.