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Sunday, 4 June 2017
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| Photo: Carrie Cheek |
Each month, Librairie Drawn & Quarterly invites a local author or artist to curate a shelf in the store. This June, we bring you recommendations from Durga Chew-Bose!
Durga Chew-Bose’s writing frequently appears on websites such as Hazlitt, The Hairpin, BuzzFeed, Grantland and Papermag. She has contributed articles to The Guardian and The Globe and Mail, and to the magazines GQ, Interview, n+1 and Adult. Born in Montreal, Chew-Bose now lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Zadie Smith - Changing My Mind
Smith kicks off this collection of non-fiction by stating, "This book was written without my knowledge." It's as if the collection is a piling up, all at once intentional and unintentional. The book's subtitle, "occasional essays," captures how there's something random and intermittent about the topics which range from witty asides about Oscar weekend, to impassioned audits of literature and novel writing, to beautiful essays about family and identity and personhood.
Robert Bresson - Notes on the Cinematograph
Pocket-sized, Bresson's memos on craft and technique read like poetry, philosophy, or if I'm feeling especially precious, fortunes. It's a log of Bresson's approach to filmmaking, like a near-monastic instruction manual that deeply influenced Too Much and Not the Mood. "Don't show all the sides of things," he writes. "A margin of indefiniteness." There are also plenty of vague, elegiac nuggets like, "Debussy himself used to play with the piano's lid down." Reading Notes feels holy. One one page he'll jump from statements like, "Neither beautify nor uglify. Do not denature" to "Your film is beginning when your secret wishes pass into your models." One of my favorites and something I try and remind myself of whenever I get caught up trying to crystalize an idea: "Prefer what intuition whispers in your ear to what you have done and redone ten times in your head."
Virginia Woolf - The Waves
The Waves is strange, lovely, lyrical. Totally experimental. Immersive. Woolf called it her "play-poem." Six lives intertwined, told unconventionally. The first time I read it, I found the experience very taxing but ultimately, it moved me to want to make something. Some parts feel like a catalog of life's little pleasures. Most of the time though, it reads like Woolf longing for stillness or stillness as the only way to capture longing. You'll be tempted to underline the whole book.
Marguerite Duras - The Lover
There is so much to love about The Lover but one passage in particular sort of cracked open the world for me, cracked open writing for me: "Sometimes, I realize that if writing isn't all things, all contraries confounded, a quest for vanity and void, it's nothing." I'm so drawn to Duras' attitude, to her capacity for nostalgia's hold on us. She writes about memory as though memory is...women.
Anne Carson - Glass, Irony, and God
One of my favorite sentiments expressed perfectly by Carson in these four lines:
You remember too much/
my mother said to me recently/
Why hold onto all that? And I said, Where can I put it down?
Adrian Tomine - Killing and Dying
This book is gorgeous. I wish it was longer. Tomine is a master of creating worlds that feel familiar but only in an emotional déjà vu type of way. He's so good at spooky recognition. If you've ever loved someone who is grumpy-gentle or sad-happy-mostly-sad, this book will resonate with you. My favorites in this graphic short story collection are "Translated, from the Japanese" and "Amber Sweet."
Jamaica Kincaid - Talk Stories
There's never been and will never be anyone else like Jamaica Kincaid. This collection from her work in the New Yorker's The Talk of the Town section is all voice, attitude. It's deliberate and cheeky, and matter-of-fact brilliant.
Frank O'Hara - The Collected Works of Frank O'Hara
Frank O'Hara forever. If you're in love or missing an old love, or if you're seeking meaning, or if you're hoping to counteract the day's crazy, or if New York is on your mind, or you'd like to quickly conjure New York -- its sounds, its lovely strangers, the Frick -- but especially if you're feeling prone to the world, to its big and to its small, then you'll want to crack open O'Hara's poetry. He strings together what might seem unlikely and poof! you'll feel like oof! His work feels like having at your disposal, everyday wisdom from your most open-hearted pal. Like this poem, "Today":
Oh! Kangaroos, sequins, chocolate sodas!
You really are beautiful! Pearls,
harmonicas, jujubes, aspirins! All
the stuff they've always talked about
still makes a poem a surprise!
These things are with us every day
even on beacheads and biers. They
do have meaning. They're as strong as rocks.
Charles Dickens - Great Expectations
A classic. Some days I feel like Pip. Other days: Estella. Even or maybe most often, weirdly like Miss Havisham.
Hilton Als - White Girls
The book's opening piece, "Tristes Tropiques," is a work of art that I return to often.
Rivka Galchen - Little Labors
Rivka Galchen's plainspoken prose about babies and mothers is so much more than a book about new motherhood. Inspired by Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book, Little Labors is Galchen's everyday appraisal--part diary, part prosaic olio--of how her life has been altered, "re-enchanted" she notes, since having "the puma." Galchen positions the baby as a mystery, as myth, as "nothing," as a series of interruptions, as a meaning-benefactor, as something to inspire tangents, as something that has made her world suddenly "ludicrously, suspiciously, adverbially sodden with meaning." Some anecdotes end before they even start while others propose theories about, for instance, why the color orange is so popular, on baby things, baby clothes, baby toys and furniture. Speaking of orange: the cover! It's so beautiful, simple, bright.
Leanne Shapton - Was She Pretty?
