Magnificent Octopus

Montreal's Blue Metropolis Literary Festival is on, and a few events have caught my attention. Earlier this week I attended a lecture...

I've played with personas, I've tried to compartmentalize my various selves, but it's too hard. It's contrary to my experi...

Wolf Haas is the author of a series of comic crime novels featuring private investigator Simon Brenner, a former cop. Three of them are now...

I'm reading Heather O'Neill's Lullabies for Little Criminals , in anticipation of seeing the author next week. I'm only half...

The launch of the festival program is like Christmas for me. I look forward to it every year. Then I sit with my various coloured pens, mark...

It's been nigh on a month that I hosted a breakfast salon at the 15th Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival, in whic...

I had the pleasure of seeing Gianrico Carofiglio in interview yesterday evening, as part of the 15th Blue Metropolis Montreal International...

The 15th Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival runs April 22–28. The full program is now available on the festival webs...

True to form, I've been meaning to see a particular art exhibit for weeks, but I've been putting it off or forgetting, until now, ju...

Joyce Carol Oates was awarded this year's Blue Metropolis International Literary Grand Prix. I read one of her novels for the first ti...

Circumstances conspired against it. The damp cold on its own might've kept me home with a book and a blanket, but Earth Day manifestatio...

This afternoon at the Blue Metropolis Literary Festival, a dozen or so people (of which I was one) sat in on a discussion panel with author...

Esi Edugyan is the author of Half Blood Blues . Her second novel, it won the 2011 Giller Prize and was a finalist for several other awards...

I'd planned to see Colombian writer Juan Gabriel Vásquez this evening at the Blue Metropolis Literary Festival , but the event has been ...

This evening I attended Blue Metropolis Literary Festival event Crime Writing: Hot Art and Montreal . Joshua Knelman, author of Hot Art: C...

Come discuss Simenon over lunch . Sunday, April 22, 2012, at noon Koko Restuarant, OPUS Hotel 10 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal Em...

"You do mean it, Katya? You're not just saying this humor me?" Humor? Katya wasn't sure what this meant. Unless Mr. Kidd...

If you're in Montreal next weekend, join me in discussing the work of Simenon over lunch, part of the 2012 Blue Metropolis Montreal Inte...

The Blue Metropolis Literary Foundation this morning held a press conference to announce its line-up for the 2012 Blue Metropolis Montreal I...

Some three weeks ago (more! what day is this, anyway?) I headed out to the 12th Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival to attend a ...