Ecology and Literature

Staunchly literary and socially engaged for nearly 25 years now, the Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival, under the banner of “Literature and Sustainable Development,” brings together a wide variety of initiatives, editorial contents and projects that address, with literature’s help, subjects with strong links to ecology, sustainable development and, more generally, our relationships with the living world.

Sustainable development starts with the principle that the current development model, predicated as it is on economic growth, has shown its limits, and that we must rethink society’s organisational modes for the long-term while ensuring the renewal of resources.

Literature itself is built to last. It’s no stranger to any subject touching human beings. Mobilizing the themes of sustainable development, science, and literature is therefore likely to lay the groundwork to connect scientific disciplines, literary genres, aesthetic sensibilities, and even convictions, perspectives that complement or oppose each other, and debates most nourishing to the mind and sometimes most likely to move the goalposts. Writers, artists, philosophers, historians, researchers, scientists—their words, their work, their interrogations take the stage at Blue Metropolis. Here’s how.

WORKING FICTIONS

Working Fictions is a new bilingual podcast series produced by Blue Metropolis in collaboration with À voix haute / Reading Aloud that brings big challenges of the moment to bear in original short stories by leading literary voices.

This first time around, Working Fictions tackles the stakes of sustainability, social justice, and age with stories written and performed by emerging and established Canadian voices.

YOUNG ECOLOGIST CLUB

Blue Metropolis offers three original stories for young readers and listeners performed by each author in podcast form. Mireille Messier, author of Nutcracker Night (Pajama Press Inc.), Sylvain Rivard, author of Le Mocassin / The Moccasin / Ma’g’sn (Hannenorak), and Andrew Katz, author of I Just Want to Be Super! (Chouette Publishing, Inc.), joined the fun this time around.

These texts aim to sensitize children, from the youngest age, to ecological causes. In so doing, Blue Metropolis is working to contribute to developing an ecological conscience among kids and to educating future generations.

WRITING FOR THE OUTDOORS

Initiated in spring 2020 in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Blue Metropolis’ Writing for the Outdoors online platform will take us right through to the next edition of the Festival, in spring 2022, when we will present a series of outdoors literary events so as to take advantage of Greater Montreal’s beautiful parks and natural settings. This will also be a way to enjoy the city’s culinary creativity as well as the riches and cultural vitality of its many neighbourhoods.

THE MARITIME SERIES

The Saint-Lawrence occupies a central place in our geography, our economy and our imaginaries. This is especially true for those who live along its shores. But do we really know it? Since 2018, the TD-Blue Metropolis Children’s Festival has offered a series of youth workshops at the libraries of riverside communities on Montreal’s South Shore. Sometimes facilitated by storytellers and sometimes by children’s authors or poets, these workshops aim to sensitize children to the Saint-Lawrence’s universe in particular and Quebec’s ecological landscape in general.

(In French) 

THE LITERARY BACKROADS TO SPIRITS OF THE TERROIR

Craving discovery and espace? Take up Blue Metropolis’s invitation and let Louise Portal and Sylvain Massé’s voices transport you to the backroad treasures of the terroir. This podcasts series offers inspired and inspiring texts by authors local to these regions, texts which make one long to take off on an adventure in the Saguenay, the Eastern Townships, Centre-du-Québec, Côte-Nord and/or Montreal to discover the unique aromas, colours and tastes created by our homegrown artisan distillers.

(In French) 

FRUITS & VEGETABLES QUIZ

Fruits and vegetables have been a central part of the human diet for centuries. Their importance is such that numerous children’s authors propose engaging and appetizing picture books, not to mention dozens of cookbooks, on these foods. To test your knowledge of oranges, peas and nature’s various other delights, here’s a quiz game for the whole family.

(Only available in French)

WATER, RIVER, SEA QUIZ

Do you and your kids really know this river? What about the oceans? Know a thing or two about maritime trades? About types of boats? Do you know what lives in the river’s waters? Put your knowledge to the test with a little literary and educational quiz. You’ll be amazed at the discoveries that await you!

(Only available in French)