Shapton's gem-like exploration of jealousy makes for a deeply uneasy albeit addictive book that feels like having a mirror held up to you for brief, near-paranoid bouts of panic. Maybe that isn't the best way to recommend this book. I, personally, find reading about jealousy extremely invigorating. Tip: flip it open to whatever page while listening to Michael Jackson's "Who Is It." The two pair very well.
James Baldwin - The Devil Finds Work
This book length essay is one of my favorite, most influential pieces of film criticism. Here's a sampling, from Baldwin's consideration of The Exorcist: "For, I have seen the devil, by day and by night, and have seen him in you and in me: in the eyes of the cop and the sheriff and the deputy, the landlord, the housewife, the football player: in the eyes of some junkies, the yes of some preachers, the eyes of the some governors, presidents, wardens, in the eyes of some orphans, and in the eyes of my father, and in my mirror. It is that moment when no other human being is real for you, nor are you real for yourself. This devil has no need for dogma -- though he can use them all -- nor does he need any historical justification, history being so largely his invention. He does not levitate beds, or fool around with little girls: we do."
Join us for the launch of not one, but two new books of poetry from McClelland & Stewart on Sunday, June 4th at 7:00 pm! Phoebe Wang will be launching Admission Requirements, and Suzannah Showler will be launching Thing Is. The event will feature readings by the authors along with local poets Tess Liem and Tara McGowan-Ross.
PHOEBE WANG is a poet and educator based in Toronto. Her debut collection of poetry, Admission Requirements, appeared with McClelland and Stewart in Spring 2017. She is the author of two chapbooks and her work has appeared in Arc Poetry, The Globe and Mail, Maisonneuve, Ricepaper Magazine, and THIS Magazine. She has been twice been a finalist for the CBC Poetry Prize and won the 2015 Prism International Poetry contest. She currently works at Seneca and this spring was a co-coordinator for 'Fuel for Fire', a professional development event for writers of colour in partnership with the Ontario Arts Council.
SUZANNAH SHOWLER is the author of the poetry collections Thing Is (McClelland & Stewart, 2017) and Failure to Thrive (ECW, 2014). Her writing has appeared places like Slate, Buzzfeed, The Walrus, and Hazlitt. Most Dramatic Ever, a book of cultural criticism about The Bachelor, is forthcoming Spring 2018. A 2017-2018 Presidential Fellow at The Ohio State University, she is currently looking for a place to live in Canada.
TESS LIEM reads, writes, eats and sleeps in Montreal. Her writings appear in The Malahat Review, The Puritan, Room Magazine and elsewhere. Anstruther Press published her first chapbook, Tell everybody I say hi, in February 2017.
TARA McGOWAN-ROSS is an urban aboriginal multidisciplinary artist. She has studied acting, philosophy, and creative writing, and is a collective member at Spectra, a queer arts and literature journal. Her debut book of poetry, Girth, was released by Insomniac Press in 2017. She is mostly made of earth.
Saturday, 3 June 2017
Join Conundrum Press for an evening of comics from around the world!
Rina Mapa takes us to the Philippines with her new graphic memoir Duran Duran, Imelda Marcos, and Me. James Cadelli takes us through an apartment building in Hope, BC launching his debut graphic novel Getting Out of Hope. And "national treasure" David Collier goes coast to coast as only he can in his graphic memoir Morton: A Cross-Country Rail Journey.
The evening will feature maps! new wave! 1980s nostalgia! polar bears! pianos! and of course trains, planes, and RV campers! and hosting it all will be local artist and aerialist Meags Fitzgerald!
*Accessibility information:
-The bathroom is gender neutral
-The space is unfortunately not wheelchair accessible (details: two steps at the main door, we would be happy to help you lift a wheelchair and make space in the corridor)
- It is not a sober space, our events sometimes offer alcohol.
Feel free to contact us about any concerns you may have!
Friday, 2 June 2017
Join beloved Montreal-based children's author Elise Gravel as she hosts a special interactive Make Your Own Sketchbook workshop at the store on Sunday, June 11th at 10 AM! Elise will be sharing her tricks of the trade in celebration of her brand new D+Q book, If Found... Please Return to Elise Gravel, which models her real life sketchbook. During this workshop, Elise will teach children how to put their creative impulses and imagination to play!
ELISE GRAVEL is an author illustrator from Montreal, Quebec. After studying Graphic Design, Gravel pursued a career writing and illustrating children’s books, where her quirky and charming characters quickly won the hearts of children and adults worldwide. In 2012, Gravel received the Governor General’s Literary Award for her book The Great Antonio, about the famous Montreal strongman with a heart of gold. A prolific artist, she currently has over thirty children’s books to her name which have been translated into a dozen languages, including I Want a Monster! and The Disgusting Critters series. Elise Gravel still lives in Montreal with her spouse, two daughters, cats, and a few spiders.
Thursday, 1 June 2017
Mercredi, 28 juin à 19h
211 Bernard Ouest
The Reading Across Borders book club focuses on literature in English translation, with a particular interest in writers who are not (yet) well-known in the English-speaking world. Hosted by store staffer Helen Chau Bradley, the book club meetings will happen every two months, and are open to all.
For our next meeting, on Wednesday, June 28th, we will meet at Librairie Drawn & Quarterly (211 Bernard ouest) at 7 pm to discuss Qiu Miaojin's Notes of a Crocodile, translated from the Chinese by Bonnie Huie. Join us for ruminations and refreshments!
