A Writer's Guide to Montreal

The Grande Bibliothèque is Quebec's national library building, and anyone can consult its collections on site at no cost. Borrowing takes a membership, which is free. Le Square, inside, has 3D printing and tools for electronics and multimedia work.

This Mile End branch of the Montréal public library network, formerly the Bibliothèque du Mile End, is named for Mordecai Richler. It opens daily and stays open into the evening on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Atwater is a membership library with a computer centre and a basement bookshop run by volunteers. The Reading Room, the Adair Auditorium and the computer rooms can be rented. It closes on Sundays.

The Reading Room is open to the public by appointment. Email rarebooks.library@mcgill.ca and request materials at least three days ahead. Laptops and pencils are allowed, and staff can approve personal photography for research. The room is chilly, so bring a sweater.

Researchers book an appointment with the CCA's collection through a consultation request form. Allow at least 48 hours for books and periodicals. Primary sources such as drawings and photographs need at least two weeks.

La Librairie D&Q is the Mile End storefront of Drawn & Quarterly, the comics publisher founded in Mile End in 1989. It opens every day.

Argo has been in Shaughnessy Village since 1966 and calls itself Montreal's oldest independent English-language bookstore. The shop is small. Staff will order what you want, and book clubs and write-ins meet here.

Saint-Henri Books sells new English-language books, and POC, queer and Indigenous authors share the shelves with Montreal writers. Local zines and stationery fill out the shop.

Maktaba is a concept bookshop in a heritage building in the Old Port; the name means both library and bookshop in Arabic. One section is called Everything is Political, and the shop sells vinyl and Arabic CDs and tapes as well. Watch its calendar for launches and screenings.

Le Port de tête sells new and used books from two storefronts on Mont-Royal Est. Number 262 holds literature and poetry. Philosophy and the social sciences are across the street at 269.

L'Euguélionne is a feminist and queer bookstore that ties its work to decolonial and solidarity struggles. It closes Sundays and Mondays.

Joie de Livres is a bilingual bookstore that doubles as a coffee shop and cocktail bar. It specializes in romance, fantasy, horror and science fiction. Book clubs meet on Tuesdays.

Encore has been buying and selling books and records since 2004. In the basement, a print and design studio makes fine-art reproductions of vintage posters and maps.

Four small rooms each hold one or two people at a table with an outlet. Members book them free through Mon dossier, by phone or at a service counter, up to seven days ahead and three hours a week. Larger rooms with whiteboards seat up to 12.

QWF members write in silence here, in 25-minute bursts with five-minute breaks, and nobody workshops anything. Sessions are free. They meet online every other Saturday and at the QWF office on the Fridays between, with registration opening four weeks ahead.

Crew is a café and coworking space in the heritage building that once housed the Royal Bank of Canada, and it is open to all. Day passes and 24/7 memberships suit longer stays. Brunch is served daily.

Library members can book the branch's teamwork room by calling 514-872-2141 or asking in person. At set times each week it opens to everyone as a reading room. Wi-Fi is free.

Aube is the museum's café, in the Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion. It closes Mondays and stays open Wednesday evenings.

Café Cherrier opened in 1983 near Carré Saint-Louis, and in its early years writers, artists and actors met here. Yves Beauchemin's novel La Serveuse du Café Cherrier takes its title from the place. Work by Miyuki Tanobe and Claude Théberge hangs in the room, and brunch is served on weekends.

Casa del Popolo has been a music venue, bar and restaurant since 2000, home to independent and experimental shows. The kitchen opens every evening. Its sister venues, La Sala Rossa and La Sotterenea, are across the street at 4848 St-Laurent.

L'Express has been a French brasserie since 1980. Theatre people conceived it, with sets by Luc Laporte, as a room that welcomes guests at any hour. It stays open late every night.

The QWF supports people writing in English in Quebec with workshops and mentorships, and it hosts a writer in residence. It publishes the online literary journal carte blanche. Its Literary Database lists more than 2,000 books by Quebec writers, and it keeps a Hire-a-Writer Directory.

Blue Metropolis, a not-for-profit founded in 1997, runs a multilingual literary festival in Montreal each spring, with more than 200 activities in over ten languages. Book-industry professionals have their own Professional Space. Blue Met also awards literary prizes.

The Atwater Poetry Project runs its reading series here. Authors and historians give talks in the Lunchtime Series, in person and on Zoom, and the Atwater Writers Exhibition offers creative writing workshops. A book club meets too.

AELAQ works to advance the publication and promotion of English-language books from Quebec, and it runs the Read Quebec Book Fair. Its Montreal Review of Books covers Quebec literature three times a year. The site has tips for writers.

LTAC brings together literary translators across Canada from its office in Montreal. It keeps a translator directory and a toolbox with a model contract and guidance on rates. With the QWF and UNEQ it runs the National Literary Translation Mentorships, and it awards the John Glassco Prize for a translator's first book-length translation.

At CISSC, Concordia's scholars, artists and students build projects that cross disciplines. Twelve working groups are active. The centre hosts postdoctoral fellows and visiting scholars and artists, and it is home to the Humanities PhD, which includes research-creation.

FRQSC is the Society and Culture sector of Quebec's public research funder. Its scholarships and grants support research in the social and human sciences and in arts and letters. New professor-researchers and research-creation projects get their own support.

McGill-Queen's, incorporated in 1969 and owned jointly by McGill and Queen's universities, publishes across the humanities and social sciences. Its lists include Quebec history, Jewish studies, and Scottish history and literature. The press has a second office in Kingston, Ontario.

Véhicule publishes poetry, fiction, essays and translations. It also has a vintage noir line, and its nonfiction covers subjects from history to music.

Drawn & Quarterly publishes comics and graphic books by North American and international cartoonists. To browse the list in person, visit its bookstore, La Librairie D&Q, at 176 Bernard Ouest in Mile End.

The official journal of the Academy of International Business studies how governments shape international business to address societal problems, and which policies they should adopt. Editor-in-chief Ari Van Assche is at HEC Montréal. Preparing an article for Journal of International Business Policy

The QWF Literary Awards include the A. M. Klein Prize for Poetry and the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. A debut book can compete for the Concordia University First Book Prize.

Emerging writers spend four months with a professional mentor on a work in progress, then give a public reading. The Mairuth Sarsfield Mentorship is for a writer who is Indigenous, Black or a person of colour.

Quebec's arts council funds the creation of new works by artists and writers, and Literature and storytelling is an eligible discipline. Applications are accepted at any time.

This Explore and Create component funds the early stages of creative work. Canadian writers can apply for creative research or project development, residencies included.

The city has given this prize since 1965 for a newly published literary work in French or English. Novels, poetry, comics and hybrid forms all qualify. The finalists' books are acquired for the city's libraries.

This page collects McGill research awards and fellowships, along with the Writing Centre's thesis-writing programs.

This page covers Concordia research funding, the Writing Centre and the rules for submitting a thesis.

Researchers from outside Montreal, graduate students among them, can apply for grants to work in McGill's rare books collections. The McGill-ASECS Fellowship supports a month in Montreal on Frances Burney and her circle.

Atelier Circulaire is an artists' centre for printmaking. Its printing services include risograph and screen printing, and its studios cover intaglio, lithography and typography. Courses run in groups or one on one.

L'Imprimerie is an artist-run centre for print and photographic work, with self-serve studios and a digital printing service. It also has a publishing program and offers custom residencies.