Summer Literary Seminar returns to Montreal
Over two weeks this June, Concordia will host the Summer Literary Seminars (SLS), welcoming 40 established and lauded authors to lead workshops, participate in panel discussions, and read from their works.
This is the second consecutive year the international event will be happening at Concordia in its 12-year history.
Among this year’s participants will be Concordia English professors Jason Camlot, Jon Paul Fiorentino and Sina Queyras, as well as creative writing alumni Katia Grubisic and 2010 Scotiabank Giller Award winner Johanna Skibsrud.
The event will also feature renowned authors Kevin Canty, Mary Gaitskill, Tony Hoagland, Christian B?k, Francine Prose, Miguel Syjuco and many more.
“SLS is an entirely sui generis international literary and cultural program, both on the conceptual and practical planes of its existence,” says Concordia English professor and SLS Executive Program Director Mikhail Iossel, who founded the series in 1998 in his native Russia.
Over the last 12 years, editions of SLS have been held on three continents, including seminars in Russia, Lithuania and Kenya. This year, SLS will hold similar events in Vilnius, Lithuania (July 31 to August 13) and Lamu, Kenya (December 7 to 21).
“In addition to providing the most stellar level of writing-workshop instruction, SLS programs allow immersion into the literary and cultural milieu of the locale,” says Iossel, “enabling people to see this strange, foreign place ‘from within,’ as it were, and through the eyes of their peers from the local literary, artistic and academic communities.”
More than 1,000 fledgling writers have passed through the SLS programs, many of whom have gone on to become published authors of high acclaim.
When: June 12 to 25
Where:
- Workshops at Concordia’s Department of English, 6th floor, J.W. McConnell Library Building (LB; 1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W.)
- Seminars in the J.A. DeSève Cinema (Room LB-125)
- Various cultural excursions throughout Montreal
Registration for the workshops is closed, but literature fans can attend events and readings.
Cost: $100 for a Festival Pass (which grants entry to all panels, readings and events, but not workshops), available at the SLS website www.sumlitsem.org; $5 for panels, $10 for readings, available at the venue, cash only, no reservations.
Find out more about the SLS program:
Related links:
• Full SLS program and further details
• Concordia Department of English
• “Literary Immersions” - Concordia University Magazine, Spring 2011
• “Summer School for Aspiring Writers” - The Gazette, May 7, 2011
• SLS on Facebook
• SLS on Twitter #slsmtl
• SLS 2010 on Flickr