**We offer a 15% discount on Notes of a Crocodile from now until the meeting date.**
Notes of a Crocodile, newly translated by Bonnie Huie, is a coming-of-agestory set in post-martial-law era Taipei. Like Last Words from Montmartre, the other brilliant novel Qiu Miaojin created in her short life, Notes of a Crocodile is a postmodern assemblage of vignettes, diary entries, satire, and cultural references, filled with queer yearning, heartache, and jolts of joy. It flouts norms around sexuality and gender, and delves deep into self-inquiry and the ensuing process of liberation.
Qiu Miaojin was a young Taiwanese writer who became a cult literary figure in the 1990s, due to her passionate, elevated writing and her staunch portrayals of queerness, and of depression and suicide.
Sunday, 28 May 2017
Join renowned author and illustrator Isabelle Arsenault for the launch of her latest children’s book: Colette’s Lost Pet! Stop by the librairie on Sunday, May 28th from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm for a fun kid’s activity and refreshments for both kids and adults.
Isabelle Arsenault is a Quebec illustrator whose passion for illustrated books has garnered her an impressive number of awards. She has achieved international recognition and has won Canada’s prestigious Governor General’s Literary Award for Children’s Literature three times. Two of her picture books have been named New York Times Best Illustrated Children’sBooks of the Year. She lives with her family in Mile End, Montreal.
Friday, 26 May 2017
It's going to be one hell of a weekend folks! All books published by Drawn & Quarterly will be 25% off in the store until Monday, May 29th (see above)!
We've also got the amazingly talented Jillian Tamaki launching Boundless TONIGHT, in store at 7pm! RSVP here and see our preview here.
We'll be at the Montreal Comic Arts Festival (FBDM) all weekend, as well, with a whole host of authors signing, including: Jillian Tamaki, Pascal Girard, Brigitte Findakly, Joe Ollmann, Lewis Trondheim, and Obom!
Thursday, 25 May 2017
So excited - to say the least - about Jillian Tamaki's new book, Boundless, which we will launch in store on May 26th at 7pm!
I read Tamaki's new collection of short stories in one sitting, captivated by her altered universes infused with a fair dose of melancholy and weirdness.
Time, money, a bedbugs infestation or a strange mirror Facebook; these are some of the subjects explored in Boundless.
Tamaki's art and prose are a masterful fusion, which gives place to odd poetic moments:
"And I'm going to be respected
and so important,
the type of person
who eats yogurt and nuts."
Wednesday, 24 May 2017
BookThug and Librairie Drawn & Quarterly invite you to celebrate the launch of the English translation of Bertrand Laverdure's novel, Readopolis (Lectodome in French), translated by Oana Avasilichioaei, on Monday June 5th at 7:00 pm! Hosted by Daniel Canty, the event is free and all are welcome. Wine will be served.
About Readopolis:
It’s 2006 and down-and-out protagonist Ghislain works as a reader for a publishing house in Montreal. He’s bored with all the wannabe writers who are determined to leave a trace of their passage on earth with their feeble attempts at literary arts. Obsessed by literature and its future (or lack thereof), he reads everything he can in order to translate reality into the literary delirium that is Readopolis—a world imagined out of Chicago and Montreal, with few inhabitants, a convenience store, a parrot, and all kinds of dialogues running amok: cinematic, epistolary, theatrical, and Socratic.
“Brilliant, playful, perfectly convincing, Lectodôme has everything to place Laverdure in the ranks of the ‘sickest literary greats.’” —Le Devoir
Bertrand Laverdure is a poet, novelist, and the current Poet Laureate for Montreal (2015–17). A prolific writer, Laverdure is the author of three books of poetry and four novels, including Lectodôme (2008), Bureau universel des copyrights (2011; published in English by BookThug as Universal Bureau of Copyrights in 2014), and La chambre Neptune (2016). He has won many awards for his work, including the 2003 Grand Prix du Festival International de Poésie de Trois-Rivières, and the 2009 Grand Prix littéraire Archambault for Lectodôme.
Each month we host a Graphic Novel Book Club meeting, open to all, during which we hang out and informally discuss a featured graphic novel. Our pick for this June is Rolling Blackouts by Sarah Glidden! We will meet at Librairie Drawn & Quarterly (211 Bernard Ave. West) on Wednesday, June 14 at 7 p.m. The discussion will be hosted by store staffer Kate Lewis. Join us for refreshments and collective insights!
***We offer a 20% discount on Rolling Blackouts from now until the meeting date!
In 2010, Sarah Glidden traveled to the Middle East - Turkey, Iraq, and Syria - with two journalists and one childhood friend, an ex-marine. Rolling Blackouts is a stunning record of this trip, the places and people they meet there, and a powerful inquiry into what journalism is. The narrative draws you in with its insight and warmth in Glidden's distinctive, gorgeous watercolors.
Saturday, 20 May 2017
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly is hiring!Job Description - Bookseller We are looking for a ~30 hour/week Bookseller to help with the daily operations of our bilingual comics / contemporary literature / art / children’s literature bookstore, Librairie Drawn & Quarterly, located at 211 Bernard Street West. Ideal candidates should have retail experience as well as a strong understanding of the international comics and literary publishing industry, ranging from New York Review of Books, Alto, and New Directions to Pow Pow and Koyama Press with an emphasis on the Canadian independent landscape and our local authors and cartoonists. Candidates will be knowledgeable of books and cartoonists published by Drawn & Quarterly as well as D+Q’s place in both contemporary comics, literature and retailing. Booksellers must love to read both graphic novels and contemporary literature. The ideal candidate has experience working in bookstores and is completely bilingual in French and English. There is a possibility of advancement to a full-time position and management. Responsibilities:
- Reading! Every newly published Drawn & Quarterly graphic novel, classics and bestsellers. Must be an avid reader of both books and book culture.
