Two fairs bring personal touch back to shopping
Two weekend events aim to take the cold edge off modern shopping
In a time when powerful market forces conspire to make the buying of books an increasingly impersonal non-experience, a pair of annual events happening this weekend provide heartening arguments for the old ways.
They’re about as far from online shopping as you can get. Attendees may well leave laden with seasonal gift purchases (and perhaps something for themselves), but even those who don’t will have struck a small blow for interpersonal exchange.
The Holiday Pop-Up Book Fair, launched in 2015 by the Association of English-Language Publishers of Quebec (AELAQ), brings together writers, publishers, translators and readers in a convivial, interactive, family-friendly setting. A move this year from the original home in Atwater Library to Monument-National downtown has created some much-needed extra space, but the guiding spirit remains the same.
The lineup marshalled for this weekend’s edition can rival that of almost any literary festival. More than 100 authors across many genres are on the slate, with multiple QWF Award winners among them: Guillaume Morissette (New Tab, The Original Face), H. Nigel Thomas (No Safeguards), David Homel (The Speaking Cure). Science fiction is represented by, among others, Sylvain Neuvel (Waking Gods), children’s lit by Marie-Louise Gay (Short Stories for Little Monsters), crime fiction by Trevor Ferguson, a.k.a. John Farrow (Perish the Day), cartooning by the ever-popular Terry (Aislin) Mosher of the Montreal Gazette.
Other attractions are essayist Durga Chew-Bose (Too Much and Not the Mood); Chinese-born Montrealer Xue Yiwei, author of the Gazette-acclaimed story collection Shenzheners and the novel Dr. Bethune’s Children (and subject last week of a New York Times profile by Taras Grescoe); and Kathleen Winter, whose new novel Lost in September was shortlisted for the QWF and Governor General’s awards this year. She will be welcoming guests at a wine and cheese Saturday from 4 to 6 p.m.
“It’s a real coming together of community,” said past participant Winter. “I’ve discovered writing by new (to me) and established authors, lots of great offerings by local and national presses, and a friendly atmosphere. I’ll be saying a few words on Saturday, and I’ll enjoy mingling with authors and readers on both days to celebrate Quebec books, writers and readers.”
Expozine shares some exhibitors, and very likely some attendees, with the Holiday Pop-Up Book Fair, but places a greater emphasis on the alternative and the underground.
Now in its 16th year, this truly is a gathering of indie nation, with more than 250 participating publishers ranging from the more established independents to literal one-person, handmade operations. Graphic-lit culture, with its plethora of comix and zines, is especially well represented, as are poster artists.
“There is an equal enthusiasm among young authors and publishers on both anglophone and francophone sides at Expozine to start new publishing collectives,” organizer Louis Rastelli noted.
“It makes me think that the desire of millennials to put their phones down and work on making printed books is only growing. And this trend cuts across linguistic lines in Montreal — it is generational.”