Blue Metropolis

Blue Metropolis, the Montreal International Literary Festival, known as Blue Met, is the world’s first multilingual literary festival and is held annually in Montreal since April 1999. Blue Metropolis Foundation, which organizes the Festival and year-round literary and educational events, was founded in 1997. In 2008, the 10th Blue Met brought together 350 writers, literary translators, musicians, actors, journalists and publishers from all around the world for nearly 200 different events in French and in English, with some events taking place entirely in Spanish, Italian, Arabic, Persian, Russian and Chinese.

The Festival awards the Blue Metropolis International Literary Grand Prize annually at Opening Night of the Festival. Past winners include Marie-Claire Blais (2000), Norman Mailer (2001), Mavis Gallant (2002), Maryse Conde (2003), Paul Auster (2004), Carlos Fuentes (2005), Michel Tremblay (2006), Margaret Atwood (2007), and Daniel Pennac (2008).

Simultaneous translation is not normally provided. Instead, the Festival publicizes the language of their events, advertises them in the communities concerned, and thus draws the public that speaks the languages of its events. The Festival is viewed as a model of inclusion of immigrant and minority communities; its public is often bilingual and sometimes trilingual or multilingual.

In 2008, the Festival added the Blue Metropolis Children's Festival, which put children's and YA writers in touch with the 12-and-unders at events taking place in 30 different locations all over Montreal.

External links

*http://www.bluemetropolis.org
* http://media.mcgill.ca/
* http://www.the-emirates.com/docs/New_Literary_award_named_after_a_UAE_poet/25047.htm
* http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2006/07/26/literary-graffiti.html
* http://www.thesuburban.com/content.jsp?sid=98311962896548956952562754519&ctid=1000324&cnid=1013299
* http://quebecbooks.qwf.org/authors/view/8
* http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v5/content/subscribe?user_URL=http://www.theglobeandmail.com%2Fservlet%2Fstory%2FRTGAM.20070301.wxnote01-1%2FBNStory%2FEntertainment%2Fhome&ord=66980298&brand=theglobeandmail&force_login=true