- Delighting customers, handselling, and building repeat business. Must feel comfortable discussing books in public and open to differences of opinion and civil discourse.
- Contributing to a continuous and active Social Media profile for the store including facebook, instagram, twitter
- Being friendly and outgoing. People skills and customer service are a must. Need to be able to act as a host during book launches and speak in public on stage to introduce invited authors.
- Maintaining positive relationships with other members of the sales team and working as part of a team.
- Engaging with local cartoonists and members of the writing community.
- Assisting customers when they have questions, concerns or complaints.
- Being available to work in-store, off site events and industry events such as rep meetings and library conferences.
- Using our POS system: run restock & sales reports, replenish floor stock, receive and shelve incoming books, return old stock, and flag any issues to management
- Liaise with the D+Q publishing headquarters as needed.
Requirements
- Must love to read.
- Have a belief in and understands the realities of independent retailing and publishing.
- Proven experience at excellent customer service
- Outstanding communication and interpersonal abilities. Flexible and open to different opinions. Willingness to learn new things.Must be able to take direction as well as able to work independently.
- Excellent organization and leadership skills.
- Must be able to work most weekends and some evenings, as well as Dec 15-Jan 5, and during Salon du Livre (2017 = 15-20 November)
- Knowledge of comics/book industry
- Must be computer literate in Microsoft word programs (excel) and Google Docs and able to learn new programs with ease and efficiency.
- Flair for creative merchandising and windows displays.
- Must be able to lift 70 lbs.
- Bilingual: EN/FR Comfortable reading, writing and speaking in both languages.
Assets
- Knowledge of Bookmanager
- Asana, WhenIWork, Google Drive and apps
- Driver’s Licence
- Lives in close proximity to the store
This position would require you to work between 25 and 35 hours per week.
If you are interested in applying, please email rebecca@drawnandquarterly.com with your resume, cover letter and a list of books you love as soon as possible. Please include the below in the subject line: DQ Bookseller Application
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La librairie Drawn & Quarterly embauche!Description du poste - Libraire
Nous recherchons une personne pour pourvoir un poste de libraire permanent, sur la base d’environ 30 heures par semaine, à la Librairie Drawn & Quarterly, située au 211, rue Bernard Ouest. Notre librairie propose des livres en français et en anglais, et est spécialisée dans la bande dessinée, la littérature contemporaine, l’art et les livres pour enfant. La personne idéale devrait avoir de l’expérience dans la vente au détail ainsi qu’une solide connaissance du secteur de l’édition littéraire et de la bande dessinée internationale, allant de la New York Review of Books, Alto et New Directions à Pow Pow et Koyama Press, en mettant l’accent sur le paysage indépendant du Canada et nos auteurs et dessinateurs locaux. Elle connaîtra les livres et les dessinateurs publiés par Drawn & Quarterly et la place que s’est taillée D+Q dans la bande dessinée et la littérature contemporaine ainsi que la vente au détail. Elle doit aimer lire à la fois les romans graphiques et la littérature contemporaine. Le candidat idéal a de l’expérience de travail en librairie et possède une excellente maîtrise du français et de l’anglais. Il existe une possibilité d’avancement à un poste à plein temps ou de gestion. Responsabilités :
- Lire ! Tous les romans graphiques, classiques et best-sellers nouvellement publiés chez Drawn & Quarterly.
- Le candidat doit présenter un intérêt marqué pour la lecture et le livre.
- Faire le bonheur des clients, leur offrir un service personnalisé de façon à en faire des clients fidèles. Être à l’aise pour discuter de livres en public et être ouvert aux différences d’opinion et de discours civil.
- Contribuer à la présence continue et active de la librairie sur les plates-formes de réseaux sociaux, notamment Facebook, Instagram et Twitter.
- Être amical et sociable. Les capacités relationnelles et l'excellence en service à la clientèle sont un impératif.
- Être capable d’animer les lancements de livres et de parler en public pour présenter les auteurs invités.
- Maintenir de bonnes relations avec d’autres membres de l’équipe de vente et travailler en équipe.
- Travailler avec des dessinateurs locaux et des membres de la communauté littéraire.
- Aider les clients lorsqu’ils ont des questions, des préoccupations ou des plaintes.
- Être disponible pour travailler en magasin et hors site lors de la tenue d’évènements à l’extérieur ou dans l’industrie comme les réunions de représentants et les conférences de libraires.
- Utiliser notre système de points de vente : exécuter des rapports de réacheminement et de vente, reconstituer le stock de plancher, recevoir les nouveautés et les mettre en place, faire les retours et signaler tout problème à la gestion.
- Assurer la liaison avec le siège de D+Q au besoin.
Exigences
- Le candidat idéal aime lire.
- Excellente compréhension des réalités de la vente au détail et de la publication indépendante.
- Excellence démontrée en service à la clientèle.
- Excellente capacité de communication et capacités interpersonnelles. Flexible et ouvert aux différentes opinions.
- Volonté d’apprendre de nouvelles choses.
