UK – Ireland – Nordic Countries UKSeptember – Ireland – NordicDecember Countries 2018 53RD EDITION Covering and distributed in the UK, Ireland & Nordic Countries SEP – DEC 2018 01 Bonjour, Welcome to the autumn edition of Québec Culture! Notes on a literary visit Following an amazing array of Québec artists at the Edinburgh Festivals during August, this cultural season promises to be particularly rich and varied, offering Susie Nicklin is CEO of the MILD Group and Director of something for all tastes across all artistic sectors. Festival America in London (see overleaf for further details). Moments to look out for include a fantastic Québec She visited Montréal in April 2018 to participate in the presence at Festival America, a digital showcase at the Metropolis Bleu literature festival and to discover more about Watermans Centre, the UK première of Le Patin Libre’s the city’s rich literary scene. We asked her to share some latest creation at Dance Umbrella and a Québec theatre reflections on her trip… showcase at the Finnish National Theatre. “I landed in Montréal in a thunderstorm, bewildered by sleet and cold, after a golden few days on the West coast. A group The summer months have seen a flurry of cultural of Scandinavians was enjoying a wild party a few doors away activity for Québec on both sides of the Atlantic, © Sarah Hickson from mine. Jetlagged and suffering from FOMO, I ordered showcasing our brilliant talent in both Edinburgh desultory room service and frowned. and Stockholm, and the launch of a new cultural policy back home. In June, the Québec government launched its second ever cultural policy, entitled Partout, la culture (Culture, Next day, newly-resolute, I strode out to discover the glories of Montréal and fell in love everywhere). The policy, which is supported by an historic additional budget of 600.9 M$, with a city between breakfast and supper. Humming with brains from its 250,000-strong is accompanied by a five-year action plan setting out 41 concrete measures that will student population, crammed with chic independent shops and cafés, the city unfurled ensure the presence and vitality of Québec culture everywhere, both across Québec’s itself to me thanks to advice of the helpful staff of the Union des écrivaines et des regions and on the international stage. This is a government-wide policy involving not écrivains québécois who insisted I took the bus rather than a taxi to Mile End. I browsed only the Ministry for Culture, but an additional 16 ministries. The funds involved will the Drawn and Quarterly bookshops nestled among boutiques and bars, and bought directly benefit artists, as well as organisations, institutions and businesses, all of whom the searing Heart Berries by Marie Therèse Mailhot. I saw posters for their forthcoming ensure the continued development of Québec’s cultural ecosystem. event with Michael Ondaatje (whom we later hosted as part of the Balham Literary Festival) in conversation with Heather O’Neill (invited to our Festival America) so I knew In other important news, QC-UK Connections, our biannual call for cultural cooperation I was in the best company. projects between Québec and the UK in 2019 and 2020, is open for applications until 30 At the Metropolis Bleu festival I spoke onstage with (and fangirled) festival curator September 2018. This amazing scheme has, over the last 16 years, supported over 60 heroes and publishers including Linda Leith, listened to Jo Nesbo in the ravishing Place cultural projects. In fact, of the seven projects supported by the scheme in 2017 and 2018, des Arts, was radicalised by Zebedee Nungak (author of Wrestling with Colonialism three appear in the pages of this brochure: SPECTRUM on page 8, Lightwaves on page 17, on Steroids) and heard, for the first time, live throat singing from Jeannie Calvin and and the collaboration between Milieux and Together! 2012 CIC on page 20. We hope many Hannah Tooktoo. of you will submit an application. For more information, please go to page 21. When my plane home was delayed by ten hours, I was tempted to stay on indefinitely. As always, Maude and her team would love to hear more about any projects you may Wonderful food from Northern India and China, bilingual conversation, bristling with have in development with Québec. