Open Air Bookfairs, Gay Archives, National Libraries & Michel Tremblay

Robert Reid Memoir

Literary Tourist in Montreal

I don't like identity politics. And I especially don't like it when it intrudes on literature. I don't care what colour or gender or sexual orientation or shape or size an author is, so long as his/her/their writing is good. That said, I think everybody should have the opportunity to tell their story, and that there should be plenty of places available for these stories to be told, read, discovered. Finally, while I think that readers and publishers should look all over the place for the best writing they can find, quality - a loaded term I realize - should be at the root of all decisions about what to read or who to publish - more so than content, or who or what the author is or isn't. If the content or story is about the gay or trans or African-American or 'disabled’ experience, and it's well told - namely that it impels me to keep reading and helps me to better understand that experience - I'm good.

With this in mind, I went to the LGBT Open Air Bookfair recently on St. Catherine Street in Montreal. What a happy time it was. I chatted with these folks at FIERTE, learned that there's a gay archive in Montreal

which is home to hundreds of photographs and posters and community newsletters that document the history and struggles of homosexuals in the city, and I saw these books, produced by a gay publishing house

The army was here.

Everyone seemed to be in a grand mood. Some were in really good shape,others struttedtheir stuff.

These guys really got dressed up for the occasion.But, despite being billed as a 'book fair,' there weren't, to be honest, that many books on display at the event. I wanted to see more. So, after a slow stroll up and down the booth-line boulevard, I decided, since it was only a block or two away, to drop in on the Bibliothèque Nationale du Quebec.

I asked one of the librarians to name me some of Quebec's best known authors and publishers. Michel Tremblay of course, and Dany Laferrière. I'd heard of them. Nicholas Dickner? No. But his novel Nikolski did ring a bell. It won the 2008 Governor General's Award for French-to-English translation, and the 2010 edition of Canada Reads. I'd seen the cover before quite often.

There was Roland Giguere, the poet/publisher of Erta Books. The librarian also named Boreal, L'homme and Lémeac as some of the better known Quebec book publishers. So plenty of potential Biblio File interview topics and candidates here in Montreal (in fact, I've already interviewed Michel Tremblay, so please stay tuned).

Not that I haven't already done some groundwork. Several years ago I interviewed Simon Dardick about his venerable Montreal-based English language Vehicule Press. You can listen here

and more recently, Ashley Obscura, co-founder of the nascent Metatron Press. She'd just moved into new office space when I met her.

Now that we're on the topic of Montreal and libraries, I should mention the McGill Rare Books Library where I've been spending some pleasant hours recently, reading Robert Reid's five volume memoir.

I always feel good after spending time with Robert, so full of life he is. Still printing in his nineties out in Vancouver. And yes, I interviewed him once too. Listen here

Another draw of the McGill Library is that each week several doors down the folks working on the annual McGill Book Fair, put out several boxes of old books that they figure aren't good enough to sell. You'd be surprised at what you can pick up here...for free.