- Autonomie, aptitude à travailler de façon autonome.
- Excellente organisation et compétences de leadership.
- Disponible la plupart des week-ends et quelques soirées, ainsi que du 15 décembre au 5 janvier et pendant le Salon du Livre (2017 = 15-20 novembre).
- Excellentes connaissances de la bande dessinée et de l’industrie du livre.
- Bonne connaissance des logiciels Word, Excel et Google Docs, capable d’apprendre à utiliser de nouveaux programmes avec facilité et efficacité.
- Flair pour la mise en marché créative et les affichages de Windows.
- Doit pouvoir soulever 70 lb.
- Bilingue : excellente maîtrise du français et de l’anglais, tant à l’oral qu’à l’écrit.
Atouts
- Connaissance de Bookmanager, Asana, WhenIWork, Google Drive et les applications
- Permis de conduire
- Habite à proximité du magasin
Ce poste vous obligerait à travailler entre 25 et 35 heures par semaine. Si vous souhaitez présenter votre candidature, veuillez envoyer un courriel à rebecca@drawnandquarterly.com le plus tôt possible avec votre CV, votre lettre de motivation et une liste de livres que vous aimez. Veuillez inclure «DQ Poste de Libraire» dans la ligne d’objet.
Thursday, 18 May 2017
Join us on Thursday, May 18th at 7:00 pm for a poetry reading with the wonderful Alex Dimitrov coming from New York, and Robin Richardson, coming from Toronto, to perform at D+Q alongside Montrealers Alex Manley and Lauren Turner.
Alex Dimitrov’s new collection, Together and by Ourselves, has been described as “truth-telling, raw, fierce with feeling,” which also kind of seems like a good description of all four poets we’ll have on stage.
LINEUP:
~ALEX DIMITROV~ is the author of Together and by Ourselves (Copper Canyon Press, 2017) and Begging for It (Four Way Books, 2013). He is the recipient of the Stanley Kunitz Prize from the American Poetry Review and a Pushcart Prize. Shout-out to his beautiful Twitter project with Dorothea Lasky, @poetastrologers.
~ROBIN RICHARDSON~ is the author of two full-length collections of poetry and the Editor-in-Chief of the Minola Review, a journal of women’s arts & letters. Her forthcoming poetry collection, Sit How You Want, will be published next year by Véhicule Press.
~ALEX MANLEY~ is the author of We Are All Just Plants and Animals (Metatron, 2016). He is left-handed and has lived in Montreal his entire life.
~LAUREN TURNER~ is a Montreal-based poet and a recent graduate of Concordia's MA program in Creative Writing. Her work has previously appeared in Geist, Arc Magazine and many other publications.
Hosted by GUILLAUME MORISSETTE & JESSICA BEBENEK.
Wednesday, 17 May 2017
jeudi, 15 juin à 19h
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly
211 Bernard O, Montréal
FREE
Join us on Thursday, June 15 at 7:00 pm for the launch of Durga Chew-Bose's brilliant collection of essays: Too Much and Not the Mood. Flinging us headlong into her most intimate philosophical, and occasionally brooding, thoughts, Too Much is a lyrical and piercingly insightful collection of essays that blend essay-meets-prose poetry, with a distinct take on identity and culture.
*Chew-Bose will be in conversation with Haley Mlotek
Durga Chew-Bose’s writing frequently appears on websites such as Hazlitt, The Hairpin, BuzzFeed, Grantland and Papermag. She has contributed articles to The Guardian and The Globe and Mail, and to the magazines GQ, Interview, n+1 and Adult. Born in Montreal, Chew-Bose now lives in Brooklyn, New York
Haley Mlotek is a writer and editor based in New York. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, T Magazine, The National Post, The Globe & Mail, The Guardian, Little Brother, Hazlitt, The Walrus, The L.A. Review of Books, The Pitchfork Review, Canadian Art, The New Inquiry, n+1, and The Awl, amongst others.
Just in time for spring, we're excited to announce a brand new edition of James Sturm's cult classic is hitting the shelves!! The Golem's Mighty Swing is a graphic novel about a Jewish baseball team in the 1920's, and a graceful exploration of the American Dream. Sturm's iconic work of literature deals with complex and intersecting identities, and addresses a much harsher reality of sports history than one might anticipated. Originally published in 2001, the book has played a huge role in the way we understand graphic novels today!
Each month we host a Graphic Novel Book Club meeting, open to all, during which we hang out and informally discuss a featured graphic novel. Our pick for this April is The Interview by Manuele Fior. We will meet at Librairie Drawn & Quarterly (211 Bernard Avenue West) on Wednesday, May 17th at 7 p.m. The discussion will be hosted by Librairie Drawn & Quarterly staff member Saelan Twerdy. Join us for refreshments and collective insights!
***We are offering a 20% discount on The Interview from now until the meeting date!***
Following his critically acclaimed and internationally award-winning debut, 5,000 KM per Second, Manuele Fior returns with The Interview, a near-future sci-fi story that eschews the stars in favor of the interior world of human emotion. Set in Italy in 2048, it follows Raniero, a 50-something psychologist, as his marital problems are compounded by the arrival of mysterious messages from an extraterrestrial civilization. Equal parts cosmic speculation and poignantly observed domestic realism, The Interview heralds Fior's emergence as a major talent in contemporary comics.
