Our small full-time staff oversees production of the Festival and runs the Blue Metropolis Foundation’s social and educational programs. They’re assisted by external collaborators, freelance programmers for both the Festival and the educational programs, advisory committees made up of volunteer professionals, the all-important volunteers who work during the Festival, and of course the Board of Directors.
The Festival stages 200 activities in several languages every edition and offers year-round educational programs dedicated to fostering academic perseverance, the love of reading, and social harmony.
BLUE METROPOLIS IN-HOUSE STAFF
WILLIAM ST-HILAIRE
President – Executive Director and Artistic Director
MARIE-ANDRÉE LAMONTAGNE
Director General, Programming and Communications
CÉLINE FERNANDES
Assistant Director, Programming and Communications, and Assistant to the
President-Executive Director and Artistic Director
FRÉDÉRICK GAUDIN-LAURIN
Assistant Director, Operations & Educational Programs
DAVID BRADFORD
Associate Coordinator, Programming and Communications
FLORENCE FONTAINE
Programming assistant
EXTERNAL COLLABORATORS AND SERVICES
MARIO ALLAIRE Production
LOUISE BÉLISLE Graphic Design and Artistic Direction
MYRIAM COMTOIS Media relations (French)
JANIS KIRSHNER Media relations (English)
DUMONT ST-PIERRE INC. Accounting
LINDA AMYOT Youth Programming
INGRID BEJERMAN Spanish and Portuguese-Language Programming
VOLUNTEER RESOURCES:
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
VACANT POSITION Chair of the Board of Directors
LOUISE-ANN MAZIAK Vice President, Member of the Board
CHRISTOPHE ROUBINET Treasurer, Assistant Director of Investments
– Business Development, Filaction
PIERRE-ANDRÉ THEMENS Secretary
Executive Vice Chair, Canadian Centre for Architecture
JOFFREY BIENVENUE CTO, Peerless Clothing Inc.
MAYA COUSINEAU-MOLLEN Community Development Advisor First Nations and Inuit, EVOQ
Architecture
PETER DANIEL Director, Ilian Consulting and Management INC
YOUSSEF J. FICHTALI Lawyer, Fasken
KATHERINE NIKIDIS, Head of School, Trafalgar School for Girls
CLÉMENTINE SALLÉE Partner, Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
ANNE WHITELAW Interim Provost and Vice-President, Academic and Professor, Art History,
Concordia University
FRENCH-LANGUAGE
ADVISORY PROGRAMMING COMMITTEE
RODNEY SAINT-ÉLOI Écrivain et éditeur, président de Mémoire d’Encrier
MARINE GURNADE Directrice de la Librairie Gallimard
STÉPHANIE LEMÉTAIS Union des écrivaines et des écrivains québécois
GAËTAN PELLAN Attaché culturel, Consulat général de France à Québec
GABRIELLE CAUCHY Éditions du Boréal
SIMONE SAUREN Flammarion Canada
TANIA MASSAULT Éditions Alto
ROBERT SCHWARTZWALD Professeur au Département d’études anglaises,
Université de Montréal, et Conseiller à la programmation LGBTQ
ENGLISH-LANGUAGE
ADVISORY PROGRAMMING COMMITTEE
JESSICA BARDILL Associate Professor, Department of English, Concordia University
JASON CAMLOT Professor, Department of English, Concordia University
SIMON DARDICK Co-publisher, Véhicule Press
CHRISTOPHER DIRADDO Writer, Producer
LISA GOLDMAN Co-founder and Contributing Editor, +972 Magazine
PETER MANDELOS Director, Paragraphe Books
GREGORY McCORMICK, Manager, Cultural and Special Events Programming, Toronto Public Library
ELISE MOSER Writer, Editor
GUY RODGERS Founder, ELAN
LORI SCHUBERT Executive Director, Quebec Writers’ Federation
SHANNON WEBB-CAMPBELL Poet, Writer, Critic
SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE-LANGUAGE
PROGRAMMING COMMITTEE
HUGH HAZELTON PhD, Modern Languages, Concordia University
VICTOR ARMONY PhD, Sociologie, Université du Québec à Montréal
VICTORIA TORRES PhD, Romanisches Seminar, Universität zu Köln
MARTHA BÁTIZ PhD, Creative Writing in Spanish, University of Toronto
LUZ MARÍA LEPE PhD, Estudios Amerindios y Educación Bilingüe, Universidad de Querétaro
GINNY STIKEMAN, Premio Azul
ALEJANDRO ESTIVILL Escritor, Cónsul General de México en Montreal
CELESTE AFONSO, Ronda Leiria Poetry Festival
SANDRA PULIDO URREA, Feria del libro de Bogotá
CRISTINA FUENTES LAROCHE, Hay Festival Americas
JAIME ABELLO BANFI, Centro Gabo, Cartagena de Indias
LAURA NIEMBRO, Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara
GABRIELA ADAMO, Fundación FILBA, Buenos Aires
CLAUDIA NEIRA BERMÚDEZ. Centroamérica Cuenta
JUAN CRUZ RUIZ, El País de Madrid
CECILIA SZPERLING, Nosotras Proponemos, INADI
JOSÉ-ANTONIO VILLALOBOS SARRIA, Colectivo Imagina
CYNTHIA RODRÍGUEZ, UpaUpa Español
CAROLINA ORLOFF, Charco Press
CARLOS BRACAMONTE, Revue Hispanophone
JUAN GAVASA, Lattin Maganize
GLORIA MACHER Writer, Translator
CYNTHIA RODRÍGUEZ UpaUpa