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch. history, home to French ex-pats, a diverse and buoyant publishing industry – what’s not to like? I’ll be back.” Bonne lecture! Susie Nicklin – CEO, the MILD Group John A. Coleman – Agent-General, Québec Government Office in London Metropolis Bleu in Montréal. Photo courtesy of Cultural Contacts Maude Laflamme Marie Morin Andrew Bailey Director for Culture Cultural Attaché Cultural Attaché Project Manager [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] , Le Patin Libre at Dance Umbrella, Alexandra Palace Ice Rink, 18-21 October (see p.15). Photo © Romain Guilbaul Whilst every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of the information in This brochure should not be reproduced in full or in part without the +44(0)20 7766 5930 | www.quebec.org.uk | www.facebook.com/QuebecUK | www.twitter.com/Quebec_UK this brochure you are advised to contact the host organisations for confirmation. consent of the Québec Government Office. Threshold Cover: LITERATURE LITERATURE 02 SEP – DEC 2018 03 Québec @ Festival America Québec @ Festival America 24 – 27 September London, UK Heather O’Neill This September, a number of exciting Québec writers come to the UK as part of Festival 26 September America. This is the first London satellite of the much-lauded festival of the same name, Canada House founded in Vincennes, France in 2002, which this year has a special focus on Canada. Montréal author Heather O’Neill has written for This American Life and the New York Times. Dany Lafferière Her latest novel The Lonely Hearts Hotel was published in 2017 and longlisted for the Baileys women’s prize for fiction. 24 September Institut Français At Festival America, O’Neill appears alongside Guy Vanderhaeghe and Michael Redhill. They will discuss and read from their work, and talk about Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Dany Laferrière fled how they see the role of the writer in the global the dictatorship in 1976 to settle in Québec, where Julia C. Vona © ecology of books. he started to write. He has so far published 30 books which have been translated into more than 15 languages, and was appointed to the Académie française in December 2013. Christian Guay-Poliquin Dany Laferrière’s appearance at Festival America will be a celebration of French Caribbean culture, 26 September 27 September and an exceptional opportunity to hear him talk Canada House Québec Government Office about his writing and more specifically his 2009 novel The Enigma of the Return. The talk will be Christian Guay-Poliquin’s second novel The Weight of Snow has won several awards in Canada, © Camille Robitaille Agency followed by a book signing and a music session. and is currently being translated in ten different countries. His third, Running on Fumes, electrified the Québécois literary community with its lyrical blend of mythology, contemporary issues and road movie. Andrée Michaud On 26 September, Guay-Poliquin shares the stage with Emma Hooper, Nancy Lee and Lennie Goodings for a discussion of ‘Myths, moods and melodies’. On 27 September he takes part in a © Julien Bois discussion with Cherie Dimaline and Guillaume Morissette (next page). 25 September Marlborough House Andrée Michaud is a two-time winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, among many other literary prizes. Her latest book The Last Summer is an elegiac tribute to teenage beauty. Andrée Michaud appears alongside Canadian Métis Cherie Dimaline and British-Canadian Nancy Lee for an exploration of the dystopian and dark themes of their work in this event hosted by Leslie Hurtig, director of the Vancouver Writers Fest. © Marianne Deschênes Festival America in Vincennes. Photo courtesy of Festival America Festival America in Vincennes. LITERATURE LITERATURE 04 SEP – DEC 2018 05 Québec @ Festival America Louise Penny 23 September Guillaume Morissette Bloody Scotland Albert Halls 27 September Stirling, UK Québec Government Office Number One New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny lives in Guillaume Morissette is the author of The Original Face, the story of a a small village south of Montréal. Her ingenious new novel Kingdom © Virginie Gosselin © Virginie struggling digital artist facing up to the anxieties of the internet age. of the Blind, the 14th in her Québec-set series of Inspector Gamache Mysteries, is due to be published in November. In London, Guillaume joins Canadian Métis author Cherie Dimaline and fellow Québécois writer Christian Guay-Poliquin for a discussion on language as the basis of culture. Louise will share a stage with British crime writer Ann Cleeves at the Bloody Scotland crime writing festival. With 36 novels between them, a room full of awards and twin armies of devoted fans, they are two Eric Plamondon of crime fiction’s most charming and successful authors. The event is chaired by Alex Gray and sponsored by The Times and Sunday Times Crime Club. 27 September Canada House Photo © Jean-Francois Berube, cover courtesy of Little, Brown www.bloodyscotland.com | www.louisepenny.com Born in Québec, Eric Plamondon currently lives in Bordeaux. His latest Photo courtesy of Festival America novel Taqawan is highly praised by booksellers and the press. Isabelle Arsenault Eric Plamondon joins Jennie Melamed and Omar El Akkad for a discussion on genre-crossing literary fiction. 25 – 28 September www.festivalamerica.co.uk Stockholm & Gothenburg, Sweden Isabelle Arsenault is an internationally renowned children’s book illustrator.