Saturday, 13 May 2017
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly is pleased to host the release of Damon Krukowski's latest book, The New Analog: Listening and Reconnecting in a Digital World, published by The New Press. Krukowski will be in conversation with local professor Jonathan Sterne. Having made his name in the late 1980s as a member of the indie band Galaxie 500, Damon Krukowski has watched cultural life lurch from analog to digital. And as an artist who has weathered the transition, he has challenging, urgent questions for both creators and consumers about what we have thrown away in the process: Are our devices leaving us lost in our own headspace even as they pinpoint our location? Does the long reach of digital communication come at the sacrifice of our ability to gauge social distance? Do streaming media discourage us from listening closely? Are we hearing each other fully in this new environment? Rather than simply rejecting the digital disruption of cultural life, Krukowski uses the sound engineer’s distinction of signal and noise to reexamine what we have lost as a technological culture, looking carefully at what was valuable in the analog realm so we can hold onto it. Taking a set of experiences from the production and consumption of music that have changed since the analog era – the disorientation of headphones, flattening of the voice, silence of media, loudness of mastering, and manipulation of time – as a basis for a broader exploration of contemporary culture, Krukowski gives us a brilliant meditation and guide to keeping our heads amid the digital flux. Think of it as plugging in without tuning out. The event is FREE, and will take place in store at Librairie Drawn & Quarterly (211 Bernard West) from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Accessibility information: -The bathroom is gender neutral -The space is unfortunately not wheelchair accessible (details: two steps at the main door, we would be happy to help you lift a wheelchair and make space in the corridor) - It is not a sober space, our events sometimes offer alcohol.
Friday, 12 May 2017
Join us on Friday, May 12th at 7:00 pm for the launch of Coach House Books' spring poetry lineup!
Shane Rhodes will read from his vital collection of poetry, DEAD WHITE MEN, which uses texts from history's most notorious colonizers to turns ideas of exploration, discovery, finding and keeping back upon themselves.
Linda Besner will read from FEEL HAPPIER IN NINE SECONDS, her new collection built around a series of brilliantly illuminated poems patterned on a scientific study of synaesthesia and Fisher Price refrigerator magnets.
Sarah Pinder will read from her second book of poetry with Coach House, COMMON PLACE a long poem that explores the stories of shifting, resilient bodies and landscapes bound by systems of capital and power
Tuesday, 9 May 2017
Join us on Tuesday, May 9th at 7:00 pm as Véhicule Press launches their latest fiction and poetry titles. We're celebrating the publications of the latest novels from Véhicule's Esplanade Books imprint, as well as the latest poetry collections from their Signal Editions imprint.
From Esplanade Books:
- Tumbleweed, by Josip Novakovich
- Sun of a Distant Land, by David Bouchet (translated by Claire Holden Rothman)
- A Three-Tiered Pastel Dream, by Leslie Trites
From Signal Editions:
- Table Manners, by Catriona Wright
- Siren, by Kateri Lanthier
The evening will be hosted by Esplanade Books editor Dimitri Nasrallah.
Monday, 8 May 2017
Are you as excited as we are about the new edition of Lynda Barry's One! Hundred! Demons!? We hope so!
Reissued in beautiful hardcover by Drawn & Quarterly, Barry's seminal coming of age story, told in seventeen vignettes, remains some of her best work. In this master storyteller's deft hands, demons are confronted and the moments that haunt us -- heartaches, embarrassments, childhood memories -- explored.
Inspired by a 16th century Zen monk's painting of demons chasing each other down a long scroll, Barry's stories flow into one another, painting the portrait of a life well examined, an introspection as precise and beautiful as the collages founds scattered throughout the pages.
Call it a work of art, call it a tour de force, call it (as Barry herself does) "autobiofictionalography." Whatever it is, it's pure magic.
Thursday, 4 May 2017
This Saturday, May 6th, is Free Comic Book Day! In addition to hosting prolific, award-winning children's author Elise Gravel at our store for an all-day book signing, we will also have...yes, FREE COMICS! Here's a sneak peek of what will be available from our friends at Nobrow.
Nobrow's FCBD comic features a peek at the next adventure of Luke Pearson's Hilda, who is coming soon to Netflix in her own show!
The comic included in this booklet picks up where Hilda and the Stone Forest left off.
Also included is a glimpse at Jen Lee's forthcoming graphic novel, Garbage Night, in which juvenile animals scrape to survive in a town abandoned by humans, while still holding out hope for the return of the mythical Garbage Night. It'll be out from Nobrow in June!
Wednesday, 3 May 2017
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly 10th Anniversary Reading Series
Zadie Smith & Madeleine Thien
in Conversation for
SWING TIME
Rialto Theatre, 5723 Av du Parc
Date: TBD
We are very sorry to announce that due to an emergency in Zadie Smith’s family our scheduled event with Ms. Smith on the 4th of May 2017 will be rescheduled for Fall 2017. The date is yet to be determined. We apologize for the inconvenience and will honour any tickets already purchased for the fall date. If you have purchased tickets and know that you will not be able to attend in the fall we will be happy to a offer you a refund (please note: if you received the ticket free with book purchase you may not request a refund for the free ticket).
We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and hope to see you in the Fall. Our thoughts are with Ms. Smith and her family.
Tuesday, 2 May 2017
It's finally here, that most wonderful day of the year, Free Comic Book Day! Every year on the first Saturday in May comic book lovers unite to revel in mountains of free comics and here at Librairie D+Q we throw down with cookies and juice!
To add to our excitement, there will be an extra special signing by Elise Gravel from 1:00-2:00 pm to kick off her If Found... tour! D+Q's limited edition FCBD offering this year includes a split preview of Guy Delisle's Hostage and the forthcoming Poppies of Iraq by Bridgette Finkdaly and Lewis Trondheim PLUS the Colorful Monsters comic that features four beloved series from the Enfant imprint: new Kitaro, Moomin, Anna and Froga, and Gravel's sketchbook!
The day starts at 10:00 am - don't miss this!
Monday, 1 May 2017
Each month, Librairie Drawn & Quarterly invites a local author or artist to curate a shelf in the store. This May, we bring you recommendations from Elise Gravel!
Elise Gravel is a Governor-General's award-winning children’s book author and cartoonist with over thirty children’s books to her name. Her next book, If Found… which will be published by Drawn & Quarterly on June 6th, offers readers a sneak peek into her sketchbook where colorful monsters, imaginary friends, and grumpy things reign supreme. And on Saturday, May 6th, she'll be signing books at our in-store Kids' Day event!
All of Elise's picks will be 15% off for the month of May. Here’s a sneak peek of what you’ll find on her shelf:
What I'd Say to Martians by Jack Handey
One of the funniest books I've read in my life. Still laughing out loud just thinking about it.
Hark, a Vagrant! by Kate Beaton
What can I say? I want to be Kate Beaton when I grow up. Her jokes are perfect; she seems to know basically everything about everything.
Super Mutant Magic Academy by Jillian Tamaki
It took me ten pages to get comfy, but by then I was hooked. I could live in this universe for a thousand more pages. Tamaki's style seems so organic and fluid that it feels like we're just watching her dream.
Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro
This is the first book I read in English as a young woman, and it changed my life. I'm waiting for my daughters to be old enough and I'll give them my old, battered copy as a coming-of-age present.
Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut
I had to put a Vonnegut book in this list, but really it could have been any of them. I'm in love with this guy's mind.
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
The story of this girl raised by extremely incompetent parents blew my mind. How did she survive this; how is that level of resilience even possible? It toned down my own insecurities as a mother, which is always a good thing.
Anna and Froga (any title) by Anouk Ricard
I love Anna & Froga's sassy humour, simple design and absurd tone; I'd like to hang out with her and her friends from time to time.
This is Paris by M. Sasek
All of Sasek's books are such an inspiration to me as an author. The way he talks to his readers as though he was there with them visiting Paris, holding them by the hand, with respect and warmth, is the way I want to talk to kids through my own books.
Ma Maison by Delphine Durand
This book might be my very favorite picture book ever. It's impossible to describe; let's just say your kids will read it over and over, from beginning to end end from end to beginning, and find new jokes and fun stuff every time.
Sunday, 30 April 2017
Join cartoonist and illustrator Matt Forsythe on Sunday, April 30th at 12:00 noon as he presents his stunning new book The Gold Leaf. Written by educator Kirsten Hall, The Gold Leaf presents a tale of selfishness, and forgiveness. When the animals of the forest discover a beautiful golden leaf, all want it for themselves. During the struggle, the leaf is destroyed—leaving the animals wonder: Will we ever again see such a leaf?
**Children's activity and kid friendly refreshments available!
Saturday, 29 April 2017
Join Barbara Gowdy on Saturday April 29th at 7:00 pm as she sits down with Kathleen Winter to talk about her latest book, Little Sister, in which she explores the astonishing power of empathy, the question of where we end and others begin, and the fierce bonds of motherhood and sisterhood.
BARBARA GOWDY is the author of seven books, including Helpless, The Romantic, The White Bone, Mister Sandman, We So Seldom Look on Love and Falling Angels, all of which have been met with widespread international acclaim and critical praise. She has been a finalist three times for the Governor General’s Award and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and twice for the Giller Prize and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and has been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In 1996, she received the Marian Engel Award and in 2008 the Trillium Book Award. A Member of the Order of Canada and a Guggenheim Fellow, Barbara Gowdy lives in Toronto.
Authors for Indies is an annual event held in independent bookstores all across Canada where authors show their appreciation for indie bookstores (and we for our authors!) by offering special services of their choice to the store for an afternoon. This year are we are excited to have writers/artists Samuel Cantin, Cathon, Jacob Wren, and Sandra Huber (see their bios below!).
SCHEDULE
12-3pm : Samuel Cantin + Cathon
3-6 pm : Sandra Huber + Jacob Wren
7pm : Barbara Gowdy in Conversation with Kathleen Winter
Samuel and Cathon will be offering live drawings and doodles and taking over our social media, Sandra will be offering Tarot readings (and will also be
happy to chat about all different forms of altered states like sleep and
mediumship) and Jacob will take over the stage and show
off his impressive music knowledge and DJ skills. Ask them to recommend their favourite books!
So join us on the 29th for this cool campaign in support of local independent booksellers! Mark the date and don't forget that evening we'll be hosting Barbara Gowdy in conversation with Kathleen Winter at 7pm!! It'll be a fun day for sure.
Meet this year's artists!
Jacob Wren is a writer and maker of eccentric performances born in Jerusalem in 1971.
His published titles include Rich and Poor, Polyamorous Love Song, Revenge Fantasies of the Politically Dispossessed. Families Are Formed Through Copulation, and Unrehearsed Beauty.
As co-artistic director of Montreal-based interdisciplinary group PME-ART he has co-created En français comme en anglais, it's easy to criticize (1998), Unrehearsed Beauty / Le génie des autres (2002), La famille se crée en copulant (2005) and the ongoing HOSPITALITÉ / HOSPITALITY series: 1: The Title Is Constantly Changing (2007), 2: Gradually This Overview (2010), 3: Individualism Was A Mistake (2008) and 5: The DJ Who Gave Too Much Information (2011).
He frequently writes about contemporary art. In 2007 he was invited to Berlin by Sophiensaele to adapt and direct Wolfgang Koeppen's 1954 novel Der Tod in Rom and in 2008 he was commissioned by Campo in Ghent to co-create (with Pieter De Buysser) An Anthology of Optimism. He is regularly invited in Europe and Asia.
Cathon quitte la ville de Québec en 2010 pour s’installer à Montréal.
Depuis lors, elle se consacre à la bande dessinée et à l’illustration
tout en étant soulagée d’avoir terminé son baccalauréat en arts visuels
et médiatiques à l’UQAM. Cathon est la co-auteure de La liste des choses qui existent (La Pastèque, 2013), d’Encore plus de choses qui existent (La Pastèque, 2015), des Cousines vampires (Pow Pow, 2014) et l’auteure des Ennuis de Lapinette (Comme des géants, 2015) et de Mimose et Sam (Comme des géants, 2016). Elle a également illustré Le plus beau sapin du monde (Bayard, 2016) et Le champ maudit (La courte échelle, 2016), en plus de dessiner pour les revues Liberté, Planches et La Gazette des Femmes.
Sandra Huber wrote Assembling the Morrow: A Poetics of Sleep
(Talonbooks, 2014), which resulted from a residency at a sleep laboratory in Lausanne. She is currently doing a PhD in Humanities at Concordia University, where
she focuses on the practice and media of divination. Sandra holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of
Toronto, and has worked as an editor for contemporary art at Hatje Cantz Verlag in
Berlin. She is a practicing witch and initiated medium.
Samuel Cantin est un bédéiste et auteur Québécois né en 1986 à
Sherbrooke. Il a publié trois romans graphiques aux Éditions Pow Pow,
dont le dernier, Whitehorse-Première partie, a remporté le prix Bédélys 2016 de la meilleure BD de l’année.
Wednesday, 26 April 2017
Tonight, Wednesday, April 26th, the Reading Across Borders book club will meet at Librairie Drawn & Quarterly (211 Bernard ouest) at 7 pm to discuss Leila S. Chudori's Home (Pulang), translated from the Indonesian by John H. McGlynn. Join us for ruminations and refreshments!
The Reading Across Borders book club focuses on literature in English translation, with a particular interest in writers who are not (yet) well-known in the English-speaking world. Hosted by store staffer Helen Chau Bradley, the book club meetings will happen every two months, and are open to all.
We regret that the bookstore is not wheelchair accessible. There are two steps at the entrance, followed by two doors that open inward. Once inside, there are no additional steps to access the bathroom, although the bathroom space is narrow.
Home is an ambitious saga that spans years and continents, beginning with the establishment of the Suharto dictatorship in 1960s Jakarta and threading its way through the lives of leftist Indonesian political exiles in Paris in the following decades. It complicates the meaning of "home" through its characters' varying senses of displacement and belonging. The novel is filled with heady love affairs and mouthwatering culinary passages, even as it establishes itself within the context of horrifying violence and loss. Leila S. Chudori is known as Indonesia's most prominent and outspoken female author and journalist.
Tuesday, 25 April 2017
The new and highly anticipated Guy Delisle book, Hostage, is out today on Drawn & Quarterly! For Delisle, well known for his masterful travelogues like Shenzhen and Pyongyang, Hostage is a departure from his regular style towards a different sort of memoir. It tells the story of Christophe André, a young NGO administrator working for Doctors Without Borders, and his kidnapping by a group of Chechen rebels in 1997. At more than 400 pages - the bulk of which depict a man confined to one room and handcuffed to a radiator - Delisle proves his cartooning prowess, keeping readers on the edge of their seats!
There's rarely a dull moment in André's ordeal. Delisle skillfully conveys the psychological effects of solitary confinement as he transports you into André's physical and mental space more completely with each panel. Held by his captors for a period lasting over three months, the pacing of the storytelling is perfect and I was rapt right up until the exhilarating finale.
On Saturday, May 6th Guy Delisle will be in Montreal to launch Hostage at the Rialto Hall! Join us there for a discussion of the book and signing. Tickets are $5 or free with purchase of the book at Librairie D+Q. Tickets are also for sale online!
Thursday, 20 April 2017
Join us for the launch of Mary Soderstrom's latest book: Road through Time: The Story of Humanity on the Move (University of Regina Press, Spring 2017) on Thursday, April 20th at 7:00 pm.
Accessible and entertaining, Road Through Time begins with the story of how anatomically modern humans left Africa to populate the world. She then carries us along the Silk Road in Central Asia, and tells of roads built for war in Persia, the Andes, and the Roman Empire. She sails across the seas, and introduces the first railways, all before plunking us down in the middle of a massive, modern freeway.
The book closes with a view from the end of the road, literally and figuratively, asking, can we meet the challenges presented by a mode of travel dependent on hydrocarbons, or will we decline, like so many civilizations that have come before us?
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